How did you start shooting - a short story

[ovenpaa]

It was easy for me, I had plinked at every possible thing I could spot with an air rifles/pistols already so when at the age of 14/15 when I heard I could shoot rifles at a local club off I went, paid however much it was and was shown the basics of a Martini International and clutching a box of 50 I lay down on the floor in the attic of the local TA and shot, in fact I shot quite a lot. So it was .22LR followed by pistol and a fair amount of shotgun inter spaced with periods of pistol and then inactivity normally coinciding with the birth of a child or working away from home or whatever followed by shotgun and pistol.

None of this was really shooting though.

Anyway, my Granddad was in the RE in WW1, he lied about his age to go across to France in 1915 with the 72nd Division as a mule driver, and spent the majority of his time in France and Belgium doing whatever mule drivers did. Granddad never talked much about the war, in fact he never talked much period so I didn’t really learn much about what he did.

I ended up with his badge belt after he passed away, a German soldiers belt with a load of regiment badges pinned to it, a bag of rotting live ammunition that was promptly taken off me and slung in the local river (Apparently the same place his Luger went) I also was given a copy of his original notes on where he went, a three year list of names, places where men died by the thousand whilst Granddad drove his mules. I have no idea what he transported but based on his list it would not have been nice things.

A few stories were handed down via my Mother and Uncle. Memorably the story of the RE having to give right of way to the Canadian cavalry marching two abreast to war, they were just about all gunned down by the German machine gunners the following day. Such mistakes were easily made in WW1 but this happened in 1918. Apparently he stood on a bank and watched them charge into the guns, sabres waving no doubt.

I will get to the shooting connection in a bit.

One of the things my Mother always claimed was that Granddad never fired a shot in anger during the war, not sure how true this was and I am confident he did his bit regardless. When he left his officer gave him his spurs, apparently the officer had a horse called Billy that Granddad borrowed on more than one occasion.

After the war Granddad went back to being a cabinet maker, and eventually was in the Home Guard which proved handy as he could easily put his hands on Sten ammo (Remember the Luger in the river) Then one day he was gone.

Talking to Mum set me thinking and researching and led to the shooting connection, if Granddad had carried a rifle there was fair chance it would have been an SMLE. So I started a search for an SMLE from the right time. Eventually I came across a 1915 BSA Mk1 No3* at a fair price so I grabbed it plus a hundred rounds of .303 and trundled down to the range again. At the time I was shooting an Accuracy International and I still remember the fascination of the SMLE as he would have carried, the operation of the bolt, the ease with which you could feed it with stripper clips and the way it kicked first time I pulled the trigger.

I think that is how I really started shooting.

[Robin128]

You've heard it before...Dad took me down the common with his Winchester pump 22LR when I was 7-8 years old. Light little gun I know but he taught me all the safety stuff first, then I got a small twig to hold the weight and I potted cans on the railway line posts....embankment behind.

He had an open licence and faught in WW2 on the Med mainly, in RN and chasing Rommel in the desert.

I was bitten by the bug immediately.

He left it to me when he died when I was 17.

Bought a 12G AYA Yeoman but couldn't afford to shoot clays.

Got into pistols and revolvers joining Swansea Rifle Club in Treboeth, Swansea.

Been shooting ever since.

Fascinating hobby.

Rob

PS exactly like this one...Winchester 1906

[pe4king]

