I don't recall when I first started shooting, I think it was genetic. First gun was a Daisy "Spittin' Image 94" lever action repeater BB gun. First 22 I was allowed to use was my maternal grandfathers Savage 24. My first 22 was an Ithaca 49 single shot, the Martini actioned job. I had no supervision at all. That was a mistake on my parents part and I learned all about manning up and walking, with a sore backside, over to a neighbor and making heartfelt apologies for shooting things that were strictly verboten. It's not like I was shooting out windows or at their cats, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time and shooting in directions I never should had out of youthful ignorance, ie- stupidity. I was much, much stricter with my kids. First shotgun was that same Savage 24 410. Later my father bought the household shotgun, a Mossberg 500 20ga from Wards. My Ithaca was traded in on a Winchester 320 22 bolt gun, a truly lovely little rifle I never, ever should have parted with. My first "deer rifle" was a cut down 8mm 98 Mauser that weighed at least 350 lbs by the end of the day. A 6.5 Carcano that was absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly inaccurate was next in line. Your chances of hitting a refrigerator sized target at 50 feet were iffy, at 100 feet it was about impossible. That was followed by a Remington rolling Block 7x57 with an 18 or 20" bbl. I never had anything to shoot in it but reloads Dad got someplace that involved Norma cases and 160 bullets. No clue what was in those cases, but there was a lot of it. The fireball from the barrel alone may have been what started global warming! After that came a Sears badged 94 Winchester with a sort of mannlicher forend and a homebuilt 44 mag on a break open shot gun action. Somewhere in there Dad bought a T/C Contender with 22 mag and 44 "Hot Shot" barrels. The 22 mag worked pretty good. The 44 shot capsules took a couple pa'tridge, but the grip would darn near split the web of my hand with the full house loads we had. Shortly after Dad got a Bernadelli 22LR PPK clone. He played with the trigger and it would go full auto quite often. A Colt Army Special 32-20 followed that and I still have that one. Then I went in the Corps and things snowballed after that. I got into reloading either just before I went in the Corps or maybe just after I got out, probably after. I started casting then too. Lee "Whack a Mole" loaders and single cavity Lee moulds on the kitchen stove, lubing by hand with whatever grease/wax combo I could find, even fit GC's by hand and crimped them on with pliers. What a mess!
Was about 9 or 10 when Dad gave me that rifle as my own along with the stern warning that if I ever broke any of the safe shooting rules he taught me or worse did anything "wrong" with it I would die of old age before I ever got it back. I think he meant it too. 
