View Full Version : What Firearm Hooked You Into Being an Enthusiast?
Doc Safari
09-19-17, 15:59
Once upon a time I struck up a conversation with a couple of guys at a little podunk saloon on the outskirts of town one Friday afternoon. The conversation turned to guns, and one of the guys told me he had a pre-ban folding stock AK.
I was not much of a gun guy back then. I had owned a revolver for self-defense but had never really looked into getting anything else. I knew AK's had been banned, so in the back of my mind I wondered if this guy's AK was illegal or just barely legal. He claimed the pre-ban ones were grandfathered, but not knowing the guy I didn't necessarily believe him.
I followed the guy back to his house, and one of his other buddies followed us. He pulled out a pre-1989-ban B-West sidefolder AK. Of course I immediately offered to buy it from him. He just laughed.
Several weeks went by, and the guy showed up at the very same bar complaining his girlfriend had kicked him out. Suddenly he wanted to sell that AK. Without hesitation, I went to the bank and got the money and bought it from him a few days later. We started going to the range every weekend for me to shoot that rifle, and for them to shoot various firearms.
I was hooked. I bought two more AK's that summer, plus a couple of MAK90's by the end of that year. Too bad the B-West AK turned out to be one of those with the soft receiver: it started to come apart after a few hundred rounds. But there was no going back as far as me and firearms--especially modern evil-looking rifles.
What firearm hooked you into being an enthusiast?
Oh god. Haha.
This is a tough question, but, I will bite.
So, I was a mere youngin and Games where getting into the third dimension and TV's started being flatter.
Beyond the video game aspect, I remember when the POS dude my mom was cheating on my dad with left an illegal Sawd-off double barrel in the garage.
Beyond being 16 and so badly wanting that D-Bags popper to go missing, I didn't want to risk dealing with a twacked out tweaker over an illegal gun.
When I was 18, I was gifted a handgun, and that was a Hi-Point. Sadly, it was a Hi-Point that got me hooked. I had used firearms since young, but when I fired my first .40s, it was made into a weekly routine. Got my CCW training with that Hi-Point and purchased a TP9 when I turned 21. An AR15 within a couple months after.
I still look back to the days in that garage, and how tempted I was to jack that fool.
Cap gun at about 2 years old. Pretty much had interest in guns since, perhaps even before really.
GI Joe
Transformers
A Team
Miami Vice
Seeing the gun room in Commando
Shooting a shotgun at age 5
And my super realistic toy Rambo Uzi.
Like for real, carry that now and some rookie cop would freek and cap you.
Yet I toted it to school everyday
tl;dr The 80s
Doc Safari
09-19-17, 17:17
But I'm talking about ACTUAL firearms...not childhood toys. We could all point to our toy guns as an influence.
What real live gun made you decide to buy more guns?
What real live gun made you decide to buy more guns?
I don't know if I can point to a single gun that I can point to that made me go, I want to buy more. It was more, me always being interested in guns, like reading gun rags at the age of 6 interested in them and buying books on guns when I was like 11 and reading up on the history of them, and then getting to a position where I could save up pennies to buy them, and once I was old enough to be able to afford more adding to my collection and my collection, interest, and knowledge growing from there.
A slingshot started the whole projectile fascination.
My grandfather's Savage .22/.410 O/U was my gun hook.
militarymoron
09-19-17, 17:35
But I'm talking about ACTUAL firearms...not childhood toys. We could all point to our toy guns as an influence.
What real live gun made you decide to buy more guns?
I think that I had decided/wanted to buy guns long before I could buy guns. I was always a 'gun guy (kid)'.
Doc Safari
09-19-17, 17:37
Maybe I should rephrase it. Even I shot my dad's .410's rabbit hunting and his gallery gun .22 rifle hooked me into shooting.
But isn't there that first (or maybe subsequent) firearm purchase where you finally plunked down the money for that special gun, and after that it was Katie Bar the Door as far as "I need more guns?" Wasn't there that one gun that loosened your wallet for firearms from then on?
A Ruger 10/22 back in 1989. Was really an inexpensive way to shoot a ton, who knows how many bricks of 22 LR I went through that first year. I was solidly hooked.
