how did you start and why

[zini 1,939]

Hi lads my short story is as follows:

 

I was always interested in shooting and playing army as a young boy inspired by one of my uncles that served and fought in the Falklands war.

 

At 13 I was taught to shoot properly with a old air rifle by my other uncle who was a game keeper has he still is today.

 

Not long after that I got bought a second hand .22 calibre Relium Tornado from a Step Toes shop and used to shoot it with my next door neighbour on his garden. From then on my love for air rifles bloomed.

 

In 1991 and after 6 years of on and off air rifle shooting and many different spring piston rifles I joined the army for the second time where I soon established myself in the shooting team after beating the instructor in a shoot off one day on the ranges for a 5 Deutche Mark wager. (About £1.50 in those days).

 

Not long after this I was made to join (someone volunteered me) the shooting team where I was taught to shoot accurately and taught the theory of the marksmanship principles to a finer degree.

 

Not long after that I was externally assessed by an Officer from another Regiment and was given the title of marksman after a successful shoot and passing the required test.

 

In 1997 after carrying out pest control in Bosnia with a cheap air rifle, and due to my love of shooting was invited to go to Lujbjia ranges in Bosnia to shoot with the Czech snipers and use their rifles in a large old quarry, converted into a range.

 

On one of the days with the Czechs I got to try shooting the Dragunov sniper rifle and without any formal training (apart from the this is the scope etc) I managed to shoot 2 figure 11 (man size targets) at 800 metres with 2 shots, knocking them down, impressing the Czech snipers and my boss who was watching me from behind.

 

Due to this fact I was then volunteered to go south later in the tour to Gornji Vakuf and represent my Regiment and the British contingent against the Czechs, Dutch, and Canadian army in a shooting competition held yet again in an old quarry.

 

After a 2 day event and a lot of fun shooting different nation’s weapons I was awarded the best overall shot.

 

A few years later and while serving back in Germany I attended another shooting competition winning the best shot and beating some very credible people from very credible Infantry Regiments both from the UK and the German army.

 

As time went on and I was promoted within the army I found myself teaching shooting to the younger soldiers whilst still shooting the air rifle in my spare time as a hobby and hunting when I could.

 

In 2005 I attended a year’s intensive course in the Royal School of Artillery Larkhill where I was taught advanced ballistics by a man called Mr Reid, (Major Reid retired). He used to be the UK’s and one of the worlds leading experts in ballistics and wrote the ballistics book for the British army.

 

It’s this course that brought my shooting skills together, as I could then see the relationship between shooting and the ballistics involved in making a good shot.

 

With this new knowledge planted well within my brain, it helped me to improve my overall shooting ability and gave me confidence to push my own abilities slightly further. It’s also around this time that I converted to PCP properly from a spring piston rifle. I had owned PCPs before but always seemed to sell them for a springer again.

 

Over the past 25 years I have shot many weapons, but the one rifle that I have always had and loved to shoot the most is the air rifle.

 

I have now been shooting with an air rifle intensely for the past 2 years since joining THL forum and making some great friends.

 

Si.

Edited January 15, 2011 by zini

[beddylurcher 70]

iv been owt on shoots since about 5 or 6 as my granddad and dad where farmers, so i realy started shooting as soon as i could hold a gun, when i was 13 i was goose shooting with my granddad with his 6 bore and asked for a shot as i was using my dads 410 and wonted ago with his, i should never of asked for ago. but any way thats how i started. sorry i carnt spell

[Marksman 934]

started when I was about 8 yrs old when my dad first let me have a go at some rats in his old chicken run down the allotment, the moment I bagged my first one I was hooked,

Been doing it ever since

 

Darryl

[pianoman 3,584]

That's the thing eh, Darryl. As soon as you knock down your first rat or rabbit, it's like a needle goes into your arm and you're hooked instantly. I was the about same age as you were, 8, and I hit a rabbit with my Webley through the heart and killed it. That was it. Shooting for life!

 

 

Simon.

Edited January 15, 2011 by pianoman

[rossy08 33]

That's the thing eh, Darryl. As soon as you knock down your first rat or rabbit, it's like a needle goes into your arm and you're hooked instantly. I was the about same age as you were, 8, and I hit a rabbit with my Webley through the heart and killed it. That was it. Shooting for life!

