How did you start hunting?

[BeanMan]

I often wonder how people become hunters. Most probably have family members who got them started. Here's my story.

My family didn't hunt. My Father lost his interest in firearms after serving as a Marine in Korea. I was always a avid reader, couldn't find enough good books to read. At around age 10 The one that caught my interest and started me thinking about hunting was "Big Red" by Jim Kjelgard. Soon after I got my first BB Gun after promising not to shoot birds with it, yeah right. My interest in hunting increased but I had no real outlet. At 14 I talked my Dad into letting me buy with my lawnmowing money a Ruger 10/22. I only got to shoot it a couple of times a year though. At 15 I met a neighbor whose parents let him hunt ducks and geese and soon I got to tag along and the next season I had my own shotgun and was hooked.

But no one I knew hunted big game so I just was a bird hunter. At age 28 (I'm 44 now) I moved to Grand Junction for a job and started hunting big game. My first was an antelope doe followed closely by a doe deer. I was a meat hunter and only recently started thinking about trophy animals. I;ve shot a few nice elk including one with a bow but no trophies, maybe this will be the year.

How did you catch the bug?

BeanMan

 

[kkensimpson]

I started hunting with my dad in '69 in colorado on the Flattops. It was a good experience, but all the guys that my dad brought (about 15 of them) always made me gather the fire wood and hunt the bad spots. Every year we got about 5-7 animals and I thought that it was still very fun even though I got the short end of the stick.

I've recently been taking my son, who is 15, hunting in Jackson County and currently live in Idaho Springs. I think he enjoys it as much as I do. He's got all of the Boone and Crockett World records memorized, and is better at rack bracketing than I am.

Ken

 

[kilowatt]

I got started with my Grandfather & Uncle in 1954 when I completed the Hunter Safety course, it's first year in the system.
Except for a period of 8 years during the Vietnam war and working overseas, I'm still at it.
Didn't realize it till now, but that's "half a century" 50 years. Time sure flies by when you have fun.

Brian

 

[Longun]

Geez Kilo,

Didn't realize you were that old of a geezer. HEHEHE
I started hunting with my Dad when I was 7 or 8 and remember on the some hunts if I got tired my Dad would tell me to put my hand in his back pocket and walk with him. Most of the time I think he just dragged me back to the pickup.That was in "64" After hunters safety course in "68" I didn't need his back pocket anymore and the hunting was on.

 

[soupcreek]

Hunting has been a passion in my family for generations. Before I was old enough to go my Dad would tell me stories about my great uncles who while out hunting found some guy stuck in a rolled up buffalo hide. He had shot a buffalo the night before and skinned it. He wrapped himself up to keep warm with the fur side in. By the time he woke up in the morning, the fresh hide had frozen solid and he couldn't get out. My uncles helped him.
I started hunting at 12 (in 1984), the minute I was legal.
My grandfather was a muley junkie and killed a number of really nice bucks. The year I was born he killed a 333 net elk and was going to leave the horns because they were too heavy to pack out. My dad thought he was crazy, and made sure they made it home. My dad is an elk junkie and has left a number of big bucks standing on the hillside "because there might be elk in the area". I think he's crazy, but he does have 25+ sets of elk ivories at home.
The muley addiction must have skipped a generation because that is definitely what I love. I hope to still be chasing that magic 30 incher in 2084 with my kids (or grandkids).

 

[dutch]

My whole family used to go up to camp when I was still wearing my crappy diapers. My parents, 3 bros, 1 sis, grandma, grandpa and few aunts and uncles. From the time I knew and understood what hunting was which was probably around 6-7 I couldn't wait till I was old enough to start hunting. I learned to mainly love hunting though through my dad and granddad on just having fun and enjoying each others company and the nature thing as well. I think I was 13 when I started and have never missed a year-going on 20 years now! Whew time flies.

 

[stanley]

Hey Bean:

To quickly answer your question, I started hunting because my dad hunted quail, dove, deer, and elk here in AZ. I tagged along and became hooked for life.

