4. It was some sort of semi-auto, tube-fed .22. I can still remember putting the cartridges in the tube. My Dad had a hand on the gun and was on top of me on his elbows just to make sure.

Vlad - that made my day.. lol...

My Dad and I have discussed this a few times, we both think I MIGHT have/probably did shoot before ... but we both agree on a memory that we generally accept as my first time. A life-event caused there to be a humongous dirt mountain in our backyard, which was already on a dead end street surrounded by farm fields.

 

WTF is a life event?

...

I sadly think I may win for oldest first shot at 31. I had shot a few air guns as a kid in my friend's yard but first time with a real gun was almost exactly 2 years ago in an NRA Basic Pistol class.

I was about 8 or 9 at a range where I grew up in Michigan. It was a 22 semi-auto and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the time.

WTF is a life event?

 

Thank you for your polite inquiry. .  Please allow me to inform you, despite the fact I'd have preferred not to get into it.

 

Our house burned to the ground and left us temporarily homeless, without a single possession, and devoid of any and all worldly goods, family heirlooms, clothes, or anything at all.  

 

The rebuilding process required digging out the concrete foundation, as that was the only thing left , and digging a new area for foundation, which then left a very large amount of dirt that got piled into the backyard area... resulting in a large mountain suitable for shooting into.

 

Satisfied?

Dang. Sorry about the joke, dude.

I was seven years old and used my father's .22lr colt diamondback. 

LOL. I was a late bloomer. Did not shoot my first gun till I was 30. S&W 581 357/38. Sure wish I still had it. 

I did very similar thing as Vlad G. We had 'Civilian defense' classes at school (about 13-14 y.o.) and had to shoot as part of the class. We had a shooting range in the basement in the school, and everything was very well organized thanks to good teachers. We did not get much to shoot though because of luck of ammo. .22lr was on a short supply in USSR

Teachers also had to destroy empty cartridges and count them. 100 in, 100 out.

Later we shot ak-47 at the real range, about 10 rounds, also as part of the class.

I was 13 and went to spend a summer in Elkhorn Manitoba on a farm in the middle of nowhere. The owner of the farm,a friend of my father's took me into the basement where he had a collection of rifles and asked me to choose 1.

I chose a .22 bolt action with the coolest wood furniture and a scope that you loaded 16 rounds in a tube under the barrel and spent the rest of the summer aiming at and missing squirrels and skunks.

The next time I picked up a firearm was in 2009 after I bought a Sig p250 9mm, a box of ammo and rented a lane at Shoreshot.

.22 around 5 or 6. .410 at about 8 and graduated to 12 gauge at 13. Handgun was a 38 at about 15

 

 

This signature is AWESOME!!!

I had only shot bb and pellet rifles since I was 12 up until age 18.  It was at that age I had shot my first REAL firearm for the first time....my best friends 12 gauge pump sg with 00 buck.  I wasn't fully prepared for the recoil and wacked my nose pretty good with my thumb. At least my buddy got a laugh out of it....t'was memorable to say the least.

YMCA camp.  11 yrs old.  Bolt action 22's loved shooting ever since

.22 bolt action at a Boy Scout camp (No-Be-Bo-Sco), 11 or 12 years old. Still have the targets. First handgun shot was at 18 when I went to GA to visit some friends.

First shot was with my dads air rifle I found while helping clean out the garage at about age 5 or 6. First shot with a firearm was dads marlin 39 .22 rifle in our backyard .22 range in NJ at age 7. first shotgun shot was age 10 with a single shot 20g. Got my hunting licenses at 12 and mowed my neighbors lawns to save enough cash to give to my dad to buy a mossburg 500 12g. First handgun shot was a .44 mag revolver at 13

First air rifle - at about 7 or 8. Was a regular shooter for a few years.

First rifle, 5.56 - about 16, as a part of school PE.

First handgun (Makarov, I think) - at 20. Didn't like it.

First shotgun - at 38, on a range in Belgium. A sort of an entertainment during a business trip. I didn't do well but loved it anyway.

At SGF Vacation Camp (behind Methacton HS in Collegeville PA) run by the Phila Jewish Federation (Imagine that one today!)

Age 10 ('65) they had BB rifles for the first time.

The following summer at age 11 they had single shot bolt action .22 rifles.

I was hooked!!  Shooting at camp in the summer was my raison d'être.

At 15 got a summer job at Camp Sun Mountain in Shawnee-on-Delaware PA as a dishwasher, and spent every spare minute on the rifle range burning up their ammo (purchased at Dunkleberger's in Stroudsburg at $5/brick - those were the days)

The next 2 summers I was the camp rifle instructor (after going thru an NRA Instructor course at Pine Forest Camp in Greeley PA near where they're hunting for the State Trooper sniper)

Don't remember the age, but first gun I shot was a .22LR rifle when I was in cub scouts

22LR  single shot rifle age around 8.  Co2 pellet pistol around the same time. Shot bottles and paper in the NY catskills.  Love at first sight.

Probably 10 or 11. Boy Scout summer camp. Single shot .22 LR. Still have the targets downstairs and I wasn't too bad at that age!

I was 14. Single-shot .22lr rifle. Basement or sub-basement of my high school located at 30 W. 16th St. in Manhattan. They still have a range!

1977-78 my fathers first gun was a 38cal airweight, I was 8 or 9 yrs old when I shot it and I can remember that it had a crazy recoil that hurt my hand but that didn't stop me, I loved it.