Miller my dad wasn't a hunter either nor my two older brothers but my dad never discouraged me from my passion...BB guns at about 8...I was an expert Asian turtle shot. I squirrel hunted with an uncle a few times before I was 10...about 11 or 12 I was turned loose in the woods behind our house with my Remington 514 Targetmaster...about that time I got a .20 ga. Single
shot...nothing is as discouraging as blowing a squirrel out of a tall tree with a shotgun only to see it hit the ground and run off.
I quickly went back to my rifle.

Most all of the guns I had I had to buy myself...my first big rifle was a surplus 7×57 Mauser (maybe 30 or 40 bucks)...Sears sold 50 rd boxes of military ammo for about $3.00....I did a lot of practice.
I worked all the previous summer saved my money and bought the gun and ordered a Fajen stock....I had already joined the Outdoor life book club and purchased a few books on stock finishing and general gunsmithing finally fitted and finished the stock. I had a gunsmith drill and tap it and turned the bolt down and put in low scope safety. Topped it with the best Bushnell scope I could afford...about 20 bucks.

Turned out nice so nice my shop teacher talked me out of it...he started my next hobby gun trading. My next big gun was a 30.06 Remington 760 pump. I shot my first deer at 13 jumped him..chased him and hit him 3 times before the 3 point monster fell...I still have his horns.

Shotguning came later when I quail hunted with some older guys I worked with...sadly I was hooked on deer.

The need to learn to hit moving targets with a shot gun came when I got my turkey dog.