I have to comment on the book that got you hooked though! I also read "Big Red" when I was 11 or 12 years old. I LOVED that book (and still do)! Reading the adventures that Danny went through was awesome. I still remember the detail that Mr. Kjelgard went into when he described the deer hunt that Danny went on. Good stuff for sure.... As a matter of fact, last year I located a copy of the book on amazon.com and ordered it for my boys. I've been reading it to them, and they love it! Another good book for the little ones is 'Rattle Snake Run' by Keo Felker Lazarus.

Anyway, thanks for bringing back the memories....

S.

 

[Blueoak]

I was five years old when I saw my father and my uncle shoot a buck. It was close and they shot it four times. You ethics guys will love this. Not only was it a illegal spike and they left it, they trespassed to do it. My mom came by and picked us up. We left in a hurry back in "61". I taught my son different. I took hunter safety at age 8 and killed my first big buck at age twelve and have never missed a season. I am still going strong 36 years and 85+ bucks later.

 

[Paul_Crawford]

Probably started with dove huntin'. Been too long ago to remember. Yep, Kilo is an old fart, but not me!! hehe. PC

 

[400bull]

I was born to hunt. There is not much of a hunting conversion here. I have been huntung as long as I can remmember. At first it started out by shotting cats, birds, and grasshopes in my back yard with a BB gun. Now I'm at the point were I am hunting waterfowl, deer, elk, upland game, rabbits and hoping to go on my first turkey hunt and Bison next year. I just hope that I can pass the same love and passtion onto my two boys and my new little girl.

400bull

 

[ORsouthpaw]

I wish I had been lucky like some of you getting started really early. My family has always hunted but when I was born they started going less and less. Mostly because my Grandfather grew up hunting in Wyoming strictly for food and when he moved to Oregon it just wasn't fun for him anymore, When I was old enough to go he had stopped all together. I didn't start until I was 18 which was with my soon to be father-in-law. We hunted blacktail's here on the west side of Oregon. He was great about teaching me to respect nature, but we were never very succesful. I finally convinced him that we needed to hunt Muleys and after one trip he seemed to have lost interest but I have continued on. I finally started hunting elk in 2000 with other family members as a resolution promise and have been hooked every since. After 14 years now there's hardly a day that goes by that I don't think about the hunt in one way or another.

 

[ELKMASTER101]

Started when i was very young, my dad had a pistol range in the basement.
his budies would come over adn shoot.
in 58 i think it was i got my first 22 single shot adn started runing a trap line before school and again after school,
back in those days i would carry my 22 to school and put in my locker. lets see a youngster do that now days.
didn't take my first deer untell 68 or so, they were few and far between here in iowa.
but the ducks, fox, squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, pheasants,
crows, owles, neighbors cats, were all fair game.
pick up a bow as a kid and would go down to the the local golf/country club and shoot squinies/ and chase rabbits through the neighborhood,
it was with a bow i took my first deer.
Wooden long bow and Wood arrows, those were the days.
picked up my first compound 4 years later its a AMF laminated limb, I still have.
well so on and so forth has led me to today,
i live, breath, & dream to create oppertunities to spend doing what i love to do.
did I mention green moss?

 

[RLH]

my wife was yellin' at me about this awhile back. "WHY THE HELL DO YOU HUNT ALL THE TIME?!?!" so i got to thinkin' about it. it's just what i do. it's sorta like breathing and eating. i've hunted as long as i can remember. first time i saw my ol' man shoot a deer i was 6. my little brother was 3. he shot a coues buck with his ol' bear recurve and while we were walking back to the truck he shot a bobcat with the same arrow. never even put the buck down. it was still on his shoulders when he shot the bobcat. hunting is just what we do. my grandad was a hunter, so was his dad, etc. it's just sorta 2nd nature. sometimes i wonder about why i hunt and the only real reason i can come up with is that it's just what i do. my sons are hunters and i hope they have a buncha boys that are hunters too. my daughter doesn't hunt, but she will skin an elk or a deer or clean fish and quail with the best of em. knows how to cook it too. same with my wife. hunting never was something that i had to learn, it was just always there and a part of life.

