(THF Celebrity)

07/04/08 10:42 AM

When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

HOPEFULLY THIS WON'T BE STIRRING UP THE POT FOR TOO MANY PEOPLE.

Going back and picking up some of the stuff that has been on here before is fun, especially when we have a wave of new members come on board.

This one has been thru the system before, can't remember how long back, but it might be fun to do again.

How old were you when you first started hunting, not when you first started tagging along, but when you actually were packing a gun and shooting at game?

Who got you started hunting , again the actual killing end of the sport, not just the tagging along.

What was the first game you ever killed?

(Bird Dog)

07/04/08 10:50 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I was either 8 or 9 yrs old when I tagged my first deer. My dad had got me a Rem mod 788 in .243 for Christmas but "Santa" left it for me two weeks before season began. I killed my first deer, a 6 pt buck. over an oat patch that same year, I guess it would have to be around 1971. I really miss those hunts with Dad, he's just too old now.

(THF Celebrity)

07/04/08 10:53 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

6 years old. In Kansas. With my Pops. Mainly upland game until I was 9-10. First game ever killed was dove. Shot a couple quail that first year as well. He made me carry that .410 single shot until he died. I was 13 when I finally got a 20 pump.

(Extreme Tracker)

07/04/08 10:58 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

6, 20 gauge pump and I believe it was dove or some other bird flying around that day. I was with my Dad and am lucky enough to still be hunitng with him.

(THF Celebrity)

07/04/08 11:03 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My first "hunts", were in our backyard with bb guns shooting english sparrows that came in to eat the feed we had out for our chickens. I was about 10 or 11 at the time.

At 16, I would borrow a shotgun from one of our neighbors and go out with some of the guys I went to school with and try to hunt duck and dove.

My first actual real "game" kill was a dove right after I turned 16.

As for getting me started hunting, I was born with the desire.

My Dad liked to fish, and when I started trying to hunt doves, he would take ne out to places, but he was not a hunter by any means. Some of my friends in school helped foster the concept of hunting and many of them, their Dad's hunted so all of mine was kind of peripheral. I didn't kill a deer till after I turned 20.

(THF Trophy Hunter)

07/04/08 11:17 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My dad took me squirrel hunting when I was 6 or 7. We were both barefooted in Kentucky where he was born. I remember shooting a 16 ga. shotgun and ask him if it kicked and he said no. When I shot it I cried because I was pointing it upwards in a tree at a squirrel!!! IT HURT!!! Killed the squirrel!

(Pro Tracker)

07/04/08 11:27 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

just hunting with a firearm i would say 5 or so,with my grandpa's old .410 side by side with the double trigger. we would shoot moccasins and other critters. i shot my first dove around the same time with the same old .410. i was 7 when i was allowed to take a rifle into the field after deer. although i was deadly at the range, out in the field was another matter,i tended to loose my composure and did not harvest my first deer a doe until i was about 8 in San Saba.

PrimitiveHunter

(Veteran Tracker)

07/04/08 11:32 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I actualy started the killing game when I was 6. I carried a Winchester 67 .22 that my Dad bought for my Mom in 1941. I still have that rifle. My first kill was a squirrel. I still remember my Dad slapping me on the back and calling me "One Shot Bud". I'd remember that if I lived to be 200. My Dad carried the bolt in his jacket so I didn't shoot him in the back. Only when we had a squirrel "treed" did he get the bolt out and put it in the gun for me.

When I was 8, he bought me a H&R Topper JR .410 and I began hunting by myself. We would hit the river bottom in the dark of the morning, go in about 1/2 mile, and split up. He'd cut through the woods and hit downriver while I worked my way along the river to him. Usually, I'd find him about noon.

Bought my own Marlin 30-30 when I was 12 so we could start deer hunting. Still have that rifle too. He and I both started deer hunting the same year so we learned together. I killed my first deer (a doe) on our second hunt.

I started bowhunting in about 1980 so he started the following year (at 68 years old).

When I think about him now, I think about sitting on a river logjam eating a sandwich, walking out of the woods together talking about what we each saw, fishing when it was so cold that the eyes of our rods would freeze up with ice. Stuff that seemed so "normal" at the time. Mostly, I think about his reverance for life. Under no circumstances whatsoever were you to ever kill anything you didn't intend to eat. I gotta stop now.

(THF Trophy Hunter)

07/04/08 01:32 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

First time to hunt game was dove in 1994 at Tech. Dropped my first dove on the first shot. Then went 49 for 50 after that.

