Good Ole Fashion Giveaway - Winners Posted

[Insanity Required]

Favorite would probably be when my boys then 9 and 6 fired their first shot. After that would be the mg42 or the thompson or getting my own first gun, or or or.....

[lone-wolf]

Well, as for an embarrassing moment since I'm one of the lucky mods, I don't have much but last year for the ipsc training and first match - my uber reliable 1911 turned into the fable 1911 jamaholic once it was under oiled and out in some heavy rain.
I got some satisfaction from other pistols ending up the same, but my ego was still struck.
The next day was the first ipsc match, and on the first stage I was using some borrowed 8rd magazines. Into the prone position on a bench I go, squeeze the trigger, and click.
Half a dozen tap - rack but no bangs later, and I finally ditch the bad magazine and complete the stage with my time and ego in shatters.

[elliott264]

My favorite and most cherished gun moment was a group trip to our local shooting hole and having my then 12 year old son (now 16! Time flies!) teach and demonstrate firearms safety to about a dozen friends and family members and then him helping his younger cousins take their first shots. I was a very proud Dad that day

[willis]

When I took my PAL course, way back at the start of the Firearms Act. Late 90's I guess. it was a weekend course. Starting Friday at say 6:00 - 10:00 and pretty much a full day Saturday. It was hosted at a local indoor gun range. On the Saturday a fellow comes in to do some shooting with his Thompson Sub Machine gun. This course had a lot of, cover a chapter, and then spend the next 45 minutes or the next hour reviewing it by yourself. During one of these lulls in learning, the gentleman comes out and asks "Anybody want to try it?" While pretty much the rest of the class looked around sheepishly at the instructor, wondering if it was ok, I was up there like a shot, pick me! pick me! He handed me the Tommy gun and a mag, said, the muzzle is going to tend to try to raise up on you, and, have at er. Thinking back I'm not even sure if any of those rounds even found paper, but was it ever fun. It was then that I regretted not taking my RPAL at the same time. I eventually did challenge the test and upgrade to my RPAL.

[Hidyn]

My favorite firearms moment is actually one of my earliest memories. I have no idea how old I was at the time.

My parents took me on a walk down the midway at the Calgary Stampede. I have no idea why, as my parents both lean a bit to the left, but they decided to let me have a go at the 'shoot out the star' game.

I was so small that I had to rest the stock on my shoulder to reach the trigger and I seriously doubt that I had any concept of sights.

All that I remember is the rat-a-tat-tat of that little BB machine gun and the bits of paper flying! It was glorious!

Clearly I wasn't even remotely interested in trying to accomplish the actual objective and the guy at the booth was so entertained that he gave me a free reload, and off I went again!

My mom laminated that little bullet-ridden piece of paper for me and it was my most prized possession for years. A few decades later I went back with a girlfriend, and relived the memory! The guns are a lot tinier than I remember.

That day fostered a lifelong love of guns.

And a deathly fear of clowns.

My parents also took me through the %#&*'ing funhouse.

[blacksmithden]

There have been so many...... ROFL !!!

I was once shooting off my big mouth at the range about how my Norc 1911 Govt wasn't the nicest, most accurate pistol ever, but it NEVER jams. I hand it to a guy (cop) to try out. The thing jams on the second round.

I can't comment on the circumstances, but I once fired (on purpose) a 300 win mag with a muzzle brake on it inside a very small enclosed space with no hearing protection on. That's one to never repeat, trust me.

I was out deer hunting with my Browning BAR semi-auto and spotted a deer. All my cartridges were in my pocket. No wait...it gets better....did that TWICE in the SAME DAY !!! Shut up Rottweilerboy !!! LOL !!

I was new to bullet casting and thought I could get away without using gas checks on the 30-30 rounds I was shooting out of my Winchester 94 lever. Me + cleaning rod and brush + MANY hours = You could see the barrel rifling again.

I didn't know the first thing about an SKS. I bought one and started to take it apart to clean it. I can't remember why I wanted to take it off, but couldn't get the front sight off. In a moment of frustration, I took a grinder to it. As it turns out, that spring inside is a necessary part. LOL. I gave the gun to Haywire1 for parts.

I drove 1 hr 10 min to the range with about 10 guns and left ALL my ammo sitting on the garage floor. I was so mad at myself, I drove all the way home, grabbed it, and drove back to the range. 4 hrs and 40 minutes drive time for a few hours of shooting.

I once lined up a bunch of milk jugs full of water on a plank. I laid down and shot them at a distance of about 2 ft with my 44 mag revolver to see how many it would go through. If it wasn't the middle of winter, the shower I took wouldn't have been so bad.

I was using the floor of my service truck as a casting bench, and the power inverter to run the lead pot. My retired neighbor came over with his dog and started chatting to me. Rather than being distracted while casting (safety first !) I decided to shut off the inverter until he had left. I jumped into the back of the truck, clicked off the inverter. When I took a step back, I knocked 5 lbs of molten lead all over the back of my truck, the driveway, and splashed the side of Mrs BSD's 1 year old van. By some miracle, I didn't get my neighbor or the dog. Many hours with a pick and needle nose pliers, and I had most off it off the driveway.

