How did you get started hunting?

[1911]

I become interested in hunting after reading some magazine articles in Field and Stream when i was about 13. I was always a big fisherman, thats all i ever did after school till it got dark. I told my parents i was interested in getting a gun and going hunting, and my parents had never owned guns or hunted so they were not too thrilled about the idea. My dad told me if i played freshman football, then when the season was over he would buy me a gun. I spent every game on the bench, yet went to every practice, and eventually became the proud owner of a Benelli Nova 12GA. I researched what i wanted to hunt first and decided that it would be squirrels at Wilbur Wright. My grandma was the one that made it all come together, telling me what trees to look for, what sounds to listen for, and driving me there and sitting in the car until i came back hours later. She ended up taking me almost every time i went until i was able to drive myself. I cant thank her enough for doing that, it has evolved into a passion of mine just like fishing. Who got you into hunting, and have you passed along what you have learned to anyone recently?

 

[Vince49]

Hardly remember.

I guess I was about six or seven years old. My weapon was a broom handle. Dad would send me down along the fence lines and brush piles to flush out rabbits,quail, pheasant etc. I WAS THE DOG! I was not allowed to carry a gun until I turned 12 and my little brother Bob inherited the broom handle.

 

[1911]

I guess I was about six or seven years old. My weapon was a broom handle. Dad would send me down along the fence lines and brush piles to flush out rabbits,quail, pheasant etc. I WAS THE DOG! I was not allowed to carry a gun until I turned 12 and my little brother Bob inherited the broom handle.

Wow, after 5 years Id be glad to pass that broom handle along. Must've been nice to enjoy the outdoors with your father though, mines always been a city guy and the closest youll catch him to the woods is on the TV or computer screen. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around nowadays

 

[clarky51]

I'm a lucky in that my dad was taking me hunting as soon as I could walk. When I was probably 7 he let me carry my pop gun in the woods and taught me gun safety. A year later I was allowed to take my BB gun deer hunting...those deer were lucky they didn't come my way...I would have shot thier eye out. Got a 20 ga single shot around 10 or 11 and my grandpa put the pressure on and I got a Remington 1100 the next year. Am eternally grateful to my dad and grandpa for passing along those skills. I took a friend rabbit hunting for the first time. He was blazing away all day and never drew a hair. Then when we went to clean the rabbit I thought he was goin to pass out. Fun times!!!

 

[halfmileharry]

Grew up on a farm in central TN. I've had my own rifle and shotgun since I was around 6 yrs old.
Just a way of life putting food on the table.

 

[acersbull]

I had my frst .22 by the time I was six. Was in the woods with my Dad and Uncles every chance I had. Squirrel, Rabbit, and Quail was about the only hunting we ever did until I was old enough to deer hunt on my own.

 

[hooky]

I started going with my dad and maternal grandpa around the age of 7. Got my first gun, a Win 37A youth in 20 guage when I was 9. There were still plenty of days I was the dog.

 

[Kaiser]

My garndfather took me pegion hunting when I was about 8 dont remember getting one until I was ten I started my boys bow hunting when they were 8

 

[Glock_Man_21]

Can't remember exactly how I started out. Just remember my grandpa taking me out as far back I can can remember. I was probaly 5 and started out with a bb gun didn't get my first .22 till I was 8 which I have to my oldest son.

 

[GM_Geezer]

I must have been 8. Grandfather took me rabbit hunting. I was defiantly over armed totin' that Daisy bb gun. The next year I graduated to a single shot .410. At ten I got the single 20 ga. That's when things started to shape up. I wish I still had that 20. It was an open hammer break action. Bluing completely worn off. Full choke barrel that shot like a cylinder. In my late 20's it disappeared back into the family. I know I haven't come close in taking the amount of game with any gun since.

 

[shooter1054]

I didn't start hunting untill I was about 30. I heard all my buddies that hunted talking about "the latest hunt" and I got interested. The first time out, I saw a fox slip across in front of me. A little later "Little Beruit" started. After it sort of died down a little about 9:30 or 10, I saw 2 does walk out. The lead doe scanned across the valley and looked past me, stopped, looked back and locked eyes with me. I was hooked.

 

[Grizhicks]

When I was 9 or 10, started going dove hunting with my dad (only hunting he did); got my first gun at 12 (20 gauge bolt), so was able to shoot the next season (at 13). Was going deer hunting in highschool (in the late 60's, it was nothing to see guns in the rear windows of pick-up truck at shcool).

