Who was your Firearms Mentor…

[AJMD429]

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For me, since my dad died when I was five years old and then we got evicted from our rental house because we owed back rent, and wound up moving next-door to the country place he’d grown up in because right before he died he put a down payment on the farm next-door, I wound up growing up in a heavenly rural setting.

But without a father, and my older brother left for college that year.

The good news for me was bad news for his friend, who was also headed off to a distant college, but got in a nearly fatal collision en route and spent the next six months in and out of the hospital. Once he recovered, he started part time at a closer college. Since he had come out to shoot with my brother (who really wasn’t all that interested in such things), as he recovered he decided to come out and shoot once he got my mom‘s permission. Of course by then I was seven or eight years old and happy to accompany him back to the sandpit that used to be a place the local brick companies sourced their material from. It made a fine impromptu shooting range, and over the years, my friend traded many interesting, odd, and fascinating firearms, and would bring them all out to shoot. He didn’t have much money, but he was the type that was willing to enjoy something like a pin-fire revolver, or under-hammer pistol “, for a few years and then trade it for something different to explore.

So over the years of a young kid, I got to see, handle, and fire, a lot of firearms fully grown adults have never even laid eyes on. But of course, most of the shooting was the classics like a Springfield 1903, an Garand, a Mauser 98, a 1911, a Browning High Power, and so on.

When I was a senior in high school, I got my first centerfire gun, which was a Ruger Super Blackhawk. Unfortunately, the day my mom was going to go buy it for me since she had to be 21 to buy a handgun, I had seriously injured my hands the day before, and they were all bandaged up. Nonetheless, I still had to get my prize and bring it home. But what to do about firing it? I’d never fired a 44 Magnum before, and with my hands bandaged up, I was not even sure I could get my fingers around it…!

So I called my friend Joe, and asked if he would be willing to deflower my new acquisition. It was an honor he could not turn down.

I did not fire the gun for a couple weeks, but at least got to vicariously enjoy that classic single action stand-up recoil…

Now, some 50 years later, I live back on the property where I grew up, and made that sand pit into a nice shooting range, complete with a range house with a built in sturdy two-person bench so I could teach my kids how to shoot. The right side of the range house is even enclosed in quarter inch hardware cloth to serve as a giant brass-catcher.

Joe passed away a couple years ago and left a legacy of family members and friends he taught about science and history, and particularly about firearms. I was one of them.

But the other day, I realized my fancy shooting range was missing something on one of the support posts, so I corrected it…

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My guess is most of us had some kind of a mentor like that. Be sure to appreciate them if they’re still alive, and if they’re not, try to continue their legacy the best you can….

[Scott Tschirhart]

Bruce Nelson was a good friend. He spent a lot of time with me at an old mica mine outside of Phoenix. That kind of individual instruction was further honed at Gunsite.

Bruce is gone and so is Jeff Cooper. Later I worked with Ed Head.

I miss them all.

[JimT]

Began with my Dad. I grew up thinking everyone knew you could hit targets at 300 or 400 yards. Stuff thrown up in the air .. we did a lot of aerial shooting when I was young. Moving targets. Draw and hit quick at close range. He was one of the best handgun shots I have ever seen.

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At the first Shootists Holiday 1986 .. my Dad shooting a can thrown in the air with his .357 S&W.

[Ysabel Kid]

My father, until he died when he was 16. A couple friends fathers also stepped up (first firing of a shotgun; first firing of a centerfire rifle). I passed the FBI qualifier at 18, supervised by one of my Dad's friends in the bureau.

[Streetstar]

For me - the US Army i guess?