 

[DeerKing]

My dad was an avid hunter and even as a little kid I was very interested in what he'd bring home. Then around age 5 he bought me a Daisy pellet gun to take up on camping trips and outings to plink with. We lived in a residential neighborhood and the old lady next door had numerous feeders and bird baths with never a shortage of birds for target practice. Plinking out the window in the bathroom was a natural silencer. That all ended when the police were called after I had a particularly good day but I've had a passion for smackin stuff ever since.

 

[30inchbucks]

and this one time at band camp. LOL!!

 

[ELKMASTER101]

God, i love that saying.

 

[stalker]

Hey Fred how did you do in the draw?
I will be hunting North of the house for deer 3dr season.

My dad had hunted a lot growing up and then took 10 years or so off while he was in the service and as my brother & I were growing up.
I started out somewhere around 6 shooting rabbits. Got my first BB gun at 8 and everything was fair game. Went on my first deer hunt when I was 10 and shot a doe, didn't hunt deer for another 8 years as my parents dispised venison. Started hunting elk when I was 14. I have not missed an elk season in 29 years. My dads passion for hunting dwindled as time went on and he has not hunted for 15 years or so. I do miss being out there with him. He taught me a lot and I think we learned a lot together.
Stalker

 

[usa]

Great storie's, but mine is a little different, seem's like my dad couldn't afford a dog so he had us (his son's ) beat the bush for him, picture this, 3 boy's age's 11,10 and 8, dad and his buddie's drive us up into the adirondack moutain's of New York state, all the while telling us horror storie's of bear attack's and deer goring, take's us back on a onelane dirt trail about 3 mile's in, not quite light yet, car stop's and dad say's o.k. kid's get out and when it get's light go into the wood's about 100 yd's and walk toward's where we are going to park the car, oh , and take a stick and hit it on the tree's to scare the deer to us, aaaggggh, no weapon's, no compass (couldn't read it if we had one )no flashlite and no gd idea where the hell we were, but we did as we were told and for some reason(a forgiving GOD perhap's) we didn't get lost or injured and we actually scared some deer to the "hunter's" of course we didn't have sense enough to be afraid of the bullet's flying our way on a regular basis, we were just happy to see someone, anyone .For some reason that instilled a love for the wood's in me that rival's all my other passion's. Anybody else have any family horror hunting storie's ? I got a dozen of'em.

 

[Hunt4lyf]

I started hunting with my dad before I could even walk, he'd just put me in a backpack and off we'd go. BB guns, then pellet guns, 410, 22's, 30-30, now my 308. Flat fender Willy's, red shank brush and listening to my uncle b***h and moan, gotta love hunting. It's something I crave, I can't get enough of it, it's my drug of choice.

 

[WIDOW_MAKER]

My dad and grandpa hunt and I was allowed to go with them on the deer hunt when I turned 7. I love hunting. It is a big thing in my life. I am in high school now and I am the only kid that I know who loves hunting and is a big outdoorsman like me.
I am greatful that I was raised up in a family who loves hunting and the outdoors.

WIDOW_MAKER

 

[wallhanger]

Much to the disdain of my mom, my dad showed up at the house with a .22 caliber Daisy pellet gun when I was 6. I spent all day sneaking up on birds and missing them, but I kept at it. Finally late that afternoon, about the time I was getting discouraged, a Yellow bellied sapsucker made the mistake of landing on a branch about 10 yards in front of me. I nailed him and went running to show my dad. I felt like I'd just killed the world record Grizzly bear, and I've hunted ever since. That was a lot of me and my brother's entertainment during the days, hunting rabbits and quail with our BB guns and sling shots.

