My father told me that he went hunting when he was 6 with a .22 rifle, his 4 year old brother was given a .22 pistol and his 9 year old brother led the group with a .410 shotgun which is a lower powered shotgun for bird hunting with bird shot. They brought back a robin which their mother cooked for them to show they did something even though my father said the robin they had to spit pellets out of the meat. This was 1922 when my father was 6.
Then in 1956 when I was 8 my grandmother from Texas gave me my father's Remington .22 pump which could shoot about 17 bullets in quick succession with one shot after each pump of the rifle. I kept the rifle and the bullets in my room like all the other 8 to 10 year old boys in the 1950s that I knew then. However, this was an honor if the family trusted you with a gun. Not everyone got one. Only the most trusted boys were allowed guns then. You were expected to protect the family from bad people and varmints and in however you needed to. This has always been the idea for hundreds of years in this country and before that in Europe and other places on earth. IN some families you were expected to hunt deer or rabbits or whatever was available for food wherever you lived on earth. It's likely still this way many places around the world.
By the time I was 10 I could hit anything with a bullet up to 100 yards away. With a scope I was even better further. This is a skill you don't usually lose sort of like riding a bicycle. For many boys this led to fighting in the Viet Nam War and more my age died than any other who were born in 1948. 50,000 died over there and came back in body bags on planes then.
But, being a sharpshooter is a skill that can be useful in some situations during your life.
But, I'm very grateful I never had to go to war or shoot at anyone because I'm not sure I could live with that. Many many couldn't live with that who did.
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