Dad had a H&R 929 22 revolver and a Winchester Model 50 20 gauge (nice gun ) --- he was also a multi tour Vietnam vet but wasn't firearms-centric at all although he always pined for the days deer hunting with his Uncle George with a borrowed Winchester 30/30 --- he always remarked that Marlins were fat pieces of stuff-- fine for sitting in a treestand but not spot and stalk rifles --- years later - i agree, but the stipid fat Marlins are still better than a lot of modern alternatives, but i digress

I bought him a 30/30 later on (Winchester naturally --- but i was a young guy with his first job so it was a post 64 Ranger model -- brand new from Bass Pro or some such )

Dad didnt get a deer with that rifle but he was very solidly accurate with it offhand ---- it now has a spot with me until i move off to whatevers next


So -- except for being a country kid -- and always having a 20 gauge handy for an errant pest or whatever, --- didnt develop the firearms itch until later on my own

[jeepnik]

Pretty much dad and my uncles. But in particular I had an aunt who everyone had to admit was the best shot of them all. She grew up on a farm in Arkansas. As she told it, she only wore shoes when the snow was on the ground, and then they were usually hand me downs from her brothers Ione girl five older brothers). She came to California during the Dust Bowl. That's right, she wasn't a "blood" relative. But she was as much an aunt as any with blood ties. She spent her teen years as my mom's best friend. Her mother was my "grandma".

During the war she and my mom worked together at several different "defense" plants. It was there she met my uncle. Recently returned from the Pacific and minus a couple of fingers on his left hand, index and middle. No big deal except he was a southpaw. But he was another country boy, and next to his wife he could out shoot most folks with only a thumb and two fingers.

I have to say this. I grew up with some of the most amazing people to have ever walked this earth. I didn't realize it at the time because they were just family. It's sad these folks didn't realize just how special they were and put their lives to paper. We have a family oral history, but once my generation is gone, most of that will go with us.

[piller]

My dad only took me shooting for instruction one time. My two older brothers had already had quite a bit of time being taught. I guess he forgot who was who. My older brother's friends taught me most of what I knew, but Sam Curran, a Barber in Liberal KS, taught me more about shooting a shotgun than anyone else did.

[Bill in Oregon]

My Dad, who saw combat in the winter and spring of 1945 in southern Germany and the Sudetenland with the 97th Infantry, indulged my interest in firearms and hunting in my early years. I was probably about six when he got me up one morning early and said we were going to hunt pheasants in the fields near Corvallis, Oregon, where he taught forestry at Oregon State. And he surprised me with a totally unexpected gun of my own -- in this case, a Daisy "pop gun." He told me he would watch how I handled it to see if I was taking his safety lessons to heart. When he was satisfied with this, a couple of falls later, I got to carry his father's Iver Johnson single shot .410 in the uplands. For most of his life, Dad used the Winchester Model 37 16 gauge he bought with paper route money about 1938 as his only shotgun, and a sportered Springfield with Weaver K-3 as his only rifle. He had carried a scoped Springfield in WWII.
While Dad gave me the rudiments of safe gun handling, I really learned to shoot a rifle under the guidance of Sgt. Joe Ryan, USA, Fort Lewis. A member of the fort shooting team, he was a wonderful mentor when it came to classic four-position bullseye with .22 rifles and he was my Marksmanship Merit Badge counselor in Scouts, teaching me to shoot from offhand, sitting, kneeling and prone with the sling and a focus on breathing and trigger control. (Funny thing is if I got into most of these positions today, I'd need help getting up.)
When it came to handguns, I owe all I know to one man's writings: those of Col. Jeff Cooper, who wrote the handgunning section of Outdoor Life's "Complete Book of Shooting," featuring Jack O'Connor on rifles. I "bought" this book as a member of the Outdoor Life Book Club in 1965 at age 12 -- bought it because I didn't return it before the 10-day "approval" period had passed. You youngsters out there won't have any idea what I am talking about!
I must have read Cooper's chapters more than a dozen times, and still pretty much prefer the Weaver Stance for offhand that he described so well, as he often shot with Jack Weaver, Thell Reed, Eldon Carl and other giants of the handgun scene in the early 1960s.
So three mentors: my Father, Sgt. Ryan, and Col. Cooper. What a trio!