I grew up hunting (duck, dove, etc) but never really had any interest in shotguns. Used them as a tool for hunting but didn't care much for them beyond that. If I had to pick a weapon that started my obsession it'd have to be the Mk23 SOCOM and HK USP. I played a lot of Metal Gear on PS1/PS2 growing up (I'm young than most here) and those were the primary pistols in many of the games. I still don't own either, ironically, but plan to eventually when I can justify it. I'd definitely have a fatter wallet if not for the influence though.
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If it's military weapons, it was the M16a1 I was issued at Fort Knox in 1978. First time I'd ever shot something like that. Called my folks shortly after qualifying Expert with the thing and I described to my Dad how it sounded. Prior to that it was lever action Winchesters or bolt action hunting rifles. I didn't actually buy my first military rifle until I returned from the Grenada Invasion in late 1983. Bought a Chinese AK, and was one of the early imports. I had been promoted to 1LT earlier that year and was enjoying a small bump in pay. Started buying AK's after that, and built a nice collection which I still have.
Didn't buy my first AR until 1988. I used them in my work so there was no novelty to them. Carried an XM177 in my aircraft for years in addition to my sidearm prior to the issue of the M4 Carbine. My first AR was a Colt AR15 HBAR with no fence around the mag release. Must have been an old stock receiver to be released by Colt as late as 1988.
I honestly cannot recall a time that I was not interested in firearms. I did not grow up hunting. I recall seeing a Colt AR15 SP1 carbine hanging on display at the local gun shop immediately adjacent my father's office when I was probably 7 years old. I wanted it badly. At 8 years old while shooting 22lr pistol and rifle at our local club, the guy next to us had a full size UZI. He saw that I was very interested in it and with my dad's permission allowed me to shoot 5 rounds fullauto while he ensured it didn't get away from me. I was bitten by the machinegun bug and never lost interest.
My first AR was a blue label Colt 6551. I was hooked on EBRs well before buying it. But the real hook was my first MG; a Colt M16A1. I knew I would have to continue buying MGs and that all other firearms would forever be less interesting.
GI Joe
A Team
Miami Vice
Seeing the gun room in Commando
tl;dr The 80s
Ha, brother we are very similar. Add to that Die Hard and the flames of my euro evil black (and some green) rifle obsession were stoked at a very young age.
Inkslinger
09-19-17, 19:39
My grandfathers little .22 revolver that he let me blast tin cans one Thanksgiving when I was six. We had to do a project in elementary school the following week about what we did on Thanksgiving and mine consisted of little stick figure me with a gun in my hand. Can you imagine the response that would illicit today?
Good thread.
Edit- just read the more narrow scope of thread.
A full auto mp5 got me into NFA, and buying more shit.
I'm not much of a collector, I like to shoot. My 2nd gun, a Remington 870 express 12 ga got me into really pushing myself as a shooter and training.
I quickly went from a box of 22 every month or two to a case of 12 ga each week. My friend and I would load a few hundred shells on his dads reloader and burn through them every weekend for a while. I would buy a case of shells and go out by myself for hours just doing drills and stuff.
Loved it.
Grand58742
09-19-17, 20:03
Never gave firearms much thought until my neighbor took me out to a friend's house when I was about, don't remember exactly, but maybe 11 or 12 years old. He was shooting off his back deck and let me shoot his Beretta M1935 pistol. After that? I was hooked.
Strange thing is I've never owned that particular pistol. Just never came across one in all my years of perusing the used sections of the various gun stores I've frequented.
But I'm talking about ACTUAL firearms...not childhood toys. We could all point to our toy guns as an influence.
What real live gun made you decide to buy more guns?
Beretta 92FS
Eurodriver
09-19-17, 20:15
M39 EMR
1_click_off
09-19-17, 20:23
My dad had an FFL growing up. We were in a small oilfield town and his coworkers bought many firearms through him. The one that I thought was the coolest thing ever was a pre ban Galil. I wanted one so bad, but had SKS funds at the time. About broke me, but I spent the extra ten bucks to get the "paratrooper" version. Made that rifle come out to an outrageous $89.00. I can remember $159 tec-9's and $239 MAC-10. Never could catch an Anaconda in stock, so I settled for a used Dan Wesson 44mag. Man, did I ever settle! But the SKS is what got me started. Armor piercing ammo at $1.25 per 25rd in a paper sleeve. Shot my first deer with that rifle, using armor piercing shells. Clean through both lungs.