The one I'll enter with.....

I was making (welding) a tool to make the trunnion straps for mini-canons. I set the garage and myself on fire. One 20 lb fire extinguisher, a trip to the local emergency room, a few trips to the burn unit downtown for cleaning and debridement, lots of drugs, many hours of cleaning, and 3 weeks of painful healing, and all was good again !!!

[fireguy]

My favourite was getting to fire a friend's Desert Eagle in .50AE... wow!!

It was also an embarrassing one (of many!) - he had actually put the safety on, and here I am slowly squeezing the trigger waiting for that awesome recoil. Squeezing... squeezing... pulling... crushing. Nothing. I look over, big smile on his face, "Safety's on". Har-de-har-har... . And of course, he was making a video of the whole debacle

[Auto-man]

My Favorite story is also my most embarassing. So if the Mods have to do it, I guess I can too.

When i was 18 my Dad and I went out hunting on opening day of duck season. I was having a hard time hitting anything at all. Dad reached in my bag and pulled out some of my shells, and said "Here's why you can't hit anything, you're using Magnums, and they're causing you to flinch". Of course I was hurting, but stubborn as we all are at that age. I said " That's not it. I never flinch!". A while later I went to go to the bathroom out behind the blind. While I was gone, he took the shell out of the chamber on me. It wasn't long before a pair of Woodies came in and I swung up on them. CLICK. I ran out through the front of the blind and did a header into the pond. My Dad laughed until he couldn't breathe. "Don't flinch huh?". We laughed about that for years.

[Magmalis]

My favourite gun moments was taking my 4 year old to the range shooting. He had shot a .22 before but he just pulled the trigger a bunch and liked to hear the shots go off. This time he wanted to make some targets with holes in them like dad does.

I set him up on a target at about 15 yards and he started plinking away with a couple of my different rifles. He was doing well but stopped after about 10 minutes.

“Dad I want to shoot your big gun at the far away paper.”

I was shooting my 300wsm at 200 for some practice just before I set him up. “Sorry bud that gun is too big for you”, I said pointing to it.

“Not that one dad, your big one in the truck.”

I brought a few extra guns like I always do because you never know who is at the range and I like showing off and bragging about my rifles so I had my fancy .223 with me. It’s super heavy with a 30 inch varmint barrel and had a bell and Carlson target stock on it with a big old Nightforce b.e.a.s.t. to top it off so I figured sure.

“Yeah, you can shoot that one.”

I got the rifle out and set it up on the bipod and a shooting bag on the back, pointed it at the target and let him have at it.

The brat put a 6” group a little left of the bullseye on the 100 yard target with his first 5 rounds and wanted the magazine filled up to the top with ten rounds. After shooting some more mags he has another bright idea.

“Dad I want to shoot something else.”

“Like what?”

“I want to shoot a deer.”

“Well we can’t do that, it’s not hunting season but I think I have some change in my pocket. Do you want to shoot a nickel?” I asked

“Ooo dad I shoot shoot a quarter it has a deer on it!”

I giggled a bit and agreed. I went out to the 15 yard target to set up the quarter and he was right behind me. “No dad at the far paper.” So we went out and set it up.

I gave him the fresh 10 round mag thinking he would never hit the thing and he shoots his first shot like 1 millimetre low into the wood supporting the quarter and the second shot goes left of center right through the damn caribou’s head. I couldn’t believe it.

He carried that quarter with him everywhere to show off to everyone but eventually lost it.

He is now 8 years old and will never let me go to the range alone! He shoots my 9mm pistol, 12gauge shotgun, AR 15s, and has his own .22 to shoot dirt rats. He wants to shoot a chicken, then a duck, then an eagle.

We have convinced him eagles are not for shooting, so now it’s a deer on the list.
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[RemmyPCR700]

Firearms and the love of both hunting and shooting sports helped rekindle the relationship between my uncle and I. We hadn't talked but once a year, if that, until about 2 years ago. That's when I received my PAL in the mail.
My uncle has been a shooter and hunter for about 45 years. I'd heard the stories from some of my other family members about some of his trips and his skill as a shooter. Being new to the firearms community, I reached out for advice on what my first purchase should be. About 2 weeks later he showed up at my door with his Remington 870 and an old Winchester .30-.30 lever action. Both had been well loved but very well maintained.
"I'd like you to have these. Guns should be kept in the family." He said.
I was both honoured and VERY grateful for such a generous gift.
And so began our relationship. After nearly 25 years, we're now more like father and son than uncle and nephew. We shoot together at least 3-4 times a month and spend countless hours talking about shooting, hunting and reloading. We trade reloading supplies as we work up our loads. We surprise each other with little gifts of bipods, bullets, powder, and other little treats.
Rekindling our relationship has been something that we both cherish deeply. The laughs we now share are priceless. My only regret is that we didn't do this sooner. My favourite firearms moment is actually many moments. Ones that I never could have imagined would have happened all happened because of a shared love of firearms.