My Dad got me into skeet (errr..."clay pigeon") shooting when I was about 8 or 9. I enjoyed it, but I think I saw it as strictly a sport. The guns themselves weren't what interested me. I had a little 28-gauge Harrington & Richard single-barrel shotgun which my Dad got me for my 9th birthday, because I was such a short and skinny little boy that that was all I could handle.
By the time I was 12 or 13, I started getting interested in the military, and modern firearms. My grandfather got me into pistol-shooting, mostly with his little .22 Ruger, but by the time I was 16, I was shooting his S&W 4506, Taurus PT92, and Walther PPK/S. I could never shoot consistent groups with the S&W (still can't), but I was decent enough with the Taurus and the Walther.
I also remember literally counting the days to my 18th birthday because I had wanted to own an AK-47 for as long as I could remember.