[GunnyMack]

I was a BIG kid, 185 lbs at 14 years old. I was going to be the center on freshman football team then I had a growth spurt and my knees couldn't keep up and developed tendonitis and that kept me in half casts for almost a year. Since football was out Dad decided that I needed something to do.One day Dad said we are going shooting. Yeah he did a little hunting in his youth. Got me a BB gun to terrorize the squirrels but never any mention of shooting or hunting.
That was the day I met Paul. A friend of Dads that had been a skeet/trap shooter from when he was a kid. He leased a bit of property behind a bar , put in a trap house and shot 2 nights a week.
Paul became a true mentor, he and his wife bought a range and myself and a couple of my buddies began shooting trap and Olympic trap 3 or more days a week. Paul would go out of his way to pick us up on his way home from work.
Paul is now 86 and we still talk at least monthly if not more. He has since moved to Missouri and still shoots 3 days per week.
Paul is/was a hunter, shooter of all disciplines, I remember him shooting clay birds with a 38, even a pheasant with 357 shotshells once, yes on the wing. He raised English Setters, he was also responsible for my first Labrador!
42 years later I'm still shooting, raising my own Labradors and playing with everything firearm related.

[marlinman93]

We had no guns in our house growing up, so nobody to mentor me. Not sure why, but from a very early age I loved every time we visited friends or family that had firearms as it meant I'd get to shoot them, or just look at them. I had one uncle who was an avid collector and he and my aunt owned a house with 5-6 small apartments next to their house. He didn't rent the one closest to their house as it housed his firearms collection. I still recall walking in there the first time at 6-7 years old and seeing rifles racked around the walls of every room, and file cabinets in the center with drawers full of old handguns! It was something I've rarely seen among any collectors I've met the rest of my life!
When he passed away I was only 15 years old and his son came and loaded up a big enclosed trailer and truck canopy with his entire collection and sold it all. I was devastated as I knew he didn't care about them, and only wanted the money they sold for. He probably got 10 cents on the dollar as he was ignorant to the values.
When my aunt died 32 years later we went to her house to clean it up, and I discovered my uncle's firearms records for his entire collection! He was big into old Colt revolvers and had numerous rare examples including two Walker Colts! He also had a lot of old muzzleloaders made by big name makers, and some later single shot cartridge rifles, and early lever action rifles also. I found records of letters he'd gotten from some famous names in gun collecting back in the 50's and 60's and saved all the records and correspondence in my library. Got some rare old books also, but strangely he didn't have a large library of firearms related books.
I guess he was the closest thing to a mentor, but he mostly just turned me loose in his collection and let me handle and look at whatever I wanted to.

[samsi]

Dad taught me to shoot a BB gun in the backyard but after that I was pretty much on my own. My earliest mentors were in print - Cooper, Skelton and Keith and I would experiment with what I'd read.

Later I became friends with the guy who would actually mentor me on the range, Viet Nam vet Marine, SWAT cop, and sometimes instructor at Gunsite and with Louis Awerbuck. He could use a shooting partner and I jumped at the chance to soak up the knowledge and experience. Sometimes he'd throw me a bone and let me beat him.

[Lastmohecken]

My dad lost his father when he was only 7 years old at about 1940 and he grew up hard, and trapped and hunted as a young man, and was a farmer his whole life. He taught me the basics, but he was not really into guns, he only owned 4 or 5 in his lifetime, my Mom's father loved to hunt, and I grew up hunting with him, some. My Dad's brother was 20 years older than my father and severed in WWII and stayed in the reserves after the war, and loved to shoot and competed at Camp Perry a lot in the 50's. I think I took after him, in the fact that I loved guns from an early age, and read all of the hunting magazines I get my hands on, actually, I Elmer Keith, Jack O'Conor, and Jeff Cooper were my real mentors, through their writings. In my early Twenty's I started shooting IPSC, back when it was more realistic, and not the game it is today, IMHO. But I had already worn out two revolvers, before I started shooting competition and had to have them both rebuilt. I shot NRA Bullseye, IPSC, and NRA Hunter Pistol, and later on some IDPA. I learned a lot from shooting those. I had one mentor for a little while, that helped me learn how to shoot IPSC, he was pretty helpful and taught me, enough that I was shooting B Class Revolver pretty quickly, and C Class with the 1911. I shot IPSC in NW Arkansas, and shot with Bill Wilson, and I wouldn't say he was my mentor, but I learned quite a bit, by just watching him shoot in the matches and visiting with him on occasion.

