How old are you?

[Angelfire]

61 and 361 days old, but feel 85 bodywise - but only 20 ish mind wise.

Like many others I suspect, started with a catty, bow and arrow, air gun, .410, single 12, double 12, (.22rf farmers who I worked for) and then ever upwards. As a local farm worker I could walk around most farms in the area - for nothing other than a hand at harvesting, haymaking and tatty picking. Halcyon days to look back on.

Angel.

[phaedra1106]

I refuse to give my current age as it would spoil the surprise when I turn 56 in June

Like most started I off with air rifles in my early teens then got into full bore pistols in my mid 20s, then rifles and clay pigeon until getting married and having my Autistic son took priority. 15 years later it was my sons interest in shooting that got me started again with clay pigeon and now we both shoot small and full bore rifle and pistol.

[Ovenpaa]

I refuse to give my current age as it would spoil the surprise when I turn 56 in June

Like most started I off with air rifles in my early teens then got into full bore pistols in my mid 20s, then rifles and clay pigeon until getting married and having my Autistic son took priority. 15 years later it was my sons interest in shooting that got me started again with clay pigeon and now we both shoot small and full bore rifle and pistol.

It is nice to shoot alongside your son, mine started with air rifles and moved onto 9mm pistol with me when he was 15 followed by clays. These days he shoots an Accuracy International to 1200 alongside me. Always a pleasure.

BTW, on the grounds I am only 55 come October I look on you as an old git :lol:

[phaedra1106]

I shall continue to be mildly offended at that title until June, after that it's fair enough

He's my middle child (well he's 22 in June!) and while his condition can make life difficult it's such a part of him as a person that I can't imagine him any other way. I've been his sole carer since his mum left 6 years ago, he has very little contact with her and won't visit or stay there so I have him virtually 24/7 365 days a year. Not easy as I have my own disabilities but we manage.

He applied for his SGC about 18 months ago as he'd been shooting clays since 2007 and rifle/pistol for the last 15 months with his NRA safe shooters card. Ww went to see his GP beforehand who said no problem as far as he could see so we applied, FEO came out and did the interview and said he was 110% happy with him. 3 months later no SGC so after ringing several times found out it was his GPs letter which was the problem.

Another GP at the surgery had written it, he'd only seen him twice in 20 years for an ingrowing toenail and has no idea about Autistic spectrum disorders, went to see the original GP (head of the practice) and he's changed his tune to "well I don't remember that, sure you just mentioned it in passing as you were leaving", we didn't, we had a 50min appointment with him and went over everything in his notes.

I rang the firearms head and explained that the GPs letter was complete rubbish, he'd even mis-quoted what was said in his transistions team report into something totally different which made him look bad. They agreed to let us withdraw the application as a refusal would have stopped him shooting.

We're now trying to get a proper assessment done and will use that to overide the GPs letter but it's taking time, 18 months to get the first appointment and another 4 months for a second.

[greenshoots]

im 57 been shooting since i was sixteen air rifle.shotgun started full bore 10 years ago

greenshoots

[Blu]

Right well I've put 20 - 29 because when they ask, my wife tells the bairns she's 21 and as I'm a year older that makes me 22 :shakeshout:

Blu

[Dellboy]

I FEEL OLD NOW

[flash222004]

Hi, been shooting since as long as I can remember in one form or another (Am only 30 now so ancient! :-p) . Living on a farm was a good introduction to the sport and many a rabbit and pigeon was taken with my old air rifle. The first structured shooting I experienced was when I joined the Army Cadets at around the age of 13 and was a good grounding on shooting correctly and more importantly gun safety. Have been shooting in different areas now since then and really enjoy the sport and the craic with other shooters. I am definatley an advocate of getting younger people into the sport but in the right enviroment and with the right supervision and teaching to begin.

[LeighC]

At 40 I'm definitely one of the "young 'uns" in my club, two new probationers started a few weeks back, 78 & 82! As much as I love listening to most of the stories and wealth of experience of the other club members, I do worry slightly about the future of our sport. I have tried to get a few younger friends (that sounds mildly creepy) interested, the cost seems to be a large factor with those significantly younger than me.

I don't know about other clubs, but mine doesn't seem to bend over backwards to attract new members - very few guest or open days available. Thinking back to when I was looking to start shooting, I contacted about half a dozen clubs within semi-sensible travelling distance and the one I'm now a member of was the only one that replied to phone messages or e-mails.

[PCal]

I am 22 and am the youngest person I know of in Both of my shooting clubs by 20 years.

I must say that I am fortunate that I had a good friend who helped me through the Licensing process otherwise Im not sure I would have had patience to go through with it. The other issue with young people and shooting is the fact that young people (myself included) increasingly have to be flexible and move around for work, the need to have a gun cabinet fix to your home can make things awkward when this is the case if you don't have parents who are prepared to allow you to site a gun cabinet in their house (fortunately mine are ok with this but I could foresee this being an issue with less understanding parents).

I also find it hard to get my friends to try shooting because of the rigidity of guest days at shooting ranges. My club has one guest day a month which is good however many clubs have very few and its hard to get my friends and my self to be free on the few guest days there are to attend.

All I can say is that if I ran shooting club I would bend over backwards and try to run as many guest days as possible to try and get younger people into shooting. It does worry me how few young people shoot.