# How I learned about guns..............



## Bob Wright (May 10, 2006)

Many novices post here, apologizing about their ignorance and the number of questions posed, etc. First of all, let me say "welcome." All of us here were know-nothings about guns at one time or another. Nobody is born with "gun savvy."

I got interested in handguns at a very early age, maybe five or six years of age. Thought I knew a lot then, too. At that age, books were my first introduction to guns, and I read everything I could find on the subject. And then, as I becamne old enough to shoot, I shot everything I could get my hands on. I never turned down an offer to shoot a gun of any kind.

And I bought a bunch of clunkers, which turned out to be an advantage, as I had no qualms about taking them apart and putting them back together. And I learned first hand what made a good quality handgun opposed to a clunker.

I had help from older men, too. Men who loaned me the required gun for matches until I could buy my own. I still consider myself a student of the handgun. And its sure been a great study.

Bob Wright


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## Baldy (Jun 21, 2006)

Yep! It was about the same for me except I can't remember guns not being around. They were tools just like a hammer to drive nails or a saw to cut wood. They were used to put food on the table. They weren't pampered like my guns today are. Cleaned in kerosene and a little 3in1 oil is about all they ever seen. Learn to shoot at a real young age from my Father,Uncle,and Grandfather. You got to start somewhere at some time.


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## Mike Barham (Mar 30, 2006)

This is a great idea for a thread.

I sort of grew up around guns. My father was a cop and a National Guard officer. Guns were (and are, for he too has been called back to active duty) tools for him, rather than a hobby. He took me shooting in the woods with his service revolvers, and once to a Guard range to shoot the big 1911, starting when I was maybe eight. Back when the Guard had .22-caliber rifle ranges in their armories, he also let me shoot an M16A1 with a .22 conversion - quite a thrill! Now the Guard uses the far less exciting BeamShot lasers.

Then one day I was in a bookstore and wandered by a copy of Guns & Ammo. This was in the early 80s, when the Dirty Harry movie "Sudden Impact" had just come out. The issue of G&A had an AutoMag on the cover, like the one Clint Eastwood used in the movie. I begged my mother to buy it for me, and she finally relented.

From there, I became a gun magazine addict. I kind of caught the tail end of some of the great writers. G&A was still printing articles by Elmer Keith, though he'd had a stroke and the articles were reruns of older stuff. Skeeter Skelton was writing for Shooting Times, and I loved his style and stories of life on the border. Bill Jordan was also writing for Shooting Times then, and Finn Aagard was on staff at American Rifleman. Jeff Cooper got "Cooper's Corner" in G&A a few years later, and I was enthralled. Sadly, all are gone now. But I read everything I could, good and bad, from Mas Ayoob to Wiley Clapp to Jan Libourel to Craig Boddington and it helped me along.

I was lucky to have indulgent parents. Dad bought me a Marlin .22 rifle when I turned 12, and we spent hours plinking with that. In later years, he bought me pistols as gifts and encouraged me by funding my tuition at shooting schools like LFI and ASAA. At that time I was set on being a cop, like him, and he wanted to help me pursue that. (I didn't end up pursuing a law enforcement career, though I did join the military.)

My father also nudged me into shooting competition - he has always been a competitive person. I won an odd local match here and there, with the help of what I'd learned at ASAA, but never really got serious about competition. I dropped out of formal competition about ten years ago. Dad had dreams of me in the Nationals or the Olympics, but I just don't have that kind of competitive drive! But shooting in matches certainly taught me a lot about what is possible with shooting pistols at high speed. 

Working at Galco has been a great blessing for me in terms of learning about shooting. I have been able to meet a long list of "names" in the shooting industry, and have learned a great deal from many of those people. And while I sometimes grow a little weary of the sales aspect of the shooting game, I always find something new (or old!) to learn about. There's so much to know about, and after twenty-plus years, I have barely scratched the surface.


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## Bob Wright (May 10, 2006)

My very first gun book?

"The Daisy Red Ryder Handbook" ca. 1947

Bob Wright


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## Old Padawan (Mar 16, 2007)

I first got interested from tv. I was on the rifle teamin high school. I wandered into a local pawn shop/gun store in 1983 and met a guy named Dave that taught me a lot (like taking my series 70 Gov Model down to springs and pins when I wasnt looking and chalenged me to put it back together). Guns quit being a mystery and started becoming an obsession.


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## TnPapa (Feb 27, 2007)

Lived in the country and loved to hunt.


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## Anxiety. (May 1, 2007)

Its just a way of life up north. Started off with BBs, since we lived in town, when I was eight. When Dad and I would go cut wood we would always bring a gun of some sort.


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## rfawcs (Feb 11, 2006)

Didn't get seriously interested in firearms until after I retired from the Navy. With moving around all the time and the problem of storage on-base and when aboard ship, it just wasn't worth the trouble. After I retired, I first bought a shotgun for home defense. After I turned about 45, instead of buying a Corvette I started buying guns, especially after I handled my first Python and fell into lust. It's been downhill from there.


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## jimg11 (May 17, 2006)

*How I learned about guns.*

I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s Roy & Gene and the rest of the cowboys had an influence. My friend's father had a Shooters Bible that I read over and over (1948 I believe).
When I got to high school I found that gun books were available at the news stands and since I was employed I could buy them. I was taught to shoot a 22 rifle by my father. I bought a shotgun to hunt deer with and tried my luck every every fall. I shot rats with the 22 rifle at the dump and was thrilled to watch older boys using pistols to shoot rats. I made friends with one of these guys and about every time I saw him he had a different pistol or revolver. I read everything I could find about guns , especially handguns. I spent 3 years in the U S Army and then a lot of time in Law Enforcement. I have spent the last 50+ years learning about guns. Jim


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## milquetoast (Nov 25, 2006)

I loved to read. Almost addicted, actually. The local public library was throwing out its old books, so I went down with my little red wagon (honest!) and came home with about 100 books, on all kinds of topics, fiction and non-fiction. Two of the books in that pile were Chic Gaylord's book about holsters, and Ed McGivern's Fast & Fancy Revolver Shooting. Later I read No Second Place Winner by Bill Jordan, and Hell, I Was There, by Elmer Keith. When I finally got around to Cooper On Handguns, I was hooked.


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