NEW ONLINE POLL AT USAS! How did you start shooting?

[LadyJayne]

USA Shooting has posted a new online poll at www.usashooting.org!

The webmaster is asking: where did you begin to shoot?

So, I pose the question to this group - who, when, where and why.

(be sure to vote at www.usashooting.org and tell us your story here)

[Jose Rossy]

300 meter nationals cancelled due to lack interest. That's sad.

[Fred Mannis]

When - 1955

Where - Ad in the student newspaper - looking for people to join the pistol team. Went down to the range and learned to shoot a pistol.

Why - A new challenge. Something different.

[scragglepoint]

when: long ago and far away
where: basement of my parents house.
my father started me off with a bb gun shaped like a colt SAA
when I could prove I wouldn't shoot out the lights or my sisters eye, he loaded up wax plugs in a .38 S&W cartridge.
then I graduated to his old high standard .22 target pistol and the

when: was thursday nights in the ummer (non school night) was when his BE team met, and I used to get to tag along, and eventually shoot.

why: why????? because I could and I had a father who wanted to teach me. to this day, if I need to relax I take a .22 or an airgun out hang a target and shoot for an hour.

[Bill177]

I started shooting smallbore rifle at age 12 as part of a high school team - that was in the middle 50s. Although I attended a boy's military school in a city - I lived in the country, where shooting and hunting was the norm.

I later shot smallbore and pistol on various local and military teams. I was never great, but I met a bunch of fine people along the way. Most of all - I had FUN!

About all I shot now is AP - which is both relaxing and challenging. I enjoy shooting at reactive targets (outdoors) during the summer.

[TomAmlie]

My father got me a Remington 513-T when I was 9 years old. It was too big for me at the time, and after a few unsuccessful halfhearted efforts it was put aside.

At 12, summer camp got me re-interested. Made a lot of progress over the next few years; moved up to a Walther free rifle. Dead stop at age 16. Girls, coffee, cigarettes, cars, etc., etc.

At 44, started back into it. Still have the 513-T (and the Walther). Do some smallbore prone and 3P, but mostly interested in AP and FP.

[CraigE]

My folks got me a Remington (gosh was it heavy!) and made sure I got to the local armory where Bob Weideman (local police officer) coached and ran practices/matches. I was in Jr. High. By high school, I joined the rifle team (we only shot prone) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then.....college and all the other distractions. I didn't get back into shooting until 1986. Then it was AP and AR. I traded the Remington in on the air stuff. By then, I was 37 and had a demanding work schedule and 4 small kids. Shooting was fun, but there was little in the way of local match support for air. It took another 15 years to "return home". AP became the discipline of choice and, with the help of Target Talk and Warren Potter......I came back to the fold. Now the match schedule is full, the practice challenging and rewarding and I am venturing toward FP. Life is good.

[tfgh]

At age 12, I visited a friend, who was doing some informal airrifle shooting in his parents basement. I got hooked.
Soon afterwards went downtown and bought my first barrel-cocking air-rifle, a Telly junior (made in Poland or Tsjekko-Slovak). Without my parents permision.Ha!
Since then I have fired some quarter of a millions rounds with different types of firearms, short and long.

[VladB]

When: 1986

Where: The other side of the pond...Former USSR...Lvov, Ukraine. When I turned 14 my buddy and I enrolled in a junior shooting program. We shot 3 position smallbore and 10M.

Why: Because I thought it was something I could do with my best buddy and because I thought it was cool :-). After some time we seriously got into it and shot competitevily.

I am forever grateful to my coaches who showed us what a wonderful sport it was. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years. Now I am shooting 10M, 3 position smallbore, casually shooting Free Pistol, Field Target, and International Field Position. Shooting is truly a sport for life!!

USA Shooting has posted a new online poll at www.usashooting.org!

The webmaster is asking: where did you begin to shoot?

So, I pose the question to this group - who, when, where and why.

(be sure to vote at www.usashooting.org and tell us your story here)

[joe4702]

JROTC

[Mike M.]

I grew up doing it - literally. My father was one of the best black powder shooters in the North-Sough Skirmish Association. So it seemed natural to follow suit - albeit in a different arm (Dear Old Dad was a carbine expert. I'm a pistol shooter).

Got into cartridge (to the degree that I shoot it) in the late '80s. Got the Olympic Rapid Fire bug for a while. Unfortunately, the three facilities that shoot RF within a reasonable distance all killed their International programs in the late '80s and early '90s.

