[Emoticon]

What was your first time like? No, not that first time, sickos ! The first time you fired a firearm (not necessarily hunting). I was listening to a radio story today where a woman shot a handgun for the first time and how she thought it was so much worse than it really was. Either way it got me thinking about what stories people might have about their first time firing a weapon, I imagine it's etched into peoples' minds like it is for me.

My first time firing an actual gun was at a friend's farm and it's a little bit embarrassing. I should preface by saying my dad had firearms for home defense, but he never used them recreationally and never really taught me anything about them, so I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I also lived somewhere VERY lets just say "rural" where it was not uncommon to see a kid walking around semi-unattended with a firearm or BB gun for varmint control. My first time shooting a real weapon was some manner of shotgun around the age of 7 or 8. I was too young to know much about it beyond that it was a pump action and that it was probably smaller than 12 gauge. My target was a piece of 2x4" floating in a pond. I pulled the trigger, hit the board, created a big splash and due to my not knowing how to properly shoulder a weapon I got a nice big kiss from the sight on my cheek. Didn't leave a mark, but I just remember it hurting a lot and handing the gun off to my friend, playing it off like I meant to do that . For some reason it touched the figurative stove that day and didn't find it hot enough not to try again haha.

Ok there's my story, what is yours?

[streaker69]

First time hand gun was on a camping trip with a bunch of people one of the guys brought a 92FS and was shooting cans off of a tree trunk. I gave it a try with no instruction as to how the firearm functioned. Kind of startled me because I wasn't quite expecting it being so loud, no ear protection.

The first time with a long gun I was at a friends house and he was shooting a plastic bottle in the back yard out of the window of his bed room. Asked me if I wanted to give it a try. The gun was a .22lr over a .410 shotgun, basically a squirrel gun. He didn't tell me he loaded it with a shotgun shell, I thought I was shooting a .22lr. That was exceptionally loud since it was indoors and again with no ear protection.

[RandomTask]

I went to summer camp when I was 8 and they had a range with .22LR rifles. The experience was like any other at camp (archery, crafts, survival skills, etc.)

Te first time I shot anything bigger than .22LR was when I was a junior in college. Fired a friend of a friend's UZI, Beretta 9mm, and an AR15. The biggest surprise during the experience was the dude comped me for the ~150 rounds of ammo.

[Emptymag]

Apparently I'm so old I can't even remember.

I was little and I can "visualize" a few moments that may have been the first, but I really don't know. Heh. Weird.

It would have been a .22LR though.



I DO recall the first time I fired a 12 ga though. I was "hunting age", so what, 12-14? Not sure, but I had never shot the thing. I saw a rabbit outside and decided I wuz gonna shoot me a wabbit!

BLAAAAMMMM!

I missed.

I also didn't have it tucked into my shoulder right.

Ooooowwww...

[Camper]

I was 9 or 10, at a sportsmans show in Philly. They had some target booths setup, and I think it was a .22 snub nose that I got to shoot. My dad told me "Shoot the gun out of his hand" (1950s style burgler with the watch cap holding a snubby) and I did. It may not have been a .22, but it had 6 shots and wasn't like a bb gun--but I'm struggling to really remember because I'm not sure if they had indoor ranges in 1980 at sportsmans shows--it seems like they wouldn't have, but in 1980 they might have.

Hooked ever since, but didn't shoot much until years later...other than bb guns.

[jahwarrior72]

I was fifteen, shooting at bottles and rats under the Whitestone Bridge, Bronx-side, under the tutelage of an outlaw biker, who I'd just bought the gun from.

[Normanvin]

Growing up money was always tight. The old man was a boozer and he had his own priorities. Family was not one of them. He was tossed out when I was about 15 or 16. One day he came to me and said that unless I picked two pails of coal a day that I would not be eating at night. He did not last long after that.

I knew no one that hunted or shot as a hobby.

When I was 16 I had the opportunity to work a government funded job at a fire dept. I later joined the fire dept. and ran with them until I hurt my hand and could not chance hurting it at a volunteer job. Most of the money from this job went into the house hold or school clothes. When my tax return came I asked my mother to go get me Marlin .22, and a few bricks of ammo. The rest of the refund went into the household budget.

I would go shooting in the culm banks behind the house. So for the most part I am a self taught shooter. A 10-22 was later added. Then a raven .25, and a Dan Wesson .357 and a H&R 12 single shot shotgun.

After I was married all of these were sold off ironically because it was winter and we needed a few tons of coal to get through the wither.

Sometimes you do what you have to.

[Tootie]

Does shooting 22's at an arcade count? If so I don't remember much except hitting the targets and winning a prize. :p

As for handguns. My first time was after I got married. Dave took me out in the woods for some practice shooting. Handed me his 357 and told me it was loaded with 38s. First few shots went off fine then I got to the 357 he snuck in. To say I was not pleased is an understatement. Didn't handle another handgun for a few years.

[topsykretts]

I went down in the basement, put a tree stump against the wall, and pulled the trigger.

It worked.

Then I got a handgun. I went down in the basement, put a tree stump against the wall, and pulled the trigger.

Bang.

Then I went to the range brought the makarov, rented a .22 and a 9mm. I was more disconcerted by the other people shooting than myself. I think one guy was shooting a .44 magnum and that is pretty damn loud, but it was probably something else.

[P89]

The first real gun was my Grandfathers 1903. I was 11 and he sat me down at the picnic table to teach me how to shoot before I took the hunter's safety course. At about the same time he spotted a groundhog out in the field and told me to shoot it. He loaded one round and talked me through all the steps before I squeezed the trigger. Before I knew what all just happened and what just hit me in the shoulder he was holding the gun and said "I think you got him."
We walked down the field and found the groundhog pretty much turned inside out and then he said "That's why you don't point a gun at anything you don't intend to kill."