When I was 11 or 12, I remember piling into a car with my friends and one of their older brothers, who was the driver as he was 16.
We took his Father’s rifles and shotguns to a big empty lot/forest on the edge of town, and proceeded to blast away at cans, bottles, etc...
A cop from our town, who probably heard the shooting, drove by. I remember him looking us over, and asking, Who owns the guns? We replied: “Sammy’s Dad, Officer.”
He simply said “OK boys, be safe.” and he left.
PGR88, I grew up in the South and had a very similar experience except it was plastic army men instead of cans and bottles. (And now I am going to get packed off to Diversity Re-Education Camp for saying “army men.)
I won a turkey when I was ten years old. My dad was so proud. Not my first turkey shoot, though, not by a long shot. You can imagine the shocked, even horrified expressions these days when I even say “turkey shoot.” You know you are living in the modern age, though, when you explain what a turkey shoot is, and the horrified expressions don’t fade away!
My best buddy borrowed his grandfather’s shotgun when we were in grade school and we took it up the road for some target practice. We only had three shells. In WV kids can still do that. Not long ago I saw a kid walking along the road with a .22.
It’s good to be rural and in WV.