We were hunting (Deer, ducks, squirrels, and doves) at the ripe old age of 9.
If you were not by then, in our peer group, you were considered to be somehow in the shortbus group or just not safe to be around. We'd all been schooled in proper firearms handling, and a lapse in that discipline could get you a year off from hunting (and all the stigma that went with that), so that just. did. not. happen.