When did you first get interested in firearms?

[Armybrat]

For me it was about this time period - 1947 - in front of our Infantry Post quarters at Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio) Texas. Am the unruly one on the left with the poor trigger & safety discipline. Evidently I hadn't mastered the art of the lariat yet either.

How about you folks?

[Bawanna]

Check out those chaps!

And hence the love for the SAA. Priceless photo Army, glad you shared it. Made my day.

[7shot]

As a kid, in the 60's, I always had a play gun to play Army. As an adult it wasn't until 1978 when I got my first shotgun to duck hunt, hooked every since.

[yqtszhj]

Nice picture.

For me it was at 5 or 6 years old when I got my first B.B. gun. I would shoot that in the back yard all week then we’d go shoot .22’s with dad at the river on weekends. After I got older and started working, then a family, so there was not time or place to shoot. I always had a .22 rifle, a .357 revolver, and a colt .380 auto at home but never got to shoot them. Then about the time the Ruger LCP came out I bought one for pocket carry and that was the beginning of the resurgence. I’ve owned and traded more firearms since then than I can even count, and shot tens of thousands of rounds at the range.

Life is good!

[O'Dell]

After several years with BB guns, I bought a single shot Remington 22 at 11 years old. I carried that gun everywhere back then. [days and perceptions were different in the 50's] My interest in handguns started when I joined the Navy pistol team shooting a modified 1911.

[jeepster09]

Wow that photo brings back good memories of days gone by, thanks :=]

[ripley16]

Aside from toys, it was probably when my dad brought home two Ithaca single shot .22 saddle carbines and built a sort of range in our basement. My brothers and I had many fun hours shooting mainly CB caps but an occasional "real" .22 too. Then a few years later, in 1968, he took me to our little local gun shop to get my first pistol, a beautiful Colt Woodsman MT. I was almost 15 years old. Cost me all of my savings from my job as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. Lots of memories there in that basement. Those were the days.

[CPTKILLER]

Shooting and living in Texas was enough.

[berettabone]

Started shooting .22's in the basement at the angst of my mother in 1963. Had an old Remington bolt and an old Savage bolt. Father was a part time gunsmith. Him and a buddy used to make big game rifles from scratch for the well to do hunters. Also did repair and bluing work, and hand checkering. We never had less than a couple hundred rifles in the basement. The old man seemed to like mausers, or at least did a lot of work on them. I purchased my first handgun at 18. Astra .357 snub. Shot it a few times and sold it back for the same price. Scary. Then went out and got a stainless model 19 with a 4" barrel and never looked back.

[AIRret]

I got my first toy gun at 4, I began to shoot the neighbors 22 at 9.
I didn't shoot a real gun until 13, it was my Dad's .30-6.

[Barth]

The Rifleman

[Bobshouse]

100_4424.jpg
My most valuable firearm. My dads 1938 Red Ryder BB Gun. Wish he was still around so I could ask him about those notches in the stock.

[Ed M]

Guns were always a part of our family growing up. Dad was a sniper in WWII - he never talked much until his last years about his experiences, but he was a terrific shot. Seemed like he never missed.

Christmas of 1966, there was a Daisy Red Ryder under the tree for me. I was 6 years old. Dad taught me how to shoot - I can still hear his voice today when I shoot.

When I turned 12, Dad signed me up for a hunter safety course. Several of his buddies had sons of the same age, and the idea was we'd all take the course together, and go hunting together. Deer camp was a right of passage here in PA and 12 was the minimum age to get a hunting license.

My first rifle was a Marlin 336C 30-30 lever action, with a Weaver 4X scope. My first shotgun was an H&R Topper single shot 12 ga.

My first pistol was an H&R 32 snubby revolver. Hated that thing, and as soon as I saved up enough, I traded it in on a stainless Colt Python with a 6" barrel.

Sadly, I don't own any of these guns any more.

[wyntrout]

A LONG time ago... 1949?? 3 or 4 years old.

[ltxi]

For me it was about this time period - 1947 - in front of our Infantry Post quarters at Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio) Texas. Am the unruly one on the left with the poor trigger & safety discipline. Evidently I hadn't mastered the art of the lariat yet either.

How about you folks?

Pretty much sums it up fer me as well....