But mostly, I just had to learn by reading and teaching myself, through trial and error and asking questions, from older more experienced shooters, from time to time.

[Griff]

I suppose I've had various mentors over the years. Growing up, no guns in our house, except for an old single shot I found out years later. My dad viewed hunting as a chore, whereas fishing was for relaxing. He'd be sent out with a single shot and told to come home when he had however many squirrels to account for each shell he was given. Hunting & shooting held no appeal for him. My first encounter with guns was with my Dad's half brother, his Colt SAA and Winchester .38-55, around the time I was six. The rifle was far too big, but the handgun I could hold with my two hands, and my uncle held me. A pull of the trigger, and the big ol' hog fell over and became dinner! My 1st & only shot until boot camp. Whoever was the range master that day, taught us the fine art of aiming, breath and trigger control. I suppose my lack of preconceived notions made me listen and try to apply what was being taught. In that one day I'd qualified with both the M-1 & 1911. And had a little familiarization with the Thompson 1928. A Senior Chief Gunner's Mate on board ship, a civilian armorer with our Dept. in CA, a couple of fellow cowboy action shooters, who helped me by mentoring my wife & son, as my prior shooting only involved bullseye, skeet and hunting... mainly deer & coyotes. Mike Venturino who taught me about BPCRS & Sharps rifles, who habitually spanked my behind at long range, but succumbed to my quicker shooting at cowboy action! A fierce competitor that led by example the "Right Way" to foster competition. When I ran out of ammo after the third round in a 10 way shoot off at the NRA Nationals, he offered up bullets for me to reload and continue on. Easy I guess, as I wasn't in his class... but my shoulder had pretty much seen the elephant by the end of that 2nd day of competition, so I gratefully accepted my 7th place trophy and went home happy. 200 rounds of .40-90SBN ain't to be sneered at! Especially from the prone! Sent me an old mold of his to try... offered personal advice on sights, powders, loading techniques, etc. I learned very early on in my cowboy action career, that the "cowboy way" included offering guns, ammo, advice and encouragement (like, at the first match I attended). Mike V. personified that ideal.

I consider the many contributors to this forum to also be among those I've enjoyed learning from. Mostly from a distance, but on a few occasions, interacting in person. Exceedingly grateful to be invited to meet with several folks after the Friends of Billy Dixon shoot in 2008... I think I kept my mouth shut and absorbed more in that one evening than in many years of experimenting on my own. I think the biggest thing I've learned overall is to limit myself to what I know, and try to learn from those that are willing to share what they know!

[Walt]

I had a mentor of sorts, a friend who was a few years older than me who owned a lot of guns, particularly shotguns. His parents had been moderately wealthy, owning several motels along highway 66 in Grants and Gallup, NM. He was an outstanding skeet shooter, winning state championships in '69 and '75. Most of his early skeet successes were with a consecutively numbered set of D grade Remington 1100s. His father had a Browning Superposed with barrel inserts for 20, 28 ga and 410 that I found fascinating. His later skeet shooting was with a 4 barrel skeet set San Remo grade Krieghof. He could smoke 'em shooting behind his back, over his head and I heard from one of his friends that he once shot 600 straight without a miss.
Jack was a good rifle shot and a fair handgun shot. He introduced me to reloading and later to casting. We chronographed a few rounds using the only unit for personal use I had seen. It had single-use mesh screens and a large electrical box with probably 100 small lights that I believe required a user manual to decipher the velocity of the round shot through the screens.
He had some fine revolvers like a SAA Buntline in .45 Colt, an 8 3/8" model 27, same barrel length in a model 57 and many others.
He moved back to the Lake Texoma area where he was born and passed away from COPD in 2007.