When I was about 6 or 7 I used to help my dad shoot his webley air pistol in the garden, by the age of 10 I had my very own air pistol to use bought from a junk shop for a couple of quid by the time I was 12 my dad my uncle and myself used to walk around farmland on sunday mornings taking rabbits crows and the like, sometimes with air rifles sometimes with shotguns I had a nice little BSA 410 folder purchased from a home delivery catalogue (Littlewoods I think)
Soon I joined the ACF and was able to use Enfields, No8 and No 4 and once or twice SLR with the HK conversion kit happy days.
At 16 I joined the Royal Engineers as a Junior leader and was soon in the regimental shooting team and able to play with SLRs very frequently, from there once posted to adult service I shot at Bisley in 84 and 86 not doing very well but still managed to achieve an ambition. Towards the end of the 80s i was granted an FAC and took up fullbore pistol shooting which I did for a couple of years but unfortunatly "sold up" when I left the army in the early 90s so I had a break untill 5 years ago when i joined a rifle club and have been a very active shooter since. I have a "fetish" :) for all things Enfield and have 4 of them at present I wouldnt mind another couple of variants though, especially a No4(T) I also have an Accuracy International AW, A SGC AR15 (which I have been informed that I share with Sim G :lol: ) a sect 1 shotgun which makes me do a wallace and grommit smile everytime I empty the mag in 4 seconds and a 22 semi mainly for training my boy, but he prefers the AR15.
Heres to many more years of it for me and the boy who is every bit as enthusiastic as me

[Robin128]

I used to have a lot of fun with a Webley air pistol Mk something...22 but not very powerful.

Looked like this senior but all black.

Rob

[zzr1100]

well .. . born in Rhodesia,
started with pellet guns at age 7ish I guess then .410 then moved up from there ..
Memorable milestones .. Lee Enfield .303 ... big kick for a youngster ! .. but im proud of hitting a jamjar from a long way away the first time i used it !
Uzi fully auto ,,, couldnt believe how fast the ammo went !
Dads .38 webley ... always worked but not accurate !
FN 7.62 EVERYONE had one !
farmhouses stripped of thatch in favour of tin coz an rpg wouldnt set that alight ...
im gonna stop now ....

[Sandgroper]

well .. . born in Rhodesia,
started with pellet guns at age 7ish I guess then .410 then moved up from there ..
Memorable milestones .. Lee Enfield .303 ... big kick for a youngster ! .. but im proud of hitting a jamjar from a long way away the first time i used it !
Uzi fully auto ,,, couldnt believe how fast the ammo went !
Dads .38 webley ... always worked but not accurate !
FN 7.62 EVERYONE had one !
farmhouses stripped of thatch in favour of tin coz an rpg wouldnt set that alight ...
im gonna stop now ....

Ok, which Regt or Branch of service - Blue/Brown Job, BSAP, InTAF etc?

[zzr1100]

@ sandgroper
I was only born in '71 so too young to go into the Rhodesian forces,
Dad was in the RLI tho

[Blackstuff]

My first introduction to a ‘proper’ gun was when I was about 9 when my dad found out I’d been eyeing up his Webley Hawk air rifle and my mam wanted me to be taught how to use it responsibly. He taught me all the basics in the back garden, mainly plinking at home made targets but the occasion crow or magpie was on the receiving end too! After that me and my brother both got GAT air pistols which we loved shooting in the back garden.

Between then and 17 I shot clays a few times but if I’m being honest I didn’t enjoy it that much as the ground we were going to only had full-sized 12b’s so they would knock the hell out of me. When I was 17 my dad introduced me to an old fella he knew from work that was a member of a pistol club who took me under his wing and I would go to the local club with him every week. He had some revolvers but it was the Beretta 92FS that took my interest (probably from seeing it in so many films! :roll: ). Unfortuntately the year I started shooting pistols was 1996 and we all know what happened then. :evil:

Shortly after the full ban came into effect the guy who’d been taking me died (which although he was old his wife attributed to losing his greatest passion). I’d grow quite attached to him and it really affected me when he passed so I effectively gave up on firearms, see how easily they were taken from us and that half the shooting community didn’t even bother themselves to defend pistols.

Up until 2003 I’d not touched a firearm but had been regularly been going airsoft skirmishing and paintballing. Then airsofting came to the attention of the anti’s/government and it brought 1996 flooding back so I began looking at firearms again and I started going clay shooting again with a friend. In 2004 I started my probation at a rifle club in Durham and got my FAC there. The next year I got my SGC and I’ve never looked back since!