BrigandTwoFour
09-19-17, 20:42
I grew up as a video gamer, so I was always interested to a degree. But what really stands out to me was when I was in middle school or so. My best friends father took us out to the range (he was a Vietnam era SF veteran) with an bunch of toys. I didn't even know their family owned guns until that day.
While we spent most of the day messing with a 10/22, an 870, and a PT92, it was the last one that forever "turned" me. At the end of the day, when he was satisfied we understood enough about safety and fundamentals, he brought out a Springfield 1903.
When it was my turn, I hunched down behind it on the bench and tried to figure out the irons. Having been shooting a 22 most of the day, I didn't prepare myself for a 30-06. The recoil from the first shot made the solid wood stock bounce off my shoulder and crack me in the jaw. Ive been hooked ever since.
A 4" Model 66 and hearing the words 'the new dude just out shoot everyone on the department' after my first qual. (Turned out it wasn't that big of a feat, but continued me on down the road).
I had shot plenty of .45 and M-14 in the Marine Corps, but a DA revolver was completely new to me. I dry-fired that thing and practiced speed loads hundreds of reps, had to teach myself to do it left handed.
It was a department revolver, I wish I could have kept it.
P-08 Luger in the 4th grade.
It was all over after that. Before the end of the year I had a WWI vintage 1911 and a P-38. Springfields, Garands, Mausers and Enfields would follow. By the time I was in junior high I had more guns than most adults I knew.
Marlin 39 made in 1923.
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The AR15
Long story short, I was 18, I was in college, and after living in a anti-gun household, they couldn't stop me now!
The college I was attending was very "criminal justice" program oriented, and lucky for me there was a "shooting 101" class put on by an officer from the local PD, that also included range time on the dept. guns, just pay for ammo.
Shot S&W revolvers (...and thus began my eternal distaste for all things revolver), Glock 17s (being new to guns, the lack of external safety scared the shit out of me), Remington 870's (*snore*), and AR15s. It was really only a "familiarization" on the last day of class, and we only got 20 rounds, but twenty rounds later, I knew what my first gun purchase was going to be....
And no it wasn't for the firepower- it was for the ergonomics and ease of shooting. After struggling with the handguns, I fired 20 rounds and made 20 mediocre but passable hits.
Then I went out and bought a Stag Model 2, two insanely overpriced Gen 1 Pmags during the great panic of '08, half a case of overpriced Black Hills red box, and a shitty knockoff Eotech 512, and I thought I was good to go.... The first time I ever dealt with BCM was when I called them trying to find more magazines, but that's a story for another time.
I owned a lot of guns since I was in college, medical school, and now. If there's a gun that gave me the confidence to shoot very well, I'd have to say my first 1911. Nothing special about my first one as I was in Medical School. It was a Canadian Para Ordnance P-14, which I thought was cool to have a pistol with such a high round count in a larger caliber.
I gravitated to the single action trigger, and at the time, I wasn't an excellent shoot, but I could shoot exactly where I aimed it. It was my favorite gun, and I would shoot it two to three times a week.
I enjoyed that gun. Should have kept it.
Instagram: MuzzleblastMD
I think that I had decided/wanted to buy guns long before I could buy guns. I was always a 'gun guy (kid)'.
This is me. Plus my older brother was a Green Beret. Had to emulate.
I turned 18 in 1987... I had an older co-worker that had an HK-91 he wouldn't sell me until I turned 18. The day of my birthday he agreed to let me have it for what he paid... $350.. back then I could pick up 7.62 Nato 1000rnd packs for $150.. I shot the hell out of that rifle. I even hunted with that big heavy beast. Killed a black bear, brown bear and a moose with it. I parted with it in the mid 90's for 2 grand that I used for the foundation of the house I was building.
That rifle, and my desire to put a muzzle brake on it, is what led me to make friends with a local gun smith. We build a brake so effective it wouldn't even cycle..LOL.. This guy was into IPSC big time and allowed me to build my first race gun on a CZ-75 and a Colt Combat Commander under his watchful eye. I swept the floors and disassembled guns to get them ready for re-bluing to pay for my parts.