My dad took me on my first big game hunt in Gunnison when I was 12, and we didn't get anything, but I loved being in the mountains. When I was 14, we went with a friend to Monticello, Ut. and I killed my first buck. That's what really gave me the bug. My dad doesn't really care for hunting much, but he knew my brother and I did, and I really appreciate him taking us. I've taken my son for the past two years with me, and now I realize why we used to go. There's no better quality time with your family. We don't hunt as hard as I would if it were just me, but there'll be time for that later. He's got the bug now, too which to me makes every hunt a success.

Good topic,

WH

 

[marksmen]

i got started hunting when i was only six. i would go up on a hill with my dad and my single shot twenty gauge shotgun and we would shoot dove. i couldn't hold a gun very steady so i would have to brace on a barb wire fence and wait for the dove to land in an old willow tree. that is how i got hooked. 3 years later i went hunting for my first big game animal, a whitetail deer didn't get one that year, but i still had a lot of fun.

 

[SoTX]

Well this may sound funny but at a very young age I always had a desire to hunt. My father did not hunt and my grandfather did not hunt but my great grandfather was a hunter and I did not learn that until I was in my 20s I am 41 now. But as a kid I would hunt anything with my bb gun and I would not tell my mom or dad that I had killed a bird or a lizard or what ever else I could get a bead on. I even killed some fish in a creek with my bb gun and a few craw fish. Me and a buddy built a small fire and cooked them up right there on the bank. At age 15 my Dad got invited to go deer hunting and he was going to turn it down but he could see I really wanted to go so he took me. I at that time became obsessed with hunting. I read anything and everything I could on the subject. I made friends with guys who's parents had land and I would hunt with them when ever I could. After college and a careerr I was financially able to persue my passion on my terms. I was about 28 years old when I paid for my first hunting lease. I am completeely ate up with hunting to this day. Check out this web site www.dullpartnership.com
Me and my buddies have got quite a hunting place that years of hard work are paying off.
My first hunt out west was in 1995 for elk in New Mexico. It was an invite and believe it or not I was so ate up with white tails that I did not want to take time off from my deer hunting to go chase elk. But I went and that was the clincher. I now go out west every year for one species or another.
I gues you could say I was born to hunt. It has always been in my blood. Now I am passing my passion on to my two young girls.


"We MUST Hunt"

 

[Muleyslyr]

Going with my dad and uncles since I could walk. Used to think I was so cool because I could go with all the grown ups and walk around in the woods, sit by the fire, sleep in tents, etc....

When I turned 7, opening day of elk season here, my dad gave me BB gun when we woke up in the morning. I followed behind him like I always did, but now carrying my own gun. Now I was really cool. Shot my first chipmunk that day and my dad said, "now what are you gonna do with him." I hadn't really thought about it, I didn't want to just leave it there, so I stuck it in my vest pocket and he made me carry it with me all day. I guess that was my first lesson in hunting. Can't wait to pass it on!

 

[TheKnack]

My dad used to take me hunting with him from 5 years old till in my twenties. Now he hunts less and I hunt more than he ever did.
BB-gun at age 5 / .22 at age 6 / .410 at age 8 / 30.06 at age 11.

Feels good finding him spots to hunt now that he is getting older and returning the favor.
Best,
Jerry

 

[muleyqueen]

My husband really introduced me to hunting and I've been hooked from day one. I come from a long line of hunters (they all hunted for food, to survive) so it really comes naturally for me. Now I have a little one and she's been hunting with me since her first trip to deer camp at the ripe old age of 4 WEEKS! She's not missed a season yet (she's not quite 2yrs. yet). We'll definately keep it in the family and hope someday to see my grandkids in deer camp with me.
Good luck to you all this season and be safe.

 

[AZbowhntr]

I got my start going out with my dad and older brothers. I can't remember how old I was or where we went but I can remember being told to sit at a certain spot and shoot anything with antlers that came by. I never had anything come by. But I would hear them shooting in the distance. I guess that is what you get for being the youngest one in the group. Everyone else in my family has somewhat stopped hunting for one reason or another but I live for it. I don't care if I am hunting or just tagging along with someone else that has the tag. If I have the chance I am there.