I'll confess to having trained at Black Mountain in '96 and '97 - mostly free pistol - but it was only as a practice for a maximum-effort run at the World Muzzle-Loading Championships. At which I have enjoyed moderate if sporadic success.

[Pradeep5]

I first started shooting during a TAFE Adult Education course in Tasmania, hosted by the local pistol club, it was one night per week for 6 weeks, shooting air pistol. I was hooked after the first night. Joined the club, spent months doing the required safety courses, getting pistol license etc. Ended up running Service and Service Unrestricted matches. Had plenty of free time back then. The most important thing that got me hooked was my fellow club members, Monday night was air pistol night, it was a social gathering with shooting on the side. Then Standard/Rapid/Centre on Saturdays, and Service matches on Sundays. I was hardcore and shot all matches available, that would often end up being 6 or 7 matches during a two day "Open" competition.

Now with a wife and kids, mortgage/car payments etc, free time is far more of a precious commodity. Especially with the meagre amount of vacation time that is customary in the US ;)

Hopefully next year when I can get my US Citizenship I will try and get some more training done and and attend the Nationals etc.

[BOOKER]

when: years ago around 1982, started plinking around with a Daisy 840 bb rifle

where: first on the backyard, then I move up to large field camp with other kids and had a great time with our "marksman" skills

why: loved the challenge of hitting to what I aim at, now aiming at that pinpoint 10m air rifle target

[Nicole Hamilton]

I started in 2000, at the age of 49. I had a couple women friends living in Oklahoma who'd discovered shooting and kept insisting I should give it a try. I paid no attention till I happened to be in Dallas on business at the same time they were there for a 1911 leg match, which they talked me into coming out to watch.

Seeing it, I realized, wow, this might be a sport I could actually do! Bear in mind, I've always displayed a dismal lack of coordination and basic ability in most sports where gross motor skills are important. (I really do throw like a girl! :) But in pistol and rifle, all it takes is that you stand really still and pull a trigger that's maybe a few pounds. I can do that!

The first guns I bought were a S&W 22A with an Aimpoint and a Glock 19. I expected the 22A to be the toy and the Glock to be the real gun. It's been years since I've shot the Glock. I don't shoot the 22A much either, but only because I liked it so much I bought a bunch of even better target pistols. And the 22A does at least still come out of the safe when I want to introduce a friend to shooting and I want her to have a good experience.

[jackh]

Even before age 10, went deer hunting with my dad. Had my own 270 Winchester at age 11. Hunted regularly in Oregon until Dad was unable. Picked up pistol competition at age 20 under mentorship of former US Army shooter, a retired Lt Col. Shot my first gallery match with a borrowed High Standard in 1969. Had many years of benchrest competition (CF rifles) and Smallbore Prone. Now almost exclusively Pistol competition.

Just joined USAS!

[PaulB]

age 8 - BB rifle program at YMCA
12 - NRA junior .22 rifle program held at nearby high school
16 - attend first Camp Perry (smallbore); 2006 - 37th Perry!!
17>20 - shot on rifle and pistol team in college
21>present volunteer college shooting team coach

have been junior club instructor/coach, NRA Training Counselor, NRA Instructor, NRA Coach, 4-H shooting program instructor/trainer, state association officer, gun club officer, NRA committee member

have shot in competition: smallbore prone and position, (NRA & Int'l, including US Int'l Championships in 74, 75, 76, 80 & 84), air rifle, conventional high power rifle, free pistol, standard pistol, air pistol, conventional 3-gun pistol, smallbore silhouette rifle, smallbore silhouette pistol, PPC pistol

[Guest]

1997 age 13 joined the school club for .22 air rifle started .177 air pistol towards the end of the following year and have stuck to it ever since.

[Steve N]

Started shooting BB guns as a kid. In college, our local community college had a marksmanship class as a PE elective so I took it. We then formed a club and shot at the college for a year. I graduated, so I've only been plinking since then.

I would like to get into 10M air rifle. Is their anyone in the Cleveland OH area that can tell me where, etc?

Thanks

[Steve N]

Started shooting BB guns as a kid. In college, our local community college had a marksmanship class as a PE elective so I took it. We then formed a club and shot at the college for a year. I graduated, so I've only been plinking since then.

I would like to get into 10M air rifle. Is their anyone in the Cleveland OH area that can tell me where, etc?

Thanks