Browning Hi Power. Bought it right out of boot camp as my first handgun. Once I completed missile school and made it to my duty station, I found a Mini 14 with a Redfield 3-9 scope at a pawn shop for $185. Needless to say it was a long time ago.
Moose-Knuckle
09-20-17, 07:38
The first huh? Let's see, oh yeah my dad's HK91 and then Dr. Kalashnikov's war implement.
Mr. Goodtimes
09-20-17, 07:53
The Beretta 93R.
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Doc Safari
09-20-17, 09:31
I'll tell you how it happened for a guy I used to know (since I doubt he's a member here and may not be alive still). Back in the late '70's/early '80's he was a pseudo-hippie liberal who couldn't understand why people had to own guns, and hated it even more that his kid always wanted guns and war toys for Christmas.
So.....he decided to teach his kid a lesson and scare the Hell out of him with a real gun. He claimed he went to the gun shop and bought a Colt SP-1. He planned to take his kid to the range to show him how loud, smelly, and scary firearms are, and to use that illustration to teach him that guns are about death and suffering.
Before taking his kid to the range, though, he decided to try it out by himself in a secluded location so his other liberal friends wouldn't see him with a "gun".
He was hooked. He claimed he had more fun that day than doing anything else he could remember. He converted to being a gun enthusiast on the spot and IIRC became a strong opponent of gun control.
I don't know if he ever got around to taking his kid to the range.
Daisy Model 99, age 8.
Then shortly after, Jack O'Conner convinced me (and a bunch of others) that I needed a model 70 in .270.
Which became the second one that I bought & owned personally. First being a M1 carbine. Might have been age 14 on both. Paid for by hard work at $1.75/ hr
WASR 10. I'm more of an AR guy now but I still love my Kalashnikovs.
The Beretta 93R.
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Well played.
If serious that's still cool.
The Beretta 93R.
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Howdy,
I used the 93R in WWII to kill Hitler and Tojo.
I can tell none of you served. Y'all live in yer mommas basements pleasuring yourselves and playing Wildlands. Well, lemme tell ya the rice paddies of Germany were some real "Wildlands" I was a sniper armed with a Grand 30-06 I had rechambered in 8mm so I could use Fritz's ammo im a pinch. I also had my Beretta 93R rebarreled into .40 for moar stawpin powah.
Yep me and Patton were bros. I told him that gay ass .45 LC of his was a girl's gun. I teased him like that. But he wasn't all that. Anyways I parachuted in to Berlin killing Krauts and shot Hitler. Then I ruckmarched to Japan and killed Tojo. I was also part of Navy CAG and I lased Hiroshima for the A-Bomb.
You virgins would be speaking Germanese right now if not for the Beretta 93R
HTH,
Firefly
Mr. Goodtimes
09-20-17, 20:29
Howdy,
I used the 93R in WWII to kill Hitler and Tojo.
I can tell none of you served. Y'all live in yer mommas basements pleasuring yourselves and playing Wildlands. Well, lemme tell ya the rice paddies of Germany were some real "Wildlands" I was a sniper armed with a Grand 30-06 I had rechambered in 8mm so I could use Fritz's ammo im a pinch. I also had my Beretta 93R rebarreled into .40 for moar stawpin powah.
Yep me and Patton were bros. I told him that gay ass .45 LC of his was a girl's gun. I teased him like that. But he wasn't all that. Anyways I parachuted in to Berlin killing Krauts and shot Hitler. Then I ruckmarched to Japan and killed Tojo. I was also part of Navy CAG and I lased Hiroshima for the A-Bomb.
You virgins would be speaking Germanese right now if not for the Beretta 93R
HTH,
Firefly
Thank you for your servus patriot.
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The Beretta 93R.
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Went right over my head. If I was a dog, right now I'd be wearing the cone of shame.
7 years old, toting a single-shot shotty .410 while quail "hunting" with my grandad, dad, and uncle.
