doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Demographics-where you grew up, when, etc.

One post got me to wondering: Where do most of the hunters and shooters come from?

While I'm fairly confident that many of the members here may have come from small towns, I'm also of the impression that most here are not spring chicks either.

My take of the hunter/shooter today is that there's a huge hunting/shooting population within the Los Angeles/San Bernadino/Orange Co. area (mainly just because there are so damn many people) and sporting goods suppliers have barely touched it's market. BassPro being one that has ventured into the area with their Rancho Cucamunga store.

Nevertheless, where does our membership come from?

Country boy from northwest Missouri.

I shoulda started off... Wright-Patterson AFB,Dayton, Ohio, 1956. But was raised all over the place on AFBs. including Glasgow, MT where my Iowa born father started me and my brother hunting, then eventually to SoCal when I was 12. I didn't hunt again until at the age of about 16 it surfaced in me again when my brother and some friends started hunting local vacant city fields in the area south of Los Angeles late at night for cottontails with a bbgun. Sheeesh! The cops would lock up a kid for that now. But back then, they just let us off with a warning.

Well, Chuck, I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, having been born in Chicago. My dad was an Illinois State Police Captain and a crack pistol competitor. He brought me into the gun-loving fold by teaching me safety and care in the handling of firearms. I recall that as a child he let me examine his Smith and Wesson service revolver whenever I wanted to. He wasn't a hunter. But I sure was. With slingshots my buddies and I hunted cottontails in the undeveloped fields of an Elmwood Park Cemetary. We bagged squirrels, too. My mother demanded that we dress our game and then she would cook it for us. Never has food tasted so delicious as those rabbit and squirrel stews with parsley laced dumplings and brown gravy. My dad often dropped us off at a friendly farm where we'd hunt wild pheasants, rabbits, and the occasional pigeon that came in range of my 20 Ga. Mossberg 185K bolt action twenty gauge or my buddy's 28 ga. Iver Johnson Champion. When I graduated to an Elsie 12 bore double I was in seventh heaven. I am now 72 years old and have Chronic Lymphatic Leukemia and am a diabetic to boot. In March of 2007 I had a slight heart attack and got 5 bypasses. I am still on my hind legs and hunt at a private club (the Pintails) whenever I can still walk a few hundred yards. My grandkids are being brought up the same way I was: gun safety and good manners. My grand daughter is itching to go hunting and she is just 9 years old. She is a pretty good shot with the .22 S/W model 17 we bring to Michigan every year. So I guess you might say I am helping to bring to the fold a couple of new hunters. Their dad is a policeman in Highland Park, Illinois and was not a hunter until I brought him into the fold. He is teaching his children respect for game animals and firearms. Anyway, that is the story of how I came to be an inveterate hunter and gun lover. I only wish there were entry level doubles around like when I was a kid. Sorry for the long post. but thankful that we have such forums. Chopperlump, AKA Ed Dvorak Jr.

St.Louis 'burbs, but close enough to unpopulated areas to shoot and hunt small game. A pocket full of 22s and a Stevens rifle.

I first saw the light of day in the outskirts of a small town in Jackson County Ohio, called Wellston, in 1935.. I liked to hunt grose, quail and rabbits from about the age of 11, However it became more of a duty than a sport, as I had 8 siblings and the meat was very much needed.. I roamed the South for 40 years, but now live in Vinton County, about 20 miles east of where I was born...MDC

I was a city kid. Near hippie, raised as a democrat. Family had strong union ideals. They did send me to college, but that only lasted a year since the school didn't offer what I really wanted. Poor choice of university, my own fault.

Decided to work my way through flying school, and my idology completely changed when I entered the workforce. Under the tutelage of a real hard working independent businessman I learned what America is really all about.

One of my first flight students was a trapshooter. First real gun I ever fired was a Ljutic. Hooked instantly, though I could only afford to shoot in very moderate quantities.

Naturally, the gun clubs exposed me to a world I didn't even know existed. Great experience, great people, and another great education. Better than any university culture to be sure.

SGJ

I was actually born in theCity of Chattanooga, TN but at about age 1 we moved back "North" to a Bedford Co TN farm (Southern Middle TN). Dad sharecropped for several years & when I was eight he bought the farm in rural Moore Co (Lynchburg, Co seat), a portion of which I still live on. My hunting began at home, & consisted of Squirrel, Rabbit & Quail. We now also have Deer & Turkey but these were "Re-Introduced" much later. Occasionally some Woodcock will stop over, but this is rather unpredictable.
I am now 70 & in 19897 was diagnosedwuth Non-Hodgekins Lymphomia for which I underwent Chemo. Made a full recovery & went back in the work force until retirement. Though I have never felt "Bad" since it simply Zapped a lot of my strength & endurance which I was never able to fully recover.
I had a Dr's appointment for check up on 9-11-01, & on the night of the 10th had to carry my wife to emergency room with chest pains. While the planes were flying into the towers, she was being diagnosed as needing a triple by-pass & me as a diabetic, a day we shall never forget. I still enjoy an occasional short hunt, but simply cannot hold out for a lot of walking, particularrly in the hilly terrain around here.

Born and raised in Potter County Pennsylvania, population 16,000 then and now. I learned to shoot and hunt in the 70’s with a Remington 581. During my youth I shot deer with a .222, .22 Savage Hi-Power, 30-30, and a .30-06. Birds and rabbits were downed with my dad’s Ithaca Model 37 12 ga. When I was 16 I bought a Savage Fox-B with 24” barrels. It was deadly on fast rising pheasant nailing them within 10 yards.

Life has taken me far from the fields and forests of my youth. Ten years ago I retired from the Marine Corps taking a job with a prestigious consultancy. After 9 years in the Washington DC area I finally had had enough and “ASKED” my company to transfer me to a more rural area. I guess I came back to my youth by moving to Michigan. Oh, there isn’t access to every farm and forest as in Potter County but if I ask farmers in southeast Michigan I can gain access. Or, I can drive to what Michiganders refer to as “Up North” for miles and miles of public forests. It’s actually central Michigan mostly within 50 - 75 miles of Grayling (remember Fred Bear of archery fame).

I had the occasion last year to introduce a young man to duck hunting. After his first goose using a borrowed shotgun he was hooked!

Our tradition is best when passed down to subsequent generation with strong emphasis on safety and conservation.

I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks of Tulsa as depicted in the S.E. Hinton novel & movie "The Outsiders". It is a highly accurate story of the environ I grew up in. I lived closed enough to the country to hunt small farms and fish in the stock tanks. I have lived in the general area all my life and have been fortunate enough to hunt and shoot to my hearts content....almost.