I now shoot at least once a week and regularly shoot target rifle, gallery rifle, mini-rifle, practical shotgun, clays and I do one or two game shoots and deer stalks per year. I’m an NRA RCO and CPSA SO, I’ve got my competition licence for PSG and in 2007 I got my DSC lv1.
:geek:

[R.G.C]

I do not mention my initiation to shooting, which started at age of 13 in 1944. I had the opportunity to “test” all knds f pistols, rifles left on the battlefields here, with ammunition supplies we thoughy at the time they would last forever….
Continued with 10 years in Central Africa, practising big game shooting as a leisure and to fill the pot. It was for instance customary to shoot an elephant for our workers on the Bastille Day occasion.
All this preamble to report my introduction to Fullbore shooting:
In 1973, I wans sent in Great Britain for a temporary mission, intended to last a few monthes….but who ended to be a half-time presence for over 12 years…..
Like many shooters here, I had heard of Bisley, a quite mystic place, for our understanding mostly for blck powder shooting!!…
My company was based in Slough, and I noticed immediately its relative proximity to Bisley. As I returned home every week end, one particular spring week end, I returned on the Friday evening from Gatwick to Caen, usually returning on the Monday morning. This particular Monday morning, I had an important meeting in Slough, and I had no other possibility to be in time than to fly back from Deauville on the Sunday morning, thinking how I could occupy the rest on my Sunday otherwise than working in my hotel room….
Took my car in the long term parking, and drove quietly by the old route Crawley, Guildford…… Suddenly, I saw a rather old sign posting indicating to the left ‘’NRA Ranges, Bisley Camp’’ The car took the left at the traffic light almost instincitively…. Entered the Camp and parked the car around NRA offices.
The Camp was very active everywhere. After the visit a Futlons, I directed to the Century, busy al the way long… Could not believe my eyes… Then back to the Shorts, a visit to the Zero Range, wondering why shooters were ‘peeing on their shoes’ at such shorter range with fullbore rifles when they had so may possibilities to do it more seriously just beside??... Finished after a quic look at the Bisley Gun Club at the Stickedown where shooting was on progress at 1200 yards (I understand later it was the English VIII Meeting day). There was shooters on the back position, a practice I had never seen. What amazed me much was the fact there was shooting on the right simultaneously on a shorter range!!! Unthinkable for a continental….
I immediately decided it was a place for me…
I had a wonderful day and went thinking on how I could manage to shoot there…
Business obligations in Germany and Switzerland did not allowed me to have an other possibility until a certain Sunday afternoon in July. Parked again the car in centre camp…plenty of cars there, but no one around…Went to the NRA office, decided to ask possibility for shooting there. A grey-haired gentleman (Arthur Riall), alone in office, ousted me most abruptly.. OK, I went out thinking the place was not very friendly welcoming to foreigners…(Remeember,w e were in 1973….) Passing out the door, I heard the sound of a martial music.. and saw a column of people following a band and a shaggy head raised up in a chair borne by screaming entlemens… It was Keith Pilcher, a very nice person and a good friend… I attended the Prize giving ceremony and went the eyes and head ful of wondersl…..
Sometime later, I went a weekday to Bisley, met briefly Arthur Riall again, who was again less than cooperative, although this time quite more civilized.. He told me I should belong to a Club first, and follow the channel.. I asked him which Ckub to become member, and his reply was ‘anyone!!’, which I immediately translated in my tivial language as ‘demerde-toi!!’..
Went down to notice the LMRA Clubhouse, met there the Secretary, who accepted my membership application, offering me to become a life member, saying it was, if I remember well, 25 pounds, due to raise significantly the year after.. No need to say, the cheque was made before he could have changed his minds!!..
He told me to come back on the next week end, when I could meet a gentleman who could give me all informations.. On the Saturday, I met Freddy Payne, had a shot under his coaching, and everything started. I entered the 1974 Imperial, and never missed one since. I ceased shooting in 1996, but still attend Meetings since my first one, shooter or now member of the Normandy drinkers team!!!.

R.G.C

[John25]

April 1976, my Wednesday golf match was rained off.