Mine was never loaded, until the men had done their shooting...we'd get out of that last covey of the day and pops would let me "Barney Fife" that single round. I asked him later (in life) why he never let me have a crack at a real covey, and he said he had made a deal with my uncle...he would make sure I didn't shoot the dogs, lol.
Something about the seriousness of it all. The respect and reverence they gave to these inanimate objects and the quarry they used them against....with the added air of a controlled danger.
I could not get enough.
Hooked me good.
Cap gun at about 2 years old. Pretty much had interest in guns since, perhaps even before really.I may have been 4 but cap gun too. Followed by years of trying to convince my parents to let have an air pistol, lol.
I guess what first got me interested in guns in general was seeing my Dad's Model 19 .357 Mag. I'd ask him at the end of the day if I could hold it and he'd let me watch him unload it and explain what he was doing and then hand it to me me and remind me to keep it pointed in a safe direction. He'd always make me swing out the cylinder, look and then also press the ejector rod to make sure it was unloaded. That's where the interest started and I was about 6 or 7.
I received a BB gun one year, 7th birthday I think. The old standard Daisy Red Ryder and I must have put over 10K bbs through it. I'd shoot every single day after school in the backyard. Everthing from paper targets to bottle caps. A couple years later I got a replacement BB gun, a Crosman CO2 powered that I probably put at least another 10k through. I was already hooked on shooting when I was 11 and got a Marlin Model 60 for my birthday. I still have that Model 60 and I have no idea what the round count on it is but it still shoots and hits where it's aimed.
I think what really hooked me though was when I put together a gun for the very first time. It was a Black Powder Colts 1861 .44 replica that came in a kit form. I worked on it for weeks, shaping the grip and then bluing the steel parts and I gave it to my Dad for Christmas. He was tickled that I'd bought him a gun. We took it out and shot it several times that morning and had a blast. By the end of Christmas vacation we'd shot up all the lead balls I'd bought and that was when I started casting lead balls from wheelweights I got at the Shell station down the street.
So that little black powder revolver got me irreversibly hooked on firearms, casting and ultimately, reloading for everything I shoot.
I grew up around Fudd guns. I went hunting and fishing all of the time growing up. What did it for me though, was going into the Army right out of high school. When cut loose from active duty and moving back to Texas, I saved up and bought a Colt SP-1 Carbine back in 1985. The rest is history. BTW... I STILL have that old SP-1. I was even allowed to carry it as a patrol rifle for my old LEO job back in "the day". From there, it looks like 26 Inf and I took the same path..
A 4" Model 66 and hearing the words 'the new dude just out shoot everyone on the department' after my first qual. (Turned out it wasn't that big of a feat, but continued me on down the road).
I was allowed to purchase my model 66, but later traded it for my next duty weapon, the P226 when they were added to the department approved list. Darn I wish I'd have just saved and kept that 66.. Same for the 226 that I traded for a 229... At least I still have that P229. I will never get rid of it. Like my old SP-1, it saved my arse as a LEO more than once. Between the Army and being a former LEO, I'm hooked for life.
At 7 I was given a marlin model 60(I Think?) Been shooting ever since. Joined the army in 97 just to be able to shoot cooler guns. (Not really but that was a plus)
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I grew up around hunting rifles and shotguns but the first non hunting gun I ever shot was an Iver Johnson TP22 back in '93 and I was hooked from there. I lucked out and got to shoot an AK of some sort as well. I fell in love with guns that day.
The moment I turned 18 I went out and bought my first AK and as soon as I turned 21 I went and bought a pistol.
FlyingHunter
09-21-17, 14:09
Ruger 10-22. Still have it and smile at every ding and scratch on it.
nightchief
09-21-17, 20:40
When I was a kid, I liked Magnum PI and James Bond...So a "Colt 45" (1911) as I knew it when I was 8 and the Walther PPK
First long gun ended up being a Nylon 66...go figure. My first handgun was a Colt 1991 45 though.
NC
My grandfathers bolt action .22. Marlin model 101. Such a fun rifle for a young boy.
We would shoot while camping.
Starting when I was 7 he took me out and showed me basics and taught me safety.
He'd bring a few bricks of .22 and set up Coca Cola and Pepsi cans at various distances and let me have at it. He'd enjoy watching me for hours.
Loved it. I was hooked from the first shot.
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