when you were a kid...

[lmorales]

I have a story similar to silent airmans. When I was a kid  a lot of the neighborhood boys were several years older than me but all still played together. So one day they decided to play cowboys and Indians and they handed me a lever action BB gun and said "here you're a cowboy" . I was about 9 or 10 and really thought it was so much fun to shoot at the "Indians" but the action was over real soon when I shot my next door neighbor Eddie just above his right eye on his eyebrow! Just barely missed his eye! I think about this and am so grateful now that he has two good eyes to this day. He was about 14 years old at the time.

[bbv13]

I shot out the back glass of my dads car with a wrist rocket. The rock hit the ground and ricochet into it. It was a bad day and I didn't get to shoot anything for quite awhile. I did get my wrist rocket back and I still have it.

Bryan

[Boomer]

shot all the windows out of a pair of 62 corvair that we found in my uncles back 40 just chilling in the field


how was we supposed to know he was resorting them and that glass was pristine for his car, and was selling the other set?
guess even back in 82 them things were worth a ton of $$ in parts that you just cant find

[Bryan Heimann]

I was 8 years old and had just been given my first Air Rifle (A Crosman 760 if I remember correctly) with a tin of pellets, and I was shooting at a hand drawn target on an old half rotten piece of plywood just plinking away.  We had a number of outside cats, and one named Boots (my cat) was running around in the area behind the target board.   After probably 100 shots into the target (over pumping to 13 pumps every shot) I sent another pellet through the target and heard a MEEEEOOOOWWW scream out from behind the board, I dropped my Riffle and ran to investigate, boots died in less than a minute (a heart shot).     The hardest loss of a pet ever.   It was made worse as my grandpa (my custodian at the time) made me clean, cook and eat Boots (as a lesson to only kill what you are going to eat).   He made a big point of it as when he gave me the gun he lectured me about safety, and making sure of the back drop, etc.

It was a hard lesson.  Though I am glad that after that fatal error, he took the time to make sure that I kept shooting.  Immediately after that worse supper of my life he took me outside had me make a better back stop and made me shoot at a paper target until I was out of pellets.  The next morning before dawn he woke me and handed me 20 tins of pellets, and told me that he expected me to use every one of them before Saturday, this was a Wednesday morning.  So I got a lot of practice that week, as they were 500 count tins (the old square tins), still to this day I do not know how I managed to shoot that many in only three days.

That Saturday we did the good kind of hunting (hunting Rabbit with one of his more powerful pump Air Riffles.  So while it was a bad initial experience it taught me a lot.  And because he made me keep shooting, and took me on a good hunt, I learned to love shooting, and respect safety.

And now 23 years latter I still enjoy shooting my Multi Pump Air Rifles.

Sounds like one heck of a guy.  Too bad everyone doesn't have a grandpa like that

[amb5500c]

Well, I guess I can tell ONE. LOL.When I was a little boy my Paw Paw took me to his brother's farm/ranch. (we went there a lot). Uncle Andrew had put up a bunch of Martin houses and I was told very clearly and harshly NOT to shoot any of the Martins. I had the go ahead for shooting any of the Starlings and Sparrows that were trying to take up residence in the Martin houses. Needless to say, I couldn't resist a shot on one of them Martins. I didn't know that I was being watched through the kitchen window. I got my butt beat pretty good for that one.
Richard

[Bryan Heimann]

     When I was a little boy, my mom had a boyfriend named Art.  He had an old German shorthair pointer named Snickers that he had since before he was old enough to drive.  She was the quintessential one-eyed dog, lost in a battle with a coyote she killed on his mom and dad's West Texas farm.  I loved Art, but I loved his dog more than life.  Art took me on my first rabbit hunt, and Snickers helped me get my very first rabbit.  It ran from us into a pile of PVC at his parent's farm, and Art lifted a pipe and shook it and out came that rabbit!  It hit the ground running, but I got a good lead, and smack!  Nailed it on the run!  It rolled and immediately started to scream.  Snickers snatched that bunny up in a flash and shook the life right out of it, then proudly trotted to me and Art with her prize.  Probably saved me from a lot of guilt over wounding a animal.  I was proud, too- my very first bunny!  Wish I had a picture.  Snickers was a great dog.
     Anyway, fast forward a few months- I am blasting away aimlessly into the dark, at night, with my then-new Crosman 66 powermaster in the back yard when I heard a yelp.  I ran to find the dog, but she wouldn't let me come near her.  I was so ridden with guilt.  I ran to tell mom what I'd done, I was so scared of where I hit snickers.  I worried she might die in the night.  I couldn't see any blood anywhere, but by then I'd killed a lot of critters with BB's and they usually didn't bleed much- if at all.
     Mom didn't seem mad at me.  She was more worried about snickers.  I guess the way that I was bawling she figured that the guilt was punishment enough.  When her boyfriend got home the next day, mom made me tell him what I had done. He screamed at me, and I could tell he wanted to tear my butt up, but he didn't- probably on account of my mom.  I still never recieved any punishment, and I even got to keep my gun- which I kept in my own room and pretty much took it out whenever I felt like (up to that point, every single day). I had kind of hoped they would take it away because I felt so bad about what I'd done that I felt I didn't deserve to keep it.
     Mom and Art broke up a week or so later, but Art let me keep Snickers.  The dog and I were inseparable.  Mom couldn't even spank me with the dog in the room, because if ANYONE even looked at me ugly her hair would stand up and she would bare her teeth and growl.  But after that day she became gun shy, and couldn't hunt anymore.
     It didn't take long before it became business as usual with me and my pellet gun, but snickers wouldn't come near if I had it in my hand.  I'd ruined her.  I never got over it, either-  I still feel sad about it to this day, over 25 years later.

