Three rural air rifle memories from my youth:I got my first air rifle at about ten, and a 22 calibre at about 13. (Don't tey any of these at home).

The first was proping shotgun shells and 22 calibre bullets up in wooden slots and trying to set them off with air gun shot, from a distance....(I don't recall us ever setting one off, though we may have)?

Second was throwing live 22 calibre shells in an open camp fire, and running behind trees before they shot off. It was scary at 13 years of age...maybe would be even now.

Third was a memory of trying to shoot a nuisance squirrel on the top of our farm barn from our back door. I had the squrrel in my sights and pulled the trigger. Just at that time, my fathers head popped up from the entry stairs...I got him top of his hairless head. I was in real trouble, and my father had a small head scar, where the air shot hit, for the rest of his life....a reminder (to me) of just how foolish it is to give a gun to a young person.

I inherited a few long guns. But, turned them all in to the police a few years back...to be distroyed. I'm not preaching. It was just the right thing to do for me, at that time in my life. I don't have any need to hunt or shoot anything. But, I now like taking pictures of animals I would have hunted in an earlier phase of my life.