 

[kludge]

I started in my mid 30's.

My wife wanted healthier meat (lean, hormones, etc.) and so we started buying Amish or grass fed beef.

I mentioned venison was all of that. She said go hunting.

BTW, grass fed beef smells a lot like venison when it's cooking.

 

[dashby115]

Mine started back in about 1976 when I was ten..would go squirrel hunting with my dad and my sister. Was using my grandfather 410.the next year for christmas I got my first addiction...I mean gun Mossberg bolt action 410 next christmas got a winchester semi auto .22...still have both of them..

 

[disengaged]

My grandfather took me hunting for the first time when I was 10 or 12...He always had dogs, but after seeing them in action - I've been hooked ever since.

 

[Lonnie]

My grandfather and grandmother raised my brother and I .
He was a very dedicated coon hunter and i was coon hunting very early in age. there are pics with me and the catch and the dogs still floating around the family.
once we were old enough we hunted regular with him and my uncles.
one day when we were in about 3rd or 4th grade we found and old burlap sack of traps and start asking question about the so on and so forth. well that season found my brother and i trapping under the giudence of my grandfather.
We seen some deer while checking fox traps when we was in high school and started asking about them and it wasn't long before my brother and I self taught our self how to deer hunt

 

[rkesar]

My whole family hunted but my grandpa got me started when I was about 10. I didnt get to carry a gun the first couple of years I just sat in the stand with him and he taught me everything he knew about deer. I finally got a mossberg 500 20 gauge with a rifled barrel. My dad really didnt like hunting but he would go just because I wanted too. He would just wear the coveralls that he would wear to work. It was ridiculous he would sit on the ground in coveralls covered in grease and be smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee and deer would come right to him every single year. I'm very thankful that my grandpa and dad were there to get me into hunting and fishing. I cant picture what my life would be like without it. I killed my first deer with my dad and it was a tiny doe that weighed 68 lbs field dressed. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was so excited you would've thought I just killed a world record. My grandpa passed away in 2007 and he left me the shotgun he always used. It is a winchester 1300 with a slug barrel and a simmons pro diamond scope. My grandpa shot that gun twice a year and both times there was a deer on the ground, I finally got my first deer with that gun last year and it was my biggest buck ever that I rattled in with a set of antlers from a buck my grandpa killed a few years ago.

 

[Jacobm]

It's hard to remember when it really started. I do remember the first "Big Game" animal I took. It was a rabbit behind the barn with a lemonwood longbow. I was somewhere around 6. The following year I took a few rabbits and a pheasant with the same bow.

One year in cub scouts we had a BB Gun shoot. The scoutmaster had just returned from an elk hunt. He brought the elk rack to show and shot a milk jug full of water with a .30-30. I knew right then and there it was something I wanted to do for life.

Got my first shotgun, a Winchester model 37 16 ga. at the age of 9. Was allowed to hunt with it by myself at the age of 11. Like Grizhicks said, in high school our guns hung in the back window of the trucks so we could hunt right after school.

Great story rkesar. Let the spirit of your grandfather live on in that 1300 and in your heart. Surely not to take anything away from what you did to take that nice deer but you gotta think Gramps just may have had something to do with that big whitetail you took.

 

[rem788]

My grandfather started taking me fishing when I was about 6, all over after that. In junior high I started reading Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, Field and Stream, basically anything related to outdoor sports. Got a BB gun when I was about ten, best thing to learn to shoot with. When I was about 13, we were visiting my Great Uncle and as we were about to leave he told us to wait a minute. He left the room and when he came back he was carrying 2 shotguns, a single shot 16 gauge and a bolt action 20 gauge. He explained that they had belonged to his sons, who were not interested in hunting at all. I got the 20 gauge and got my first rabbit with it that fall. My parents were not hunters but always supported me in anything related to hunting and fishing. My grandfather passed away in the early eighties and fished until the very end, that's my plan too.

 

[eric001]

Sad to say, but my dad died before he and I ever got to go hunting together--one of those things he wanted to do, but never had time because of work and all...until it was too late and he was gone. So I got a really late start. Just a couple of years ago, a coworker of my wife's asked me if I'd like to help him butcher a deer...which it turned out I absolutely LOVED doing!!! So he took me under his wing and has been teaching me the ropes since then. Lousy circumstances and weather this year, but I hope to fill the freezer next year, fate willing!!