What made you start?

[APOModern]

A lot of experience and wisdom among this community, but I'd love to hear how people got their start and what made them pursue this community/life style. 

[Forty Rod]

Cisco and Pancho, Roy and Dale, and others from the earliest  time I can remember..... somewhere along about 1946-1948.

[Major 2]

A tad later than 4T Rod.... But I recall when neighborhood shootouts were with Hubley, Nichols & Mattel and on occasion plinking with a Daisy.
Moved to 22's learning to shoot safety with my Dad at 8 years old and still have that 22 Remington bolt action.

[greyhawk]

When I was not quite four my dad started me off riding the milk cows calf, we'd go early to the bails and he'd milk then on the way back would collar the calf, put on a bull rope and flank girth and away we would go, That went on for about 8 months and as that calf grew I got some good education but we were doin ok too - then one day the calf got turned out and the rodeo practice stopped - I didnt know but I found out many years later me mother saw us one morning, they had a real blue about it --- women!!!!
My early life I was a frustrated cowboy - at 15 I spent my first paypacket on a worn 92 winchester SRC 32-20 been messing round with cowboy guns in some form or other ever since.

Heres a story of frustration (dont belong here but what the heck)
I was ten - city cousins came to visit from Sydney - to see our gran in town was the story,  every summer for two weeks, their Dad (my uncle) was a tall spare built bloke, a nice natured feller and I sometimes wondered how a city dude (spent his woking life as a maintenance man at the railway workshops in western sydney) was so handy round the farm - specially with animals and he always wanted to help out around the place - so I am showing off to the city cousins with a big hat on me and trailing around a redhide stockwhip over my shoulder - I was half handy with it too for a kid - could crack it and do a couple minor tricks me Dad had showed me - so just out the back of the house and I am showing this red head gal cousin my age how ya do it - and ole uncle says "can I have a go with it?" . I handed the whip over thinking this city dude will likely take his ear off trying to show his kids how cool he is. Well he swung it back up over his shoulder - crack! high behind like a rifle shot  - then down in front low to the ground - bang - bang -bang - six times and I watched in awe as six of me mothers prize daisys lost their pretty little yeller flower heads like you cut em off with a knife. And there he stands lookin like a prize goose "jeez look at what I did yr mother will kill me!" ................ Dad told me later uncle was a ringer in the territory stock camps before he got married - could swing a stockwhip or ride a rough'un with the best of em ------(our northern Territory those days was like your wild west a hundred years previous)   
For twenty seconds that feller was transformed but ever after I felt sad for him - six kids and mortgage and penned up in the city !     

[Johnny McCrae]

In the early Fifties my brother and I used to watch Hopalong Cassidy on Saturday TV. We would strap on our Cap Pistols and make a fort out of the sofa pillows and then shoot the bad guys from it. There was a movie theater in our neighborhood that would play two B Westerns every Sunday. It cost $.11 (eleven cents) to get in. Lots of Johnny Mack Brown, Roy and Gene. I sure miss those good old days.

[APOModern]

In the early Fifties my brother and I used to watch Hopalong Cassidy on Saturday TV. We would strap on our Cap Pistols and make a fort out of the sofa pillows and then shoot the bad guys from it. There was a movie theater in our neighborhood that would play two B Westerns every Sunday. It cost $.11 (eleven cents) to get in. Lots of Johnny Mack Brown, Roy and Gene. I sure miss those good old days.

My father has stories like that.  Sounds like that a much different time.  Thanks for sharing

[AlecBeach]

A lot of experience and wisdom among this community, but I'd love to hear how people got their start and what made them pursue this community/life style. 

Surprisingly my inspiration came from Fallout New Vegas. I just love the CowBoy feel to it all. Feels nice to wear a CowBoy hat and a bandoleer with my Dan Wesson .357. Feels good to have a Big Iron On my hip.

[APOModern]

Surprisingly my inspiration came from Fallout New Vegas. I just love the CowBoy feel to it all. Feels nice to wear a CowBoy hat and a bandoleer with my Dan Wesson .357. Feels good to have a Big Iron On my hip.

Gotta love when aspects of fantasy become reality. 

[AlecBeach]

Gotta love when aspects of fantasy become reality. 

What kind of revolver do you have? Mine is a Dan Wesson 357 but i've fired all sorts. .38, .44, .500Mag. Etc.
That .500 was fun and I miss it....

[APOModern]

What kind of revolver do you have? Mine is a Dan Wesson 357 but i've fired all sorts. .38, .44, .500Mag. Etc.
That .500 was fun and I miss it....

Just a simple .38 snub nose.  Dad's favorite.  Works like a charm

[Mogorilla]

Yay Alec, I loved New Vegas.   Currently on my 3rd walk through on Fallout 4.  We can't talk about the amount of time devoted to Skyrim.  
For me, I was born late 60s.   Tail end of the era when every network had at least one western.   It just caught me right off.   There is a picture of me at 3 years old Christmas 1969, I have a fancy cowboy suit and a fancy double gun rig, and I am full of juice.   Ran with some buckskinners in my teens, then bought a 1851 Navy soon after I got married.   According to my wife, I have enough cap and ball pistols to alter the war between the states if my time machine project ever pans out.   Funny, as she is only including the ones she knows about.  HA.  

[APOModern]

What kind of revolver do you have? Mine is a Dan Wesson 357 but i've fired all sorts. .38, .44, .500Mag. Etc.
That .500 was fun and I miss it....

I also have a replica airsoft revolver for plinking around and practicing without live rounds.  Same as for my glock 17 thuogh I know they are worlds apart

https://modernairsoft.com/apps/omega-search/?q=dan+wesson+revolver


https://modernairsoft.com/collections/airsoft-pistol-glock

[Abilene]

For me it was a typical story, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Palladin, etc. and I had the Mattel Fanner 50's, etc.  My older brothers got a J.C. Higgins .22 rifle and I learned to shoot with that.  But then after school I was completely away from guns for 25 or 30 years.  After Texas got Concealed Carry passed, I got a gun for that in '98, and started shooting again and really enjoying it.  First it was self defense or carry pistols, then got into Colt Snake double actions.  I started reloading and was at the range every weekend punching holes in paper, but wanted something more.  My brother had a 1st gen 32-20 SAA that a dying friend left him, and I liked it so got a .44 Spcl Colt.  The keyboard player in my band told me about CAS in '99, and the rest is history.  I've gotten a little faster over the years, but not much.  Still just as much fun, though.  The non-cowboy guns don't come out of the safe much anymore.  Except for next week when the Green Mountain Regulators has their Miami Vice shoot.  A regular cowboy shoot that can be shot with CAS guns as usual, but emulating Miami Vice is encouraged.  Any guns may be shot, as long as the bullets are lead and within velocity limits.  I usually shoot Python, King Cobra, Diamondback, Annaconda, 1911, and use a Buckmark .22 with red dot sight for all the rifle targets.  Plus they use Wild Bunch rules for semi-autos and shotguns, so the '97 can be stoked at the loading table.  Too much fun!

p.s. Greyhawk, I enjoyed the story about your uncle. 

[Mustang Gregg]

Raised on a ranch or farm...
I loved the old West history; 
The westerns on TV and movies;
Then I got into firearms and hunting; 
Cowboy guns was a natural.  So it goes----