I had a big drought where i played golf and fished mostly and then started hunting quite a bit in 2001. I don't hunt as much now but try to make the most of it with a few trips a year now that I have family and kids. My blind and feeder get hunted once or twice now but I don't pay luckily.

(Tracker)

07/04/08 01:54 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My first was at 7 with the single shot 20 guage my Dad bought me. First game was a squirrel. Still remember that pot of Squirrel and dumplings my Mom made from them squirrels.

(Woodsman)

07/04/08 02:55 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My parents, nor my brothers, ever hunted. At an early age I had a fascination with guns. I got my first bb gun by saving up birthday money and then bought it used from my neighbor who was older. My parents, who had refused to buy me a bb gun in the first place, took it away from me. I found where they hid it and "stole" it back. Each day after school I was the feared hunter in our woods with that bb gun. As I got older I got my hands on my moms old .410 bolt action, tube fed, JC Higgins shot gun. I think I was 13 the first time I picked the lock on the cabinet and took the shotty out with another friend. Once I started mowing yards, I started buying used guns from neighborhood kids. My best friend and I continued to hunt each day after school. Because my parents didn't hunt, I never had the chance to go deer hunting until I was 16. The first time I went deer hunting, I was hooked for life! Recently, I have gotten over deer hunting and actually enjoy hog hunting much more than deer.

Long story short, and to answer the initial question, I started hunting when I was 10 with a BB gun, and I got me into hunting.

(Bird Dog)

07/04/08 03:22 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My dad is an avid gun nut but I have never known him to hunt. He had me out teaching me how to safely handle and shoot guns shortly after I started walking. He bought me a 20 ga pump shotgun for my 8th birthday (1978) and I hit the woods behind my house by myself. My first kill was a squirrel. Mom helped me skin it,then she cooked it, and she and I ate it for supper.

I was emmediately hooked for life.

(Outdoorsman)

07/04/08 04:55 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

Age six is when I killed my first whitetail and I stared hammering birds and squirrels at 4. My dad taught me.

(Bird Dog)

07/04/08 05:17 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I'm just getting started in hunting. The first time I actually went hunting was this spring in arkansas for turkey. Didn't get to shoot one though. Trying to get on a lease with my uncle this year. I'm trying to learn all I can from you guys on the forum.

(Woodsman)

07/04/08 05:34 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I was 7-8 when i took my first dove.
My dad and step dad were involved in my early hunting and fishing expeditions and they still are.

(Tracker)

07/04/08 08:37 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

Tagged along and played bird dog for my dad about eight years old. Started dove hunting with my granddad at about twelve. Didn't deer hunt until I moved to Texas in 01.

(Bird Dog)

07/04/08 08:58 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My dad started me off when i was 9 years old we hunted a place in del rio texas,He won me a 6mm mohawk remington in a football pot and i killed at least 30 deer with that gun it had a weaver 4x on it,sweet gun.Well you would guess that i would still shoot with that gun but someone needed it worse then me so they stole it.But me and dad have only missed two seasons hunting togeather since but that was becouse he wouldnt get off of this crappy place we had in sweetwater tx,So i left but he followed shortly after.We hunted a lease in san saba for 29 years but the man that owned it passed the son took over and you know the rest.But thats how i got my start and its been a great ride since.

(Woodsman)

07/04/08 10:20 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I was 13. We just got back from 4 years of living in Germany in 1974. My Dad and Grandpa took me squirrel hunting just north of Powell Park near Lake Sam Rayburn. I was carrying a 20 ga double barrel that my Dad bought me for my 10th birthday at the Ramstein Rod and Gun Club for $36.00.

It was a great day. Grandpa brought his dog Spot with us and he was treeing squirrels right and left. Nothing like the sound of a dog out in the woods treeing squirrels.

I was hooked when my first one fell from that giant pine tree.

(Tracker)

07/04/08 10:33 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I was about nine years old.

First hunt was with my dad and grandfather. Cornered a Skunk in the old trash pit at Grandpas farm. Using a old Hoban #4 SS 22 I bagged him. I was quite upset when I could not take him home with me.

First dove about 11 years old, same farm. Went for a walk and two dove flew over. One pull of the trigger on the Mossberg bolt action 410 and score one for the young hunter. I finished with about nine doves that afternoon could of shot more but ran out of shells (only had one box).

First deer harvested in ninth grade (Blanco Texas). I had missed a few deer earlier that year with borrowed bolt actions. Last day of season doe walks out and one shot burried her. I was scared to shoot because I thought i was going to miss. Begged my dad to take the shoot but insisited on me taking it. Winchester 94 30-30 open sights made in 1965 same year as when I was born. Still have all three guns.

