The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Just as the title suggests. How did you all learn to shoot, I mean it's a skill not many people have and not one that's easy to learn within the UK unless you in the Military or Armed Response.

I've not learnt so to speak. I know how to handle and use a firearm (forgive me still need to learn which words I should and shouldn't use) but mainly most of my shooting experience comes from my father military back ground, sadly I was never allowed to join up as my mother didn't like the idea, which makes sence I guess.

I'm not experburt but I do have a wealth of knowledge of types of guns and there operations, but honestly that another reason I'm here to learn from people with far more experience then I.

So as o said most of my experience comes from family and the military. So how about you guys/ladies :)

Join a .22 club, learn to shoot using a sling, enter a league, practice weekly, its not very exciting but you can afford it and it will give you the skills to do anything.

I think Orr is asking a general question on how we learned, or started, shooting....

For me, I started very young with my great-uncles air rifle... he would plant a spade in the ground, put the air rifle though the handle and let me shoot it... you can tell how little I was!!
From there I got various air rifles through my teens which taught me the basics of shooting, then joined the Air Cadets and shot .22s, .303s and SLR which improved my skills (and taught me about recoil!!).
In later life a spell in the Reserve Forces let me play with more toys, and i was "green carded" for every small-arm the RAF had in its armoury. When the unit was disbanded I carried on shooting competitively with pistol until 1997, rifles since then.

I don't think you can simply teach someone to be a great shot, they need to have some natural ability too... ( which is why I'm only mediocre )

I learned to shoot when I joined the Canadian Army (or as it was called then the 'Land Component' of the 'Canadian Forces') in 1974.

Sure am glad most of the fallout from that stupid unification has been done away, with and it is now the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy again!

Learned to shoot as a kid in Rhodesia .. Started with an air rifle aged about 5, then .410 and shortly after a .303, fn etc ..
There was a war going on ..

Webley Junior around 12, then my BSA Meteor Super at 15.....in the good old days when you could go to the woods and shoot all day and no one called the police and you could buy shotguns and air guns mail order! And an SGC from the post office (10/6d was it?)

Started in school.
Had to do rugby, cricket, rowing etc. for the first couple of years then we had a choice of what to do.
I looked down the list of available sports for something that didn't involve being stomped on, having hard balls thrown at you or run the risk of drowning....
SHOOTING!!! And you got to lay down while doing it!!! clapclap
Found out two things really fast....I seriously loved the sport from the start, and I wasn't too bad at it either
Started on the schools indoor range with a No.8 22RF then moved onto 7.62 a couple of years later.

Watching John Wayne on a Saturday morning at the La Scala fleapit!

I learnt at the post modern school of shooting, in the early 1960s of the internet.

Proper shooting was with the local small bore rifle club in the attic range of the local TA at the ripe old age of 15.