[Funnyrunner]

Two nephews, aged 6 & 7 at the time, got BB guns for Christmas. Unfortunately they also had BB's in the package and by the time my sister got up Christmas morning, they had shot every ornament off of the Christmas tree. Never give a BB gun and BB's in the same package unsupervised!!!

[dpr]

We lived on a dead end street. When I was about 12 they put the road through and put up a street light right across the street from my bedroom. The light shined in my room at night and drove me nuts. So after about a month of that I came home from school and my mom wasn't home so I went out in the back yard and waited until no cars or people were around and shot out that street light. It just poked a hole in it and nothing fell down. It was great, it took the city about 3 or 4 years to notice it was out. By then a tree had grown enough to mostly block the light. I never told my parents that I had done it until a year or two ago and it was 30 or so years ago I did it. Funny enough my dad thought it was fine because the light shined right in my room, but 30 years ago I'm sure he wouldn't have! The statute of limitations has probably run out but I'll take the 5th on what city it took place in any ways...

And then there were all the BB gun fights we had in the field next to the house. I'll never tell my folks about that. How no one got more than a welt I'll never know.

[45Bravo]

I didn't get in trouble for it, but when I was about 15, my friend and I was shooting pigeons in his grandpa's barn (with his permission)

After we cleaned out the vermin that day, we were outside plinking.

His grandpa came over and asked to see the guns we were using, Charles was using an old crosman 760, I was sporting a daisy 880(metal receiver, and pump handle) with a bushnell .22 scope on it.(remember the one with the dovetail on the bottom, that ran the entire length of the scope tube?)

His grandpa asked was I any good with the rifle, I opened my big 15 year old mouth and said yea.
He asked if I could hit the bull in the next corral in the butt, I said "I can hit him in the nuts from here"

The old man asked if it would penetrate them, I said no I can reduce the pumps to just make it sting..

He said do it, I pumped it 5 times, and took about a 25 yard shot.

Through the scope I saw the sack twitch with the pellet impact, and the bull bellowed and ran across the corral.

The old man was laughing so hard I thought he was going to keel over..

He said that bull was one of the meanest bulls he had ever owned, and it was good to be able to inflict some pain his way...

[tweedking]

awesome, i just wanted for you guys to admit your faults and be a kid on the inside.....

[stevemag]

I was 8 years old and had just been given my first Air Rifle (A Crosman 760 if I remember correctly) with a tin of pellets, and I was shooting at a hand drawn target on an old half rotten piece of plywood just plinking away.  We had a number of outside cats, and one named Boots (my cat) was running around in the area behind the target board.   After probably 100 shots into the target (over pumping to 13 pumps every shot) I sent another pellet through the target and heard a MEEEEOOOOWWW scream out from behind the board, I dropped my Riffle and ran to investigate, boots died in less than a minute (a heart shot).     The hardest loss of a pet ever.   It was made worse as my grandpa (my custodian at the time) made me clean, cook and eat Boots (as a lesson to only kill what you are going to eat).   He made a big point of it as when he gave me the gun he lectured me about safety, and making sure of the back drop, etc.

It was a hard lesson.  Though I am glad that after that fatal error, he took the time to make sure that I kept shooting.  Immediately after that worse supper of my life he took me outside had me make a better back stop and made me shoot at a paper target until I was out of pellets.  The next morning before dawn he woke me and handed me 20 tins of pellets, and told me that he expected me to use every one of them before Saturday, this was a Wednesday morning.  So I got a lot of practice that week, as they were 500 count tins (the old square tins), still to this day I do not know how I managed to shoot that many in only three days.

That Saturday we did the good kind of hunting (hunting Rabbit with one of his more powerful pump Air Riffles.  So while it was a bad initial experience it taught me a lot.  And because he made me keep shooting, and took me on a good hunt, I learned to love shooting, and respect safety.