I can remember all these hunts like they were yesterday.

I was able to take my dad hunting last year three times for deer (I would take him all the time but he is just not that interested anymore). It was very nice even thou we did not make a harvest. I will insist that he go more often this year and hopefully he will score. Keep yall informed.

(Outdoorsman)

07/05/08 06:21 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

Fun thread, Crazyhorse. I terrorized the sparrow population in my rural area when I was a kid, but didn't hunt anything bigger because I had no older relatives who did. I married a farm girl from New Mexico and became fast friends with her Dad. We built Thompson Center Hawken muzzle-loaders from a kit and hunted mulies in New Mexico for 25 years, filling our tags every single year. Man, hunting with that guy was like hunting with Daniel Boone. Raised in the woods, served as a Marine sniper in WWII, he taught me volumes about hunting. I was privileged to pass it on to my two sons, now grown. We're blessed to own a small ranch in San Saba County and it's covered up in deer, turkey and hogs. Can't wait for a couple of grandkids so I can start training them.

(Woodsman)

07/05/08 07:12 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I got a NEF 20 ga for my 7th bday, which is in December. I didn't get to use it until the next fall. Didn't kill a thing that first dove season. But I scared the heck out of a bunch. For my 12th bday I got a Winchester wingmaster 20 ga pump. Still have it in the safe waiting for my kids to get of age. I killed my first deer when I was 19 with a borrowed Remington 700 30.06. I've been hooked ever since.

(THF Trophy Hunter)

07/05/08 07:20 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I guess I was born into it. Living in a little town called Weston Oregon, we were raised on wild game. Dad kept a locker full of Elk and venison. As for poultry, it was pheasant and grouse. Shot my first deer, with a 30-06, when I was 7, shot my first buck with a 300 Weatherby, when I was 9. Got my first shotgun when I was 7, an old Mossberg bolt action 410. Started shooting a LC Smith 12 ga double when I was 8. I honestly can't remember 1 time my dad went hunting without me. Nobody had a greater love for hunting than my father and thank God he shared every bit of it with me. He's 87 now, and we still can�t sit down for more than 2 minutes without the conversation turning to hunting or guns. Homer is a hunting fool and his son's seem to have taken the same path. Thanks Pop!

(Pro Tracker)

07/05/08 08:06 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My dad got me into the great outdoors when I was around 8 yrs old. Started with a .410

(Extreme Tracker)

07/05/08 08:11 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

Started hunting at the age of six with my Dad.Dove was my first kill.The only thing I would like to have changed is picking up a bow earlier in life.

(Veteran Tracker)

07/05/08 08:50 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

like so many other kids, i too was the bird dog for many years. my dad wasn't much of a deer hunter, but loved to hunt quail and dove. did quite a bit of it around the charlotte area. when my mom re-married when i was 7, we moved to houston, where doves and sparrows were at the mercy of my crossman pellet gun.

uncle bought the ranch i currently hunt on in 94' i used to go down for spring break when i was around 8 years old and terrorize the rabbit population with a old H&R 20 gauge. my step dad eventually got on a lease in east texas, but did't get my first deer until i was 12 (again in south texas), a little nubbin buck shot outta a ground blind sitting on my uncles knee. ever since then, i have been in the woods every fall, and have been blessed to have good properties in which to hunt on.

TexasTransplant

(Bird Dog)

07/05/08 09:59 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

Nobody else in my immediate family is into guns or hunting. My older brother is a decent woodsman as am I, much of which began with boy scouts. I always had an interest in firearms and I spent a lot of time on the range in the scouts. My parents would not allow a BB gun or any firearms in the house so I had to wait until I left. I moved to the Northwest and made some friends. Some are (and, sadly, some were) veterans, and some people born into hunting, and I just fell in with a right crowd and learned a lot of the right stuff the right way. I took my first squirrel at 18 and my first deer at 19. Been a member of People for the Eating of Tasty Animals ever since.

(Light Foot)

07/05/08 11:36 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

Heck, i've been hunting as long as i can remember, it all started with my dad and grandpa taking me to a hunting lease in San Antonio, and i loved it from the get go. Unfortunatley i don't get to hunt anymore, since my dad and grandpa died.

(Pro Tracker)

07/06/08 08:00 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My earliest hunting memories are of my grandfather hunting squirrels and ducks with his old Remington model 11(I think)12 gauge.

