When we were young

[alfsauve]

Thought it might be fun to see pictures of us shooting when we were younger. 

Here's my dad and I shooting out on the back yard, late '50s.

[dipisc]

Hi;

     So far, i can do a little shooting out the back yard on New years and 4th of July without raising any eyebrows.

     When I watch "The Best Years of Our Lives", Homer is in a city, in a shed out back of his house and shooting a .22 rifle into a pile of firewood....Today, SWAT would have him on a stretcher headed for the Morgue.

[alfsauve]

Backyard?  I should qualify.  We lived in rural Georgia about three miles out of town.  Our property was about 200 yds wide and a quarter mile deep.  It backed up to the Ogeechee river.  Yeah we were in the  "back yard" about 300-400 yards behind the house.

[Timothy]

No pics but I have a recollection as a tike and Pop letting me shoot his shotgun.  I'm guessing a 12 gauge, and I was about six or seven.

Anywho, I couldn't shoulder the gun so Pop tucked it under my arm and braced the butt against his thigh.  I squeezed the trigger, fired the gun and said something like;  "Gee, Pop!  It didn't even kick!".

Pop limped all the way back to the car...   

[kmitch200]

SWAT would have him on a stretcher headed for the Morgue.

Today, Alf's dad would be brought up on charges of child abuse. Imagine what could happen if kids were allowed to learn about and shoot guns like we all did. They might actually stop texting for 2 minutes!
The Horror!!

[Sponsor]

[les snyder]

not quite that old, but from the Manatee Gun Club (Fla) in 1983, a pic of what an IPSC (pre USPSA) match looked like... 1911 in hand, you shot a couple of targets from the top, and slid down the ramp on the back...

[alfsauve]

Wow.  Very neat, Les.

Michael said that he and some others involved in the early days of IPSC recreated some of the stages from the early days.   None of those stages can be used today due to safety concerns. 

[jaybet]

My parents were not gun people...not ANTI either, but we didn't have a lot of guns, although there was an old, frozen up SxS with hammers in our basement that I used to love to open up and look at.  Our home and livlihood were at a beach resort in NJ, but we spent part of our winters at a small home in the eastern edge of Mesa, AZ. It was a small development of CMU houses with dirt streets, and across the street from my home to the north was desert. Nothing but, and plenty of it.

That is where I learned to shoot at 10 years old from my 10 year old friend, Randy. His dad was a big gun guy, a reloader, etc. He would give Randy a couple of guns to take me out in the desert to shoot. We had rules of course, his dad went over all the safety stuff, and Randy was very safe and knew a LOT about shooting.  We had a blast. My favorite memory is shooting a .22 pistol at a fleeing jackrabbit...a hopeless proposition for such a crappy shooter as myself, but it was thrilling. And man, those things are tall and can run!

Good memories and a part of a great childhood.

[tombogan03884]

Before I went in the Marines my Dad had bird feeders and used to get irate at the Bluejays and squirrels hogging all the seed .
I was told to "shoot every f**king one I saw"
I used to sit at the kitchen table with a loaded .22 pistol and the door open while I was reading .
Squirrels were fairly easy but have you ever tried wing shooting with a pistol ? 

Later, when we lived across the line in Maine we built a 50 yard range in the back yard.

[les snyder]

alfsauve... I think Michael got to the Tampa Area around 85... he was match director for the Fla State match held on the Manatee range in 87. IIRC... for the 86 state match, we shot out of the back of a moving pick up truck that made two circuits on the bomb range of the Hillsborough County SO... a couple of 180 degree arcs