 

 

Simon.

 

thats very true, i can rember my first rabbit better than i can my first women. no joke..

[Ben 76 2]

Only joined this forum yesterday, so Hello to you all! I have been having a bloody good read through all the stories etc and have really enjoyed everything I've read so far. This thread in particular got me going so thought I'd lob my story in too.

 

As a kid the old man used to tell me his stories of his parachute regiment days and all that went with it, totally got the bug for shooting when he let me use not only his .177 air rifle but also his crossbow at about age 6/7!

 

From then on for me it was all about playing army, plinking cans with the rifle (never let me use the crossbow on my own),chopping trees with my "Rambo" knife and making camps in the woods etc etc. Moved to London in my late teens and kicked myself I didn't join the paras. Anyway moved back down to kent 5 years ago and last year a mate lent me his rifle on a piece of his land on a camping trip. Needless to say our idea of a night shoot coupled with beers disapeared but when awaking at sun break the next morn I decided to see if I could shoot a rabbit. Waited a good few ours in the car and when I eventually woke up a few hours later found the car was surrounded with bunnies.

 

My first ever rabbit was in the bag! and you're right that first kill never leaves you and was the most exciting feeling I'd had in ages.

 

promptly bought an SMK which did the job for a few bunnies but then moved onto my HW95.....I now have a few permissions and couldn't think of a better way to spend my time than mooching around, clad in camo with a rifle ready to pop some bunnies!!!

 

 

Now bloody glad I found this site.

 

Cheers to you all for the great info, stories and a bloody good site.

 

Ben

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Mole's turn... When I was 12 at high school I had a mate who kept ferrets and polecats, started ferreting with him, then in the summer at harvest time we would walk behind the combines, with sticks, chase down startled rabbits and hit them on the head or neck. Dad was impressed by the rabbits I was bringing back, so taught me how to aim and shoot his BSA, I think it was a Meteor, was 10 years old when I was using her with Eley Wasps in a big blue screw tin, sigh!

 

Anyway my dad had a few friends who owned properties down Heacham beach, these were beach houses (not huts, bathrooms, water, electric, the works), the rabbits were diggin underneath them and beginning to cause damage, so I was allowed to go down there and plug away! That is how I started!

[pipa 299]

i used to take my older brothers gun up the allotment when he went out for the day, i think it was a BSA scorpion????? like a big pistol with a wire framed shoulder stock that foldered down to make either a pisol? or rifle? then when he got a new gun the bsa was passed down to me, between us we had, meteors! realms! sharps innovas! webelys! weihrauch 35, , 77, prob same old 80s story some lads on here have?? best old gun was prob the sharps innova, it only had some small tasco scopes on but with about 6 pumps in it it was awesomely accurate, my first PCP i bought was a FALCON? i think the name changed to falcon from another brand?? was in 92,93 from wighill guns shop cost me about £700 with bottle and scope, prob alot of money back then, had fx2000 when they first came out, good gun, then went into shotguns, got bored of that and got me a BSA R10 22,awesome PIECE OF KIT!

[andyfr1968 772]

My Dad was a small arms instructor in the RAF Regiment so I grew up with the idea of guns and shooting. He used to take me out with friends with lurchers although we never owned a dog ourselves... I used to love going coursing and ferreting with my old man and his mates

 

My Dad introduced me to a game keeper friend of his when I was 13 and I started helping out on the estate in my free time. Got my first 'proper' airgun, an HW80 (after Meteors, Hawks, ASIs and all sorts of crap.... ) at 14 and also my first shotgun, a Master 12g S/S.

 

I've been helping out and shooting on the same estate ever since, although I let my SGC slide a few years back as I just didn't really have a use for one anymore....

 

My two young sons (12 and 9) have been joining me this past year or so and they love it our sport needs new blood if it's going to survive....

 

I've two other permisions of my own other than the estate and also get to go out with a couple of lads from here, so I count myself very lucky.

 

Cheers.

Edited March 3, 2011 by andyfr1968

[Polkey 70]

When I was a kid I always wanted an air rifle, my folks were dead against it, my old man was a military man but was very anti guns, i used to hide pen knifes from him. I think he was worried I would turn into a rong un. Anyways, I love to cook and developed an interest in game and then an interest in finding my own which is why i now have a lurcher, air rifle and just got some ferrets. It the whole hunter gather thing for me, find it, kill it and turn it into some thing tasty, what could be more natural!