And now 23 years latter I still enjoy shooting my Multi Pump Air Rifles.

Please tell us you were kidding about you grandfather making you eat your pet cat you accidentally shot...that's so messed up,so wrong on so many levels,  I hope your ok now .

[mtsheron70]

Sadly I shot the little song birds and I regret ever doing that.  I wish I had not because I shot them just to shoot them.  My mother went off on me and rightfully so.  Today, I enjoy the birds and only shot one which was a mocking bird because it kept using the bathroom all over my deck and railing and I tried running it off but found out they are territorial and don't leave a area.  So my D34 took him or her out one day.  I really felt bad having to kill the bird but it was making a mess of my porch/deck/and railing.

That said another one is back and hangs out.  I am just leaving him alone and don't care this time.

Oh well.  Now I shoot paper and steel swingers solely.

[Chako]

Two nephews, aged 6 & 7 at the time, got BB guns for Christmas. Unfortunately they also had BB's in the package and by the time my sister got up Christmas morning, they had shot every ornament off of the Christmas tree. Never give a BB gun and BB's in the same package unsupervised!!!

Wow

[tweedking]

Two nephews, aged 6 & 7 at the time, got BB guns for Christmas. Unfortunately they also had BB's in the package and by the time my sister got up Christmas morning, they had shot every ornament off of the Christmas tree. Never give a BB gun and BB's in the same package unsupervised!!!

i would have done this but when i was 6 i got a daisy 105 or such, and sent outside. i remember pouring the whole tube into the bb mag. and shot at the bb package tube for a few hours....

...and it was never in my hands all the time till i was 12 and we moved to the country.......
 
although i did bad things with that daisy.....  windows, brothers, neighbor-kids......etc.

opaque shower-door + bb = spider-webbed,  10,000 tiny pieces the size of fish-rocks..... don't tell my mom.....

[reservoirdogs12]

My father has always been a blackpowder shooter (he builds them out of kits) and used to take me to the woods while he tested out his latest build. I'd get to take my daisy lever action with and plink while he did his own thing. One time when I was in kindergarten he decided to go off on his own for whatever reason to check something to the point where he was out of sight. I was sitting on a stump fiddling with the cocking mechanism when this giant buck comes out of nowhere and stares me down from maybe 10 feet away. I was paralyzed with fear. Luckily the encounter was brief (even though it felt very long) and the deer ran off. I took a potshot in its general direction and I can tell you these days I'm glad I missed.

[Terry]

Geeze you guys make me n my brothers look tame! Worst I ever got into trouble for wasn't even my fault (I still maintain it was self defense!) I was maybe 10, if that, had my newish Daisy, comparable to the Buck, but with a cheap plastic stock. I'd saved up allowance and odd job money for at least a month to buy that gun.

So me and my big brother are in the back yard plinking cans and such toward the field beside our house, and he turns and pops me in the butt with his Crosman 760. (3 pumps or so only, he could be mean but smart enough not to do real harm). So I proceed to return fire, levering about 4 to his one as he quickly jumps behind our boat, and I behind the burn barrel. (the boat was an old wooden hull job dad got really  cheap to fix up. We never did get it in the water)
This battle must have gone on for at least 10 minutes, me plucking at his legs while he tried to pump that gun and load a bb then ducking behind cover when he tried to fire. (he had pretty heavy jeans on so Im not sure how much he felt my hits). About then we hear the back door to the house close and Mom shouts "Alright boys. Bring me your guns!"

My self defense argument dint get me anywhere, seems I should have been a rat and went crying to mommy instead of returning fire..

Still, we got them back in a couple weeks. We were smarter every other time we decided to have BB gun wars, (and a whole lot luckier since we never shot one anothers eyes out). We didn't do it when mom was home till we moved onto the farm, then we were in the woods where we couldn't be seen.

[Terry]

My father has always been a blackpowder shooter (he builds them out of kits) and used to take me to the woods while he tested out his latest build. I'd get to take my daisy lever action with and plink while he did his own thing. One time when I was in kindergarten he decided to go off on his own for whatever reason ... Snip...

I just knew you were going to say you accidentally shot your dad! I'm thinking he'd have been a might bit displeased with you if you had!

[reservoirdogs12]

My father has always been a blackpowder shooter (he builds them out of kits) and used to take me to the woods while he tested out his latest build. I'd get to take my daisy lever action with and plink while he did his own thing. One time when I was in kindergarten he decided to go off on his own for whatever reason ... Snip...

I just knew you were going to say you accidentally shot your dad! I'm thinking he'd have been a might bit displeased with you if you had!

I got quite a frightening lecture about gun safety once prior to this incident when my dad caught me looking in the barrel of a gun around the same age. Nothing promotes gun safety at that age better than being shouted at.