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First Time - First Shots - First Rifle


Taz72
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Reminiscing the other day about how I got interested in shooting, first guns etc and remembering my first shots having graduated from a shooting toy soldiers with a plastic bb pistol.

I managed to persuade my parents to let me cut my teeth on air rifles and ended up with an elderly Diana mod 25 when I was about 10 years old (which I still own :-)..

 

Still remember the safety drill, the "Fathers advice" poem (Never never let your gun... pointed be at anyone... etc), lapping up every word of the mags (AGW, Airgunner etc) as the gospel truth (ha!), before being fortunate enough to head by blind luck towards Venom for my first HW80 and my local club, Stourvale.

 

So... question is, do you remember your first shooting experiences: When did you start, HOW did you start, and what with?...

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I'm 34 now, and my earliest memories are using my mothers Webley Junior pistol, and some coloured darts shooting down our hallway at a target with my Dad overseeing operations, or using the same pistol and a Crossman Pumpup .22 in the back garden onto targets down the bottom of the garden. My Dad made some metal spinning targets.

 

Around the same time, and a little later going to my Uncles, who had an old mill in Morpeth, we would save up old light bulbs, chuck them in the water just below the wear and shoot at them, either with the pistols, my BSA Meteor or fathers Airsporter .177

 

My dad and Uncle Casper used to shoot the crows with his old sbs 12 as they would pinch the Moorhens eggs and drop them in the water!

 

Kind regards

Jonathan

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First gun was a barnett nitro when I was 13 followed by a webley victor at 14 which I went lamping with on school nights on my mates farm .

Hw90 at 16 years old which I covered loads of land with by riding my 50cc Honda mt5 to each farm .

I visited a ft club at 17 and was hooked and after a year I begged my dad to get me my first pcp :) a falcon fn19 and my scores went from 10/30 to 25/30 upto 27/30 until I had a daystate 2000 followed by a Airarms protarget and averaged29/30 :) . I shot competition but after 6 years it started to control my life so gave it up for a aa s400 so I could hunt more .

 

 

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i was eight and use to go wildfowling on the wirral with my father in all weathers,we also went up to caernarvon with his centre fires and .22 rimfires shooting tin cans at 100 paces.. Then when i turned 10 yrs for my birthday treat he took me to a large estate to shoot woodpigeon with my cousin who was head game keeper, i then did this every week for years,helping to rear birds and shoot pigeon and corvids ,never looked back

 

funny thing was we would be on the estate shooting and would look across the large lake and there would be elephants and all sorts of exotic animals walking round in the safari park, loved the place but not been back since my cousin left , shame had some great memories from there

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-First shot was at an RAF base in Germany, about 1964. They had a families day, and in a less PC age, kids were allowed to "shoot" a rifle - actually, all you did was pull the trigger, while a big hairy 'rock ape' hung onto the gun! I think it was a SMLE, but I can't really remember, maybe an Armalite?

-First gun - a GAT pistol, illicitly swapped with another Boy Scout, and kept hidden behind the scout hut for can plinking when no-one was around

 

At 58, happy memories! :lol:

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I think it was the GAT, like most stupid kids too young to have guns we used to shoot each other with it. The thing was so weak you couldn't really feel the pellet hit you through the thick denim flares we used to wear back then! My first rifle was a Spanish break barrel imported by ASI, it just about killed starlings (which were legal pests then) and got fed to the ferrets. My first own proper hunting gun was a HW35 that I hunted rabbits on the local golf course with using open sights, that was the gun that actually taught me how to hunt and stalk.

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First ever shot was with an old BSA .22 rimfire of my Dads, about 12-13. Then given an Original 50 brilliant gun in its day, sold that to buy a Webley Tracker when around 15. Did a bit of clay pigeon shooting at 16 then nothing until 2 yrs ago when I thought I would buy an air rifle again and purchased a BSA lightning, joined a HFT club and PX,d for a AA S410. That soon went for a Weihrach HW100 which is an amazing gun. Since my return to shooting I have purchased 2 shotguns, 1 .22 rimfire, an air rifle and 2 pistols.

39 years old

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Mid 70's and I was knee high to a grass hopper. Grandad had an old break barrel and set up some cans around 20 yards away for me to plink at. I'd knock 'em down and he'd then go and stack them up again. I remember it well as whilst he was stacking them, I had reloaded and sighted up waiting for him to get out of the way....

 

He turns round and see's me lining up for the shot, he starts waving his hands around like a madman, and walks a wide arc back to me, still waving like he's being attacked by wasps... all the while I'm watching him though the open sights!

 

I got a clip around the ear, and a strong reminder about pointing a gun at someone, then I was off again, knocking the cans down. Happy days. Still brings a smile to my face.

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