[markha 99]

As a lad I was a handfull, I was always out in the woods of cannock chase, building hides, knockind down squirrels with my swapped black widow catapult, staying out too late and worrying my parents, dad would have to drive 40 minutes round trip then start looking for me in the woods, I got a few smacks allright!

From an early age I was just into the outdoors, aunties and uncles would by me soldier suits, a friend of the familly who ws moving away gave me the butt section off his service rifle, wow I was made up, a proper gun part My great grandad, grandad, cousins were all in the army and the tales that my grandad told me of his times in Borneo had me on the edge of my seat

 

I got very good at culling squirels and rabbits with my black widow so much so that I managed to sell it to another mate who had more money than sense, this helped me to part buy/barter/swap for a Webley tempest in 177 off an older kid I knew.

That was my 1st gun and fantastic piece of kit it was too, but hell was I scared of getting caught at home with it, so I always wrapped it in a plastic bag and buried it in the woods at the end of my days outing! as my sister was a bit of a grass and loved to get one up on me by dropping me in the shit with mum and dad whenever she could

 

Needless to say after a few weeks of shoot then bury, the gun dissappeared one day I hadnt a clue who took it.

Moved house, changed school, had a part time job, bought another gun, this time Mk4 BSA Meteor 177 which I still have today.

A stint in the army, a stint on the pmc circuit and a fair bit of other stuff ensured that I had a finger on a trigger most days for quiet a while. Its only in the last few years that I have got back into hunting and shooting sports and have a bit of spare cash to be able to buy myself a present every once in a while.

 

Im enjoying my air rifle hunting and rough shooting with the SG.

[JackReid 35]

hi hunters

 

this is a funny kind of thread but how and why did you start hunting

 

my life of the hunting and strain

 

i grew up in a small town better known a cheltenham,with my brothers mum and dad.

 

when i hit the age where i could decide what i wanted to do i went into doing crime hanging with the wrong people

 

gave my mum and dad a very hard life as i was always a troubled kid(no lies all truth)

 

anyways when i realized that i was doing this stuff to my mum and dad it was too late as they got a divorce and i ended up moving in with my dad

 

he taught me right from wrong and how to be successful in life like he has owning 3 of his on factory's

 

anyways i finished school with no qualification and moved to Australia for 8 weeks.

 

sadly Australia and me parted very soon and i moved back to the UK.

 

then i finally good my first job and it only lasted 2 weeks as the boss wasn't happy with my work and i was very rude to him but i wish i wasn't now

 

then i found something i liked to do and that was music,so i got my head down and started writing my own music tracks and beats and all the tracks were based on my life style the way it was and how i want it to change,then i went to the music studios and recorded my first album(will upload a few track later) it was all going good till i messed it up.and all i wanted to do is make my parents proud after all they have done for me

 

well on the net i was still talking to a few high ranked music producer no famous but on the way when one day a good friend named Chris invited me to a game of air soft,i started looking into buying one which was the bar10 sniper.

 

when i came across a site that sold air rifles and thought wow there cheap so brought a hatsan mod60 and so on.

 

no Ive owned more than 10 rifles and have starting hunting with people Ive meet and enjoy all of it.

 

Ive also turned my life right round,2 beautiful kids a special wife and are own home

so how did you get involved in it and why?

 

 

atb Steve

 

Wrong section....

 

you still here??

[Dai Williams 0]

I Started when i was 12/13 first year in secondary school back in 1994. Bought a rough old webley Vulcan with the butt snapped of the stock for £2 dinner money, . Anyhow i drilled thru both sections drove a dirty big bolt thru and painted it brown. My mate Beano also had a westlake something or other and beleive it or not i we used to put our dads old leather jackets on and shoot at each other in a dis used cemetary, CRAZY when we think back Young and very Dumb. but we never got hurt and we shot hell of alot. both guns combined must have only been 4 ftlbs, Anyways the years went by discovered booze smoking and women and left guns alone until i was about 23/24 when my cousin offered me out shooting had a ball an bought an air rifle next day. Havent looked back really had about 7 rifles since still own 3.