My dad did some hunting and I remember him going to Kansas for pheasant.

When I was about 9-10 my dad took me to Llano to a deer lease and shortly after that our immediate and extended family began making annual trips to Llano ( and later Lampasas)to deer hunt always around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We kids learned to drive at the deer lease using an old '47 Willys military jeep. Those were great times as men, women and children would gather to spend 3-4 days a couple of times during the season.

My first deer was a doe killed with a .280 Remington semi auto. Prior to that I was allowed to carry a .22 magnum but not allowed to shoot at deer.

I killed an 8 point buck in Llano using a Ruger .44 magnum carbine when I was 12. That was the high point of my "hunting" career.

In the late 60's early 70's there were no feeders and no real "management" plans, so the deer herd was mostly goat sized does and a few bucks.

By the time I was 17, I had decided I only wanted to kill a "trophy" so the last three years we hunted(all at Lampasas), I never fired a shot.

All the kids grew up and found other interests and the older family decided that no one wanted to hunt so they gave the leases up.

From 1973 until 2006, I never set foot on a deer lease. I lost interest in hunting but loved to shoot handguns and did so for many,many years.

We got on a lease for 2006 but saw only two legal deer and I realized it is the family experience and being outdoors that I love and not the desire to take game. So, it has been over 40 years since I shot at a deer!

I have done some quail hunting over the last 5 years and will continue to do some as the opportunity arises.

Even though I personally don't care about killing game animals, I will take a hog if I get a chance or a coyote if the opportunity arises.

I believe in hunting and the rights of hunters and enjoy all that I learn from this forum, but for me it is seeing the wildlife and being outdoors with family and friends that matter the most.

I intend to buy a hunting license this year even though I have no set plans to pursue any game, but who knows, I may try to get a couple of doves when the season rolls around...

(Bird Dog)

07/06/08 01:32 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

When I turned 8 my dad bought me a bb gun, which to this day I cant figure out why because he never ever talked about guns or ever hunted that I know of. When I was 12 my step dad took me dove hunting for the first time ever and I must have shot a whole case of shells through that bolt action 20 ga and only got 3 birds but I was hooked from then on. The very next year my uncle let me use his Ithaca semi auto 12 ga and I dont know if it was luck or what but I couldn't miss a bird if I wanted to with that gun. I didnt deer hunt untilo I was probably 18 and didn't shhot my fisrt deer until my 21st birthday. The bad thing is I didnt get excited at all because as soon as I got situated in the stand I looked out the window and there was a doeld fork horn under the feeder. I got in the stand at 2:06 and shot him at 2:10. The next morning I was in a stand with my buddies dad and actually got to watch a cull buck walk in and I got more excited watching it walk in and him shoot than I did when I shot mine.

(Veteran Tracker)

07/07/08 08:01 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

You guys been at it a long time. I started hunting November 2006, so I was 38 y/o. I went out to a former co-worker�s place in Young County and I shot 2 deer (1 buck, 1 doe) 10 minutes apart on my 2nd day ever.

After that, I thought hunting was going to be that easy all the time! LOL!

(Veteran Tracker)

07/07/08 08:16 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I was 6, I use to spend the summer with my grandparents at our old cabin in colorado. My first hunting tool was a one of those sling shots that had the wrist strap. Then I moved up to the red rider, but I hated it becuase it didn't have the knock down power if the sling shot. I was hell on the rock squirals, chipmunks and birds. My dad started taking me deer hunting when I was 7. I didn't get to shot my first deer until I was 11.

(Pro Tracker)

07/07/08 11:29 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I LOVE THIS QUESTION IT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES....
TRYING TO THINK BACK TO WHEN I STARTED HUNTING. I GUESS IT DEPENDS ON YOU DEFINITION OF HUNTING.
WOULD IT BE WHEN I WAS 4 AND MY DAD USED TO HOLD THE FORE STOCK OF THE 22 SO I COULD SHOOT WATER SNAKES? ( THE WAY I RMRMBER IT THERE WERE HUNDREDS OF THE AND I GOT THEM ALL!)

OR WOULD IT BE WHEN I WAS 5 AND PAPPY (GARND PA) BOUGHT ME A BB GUN AND I ROMED THE NEIGHBOR HOOD SHOOTING LIZARDS AND SPARROWS?

I KNOW AT AGE 6 I COULD GO ALONE WITH THE 22, AROUND A SMALL PRIVATE LAKE AND SHOOT BULL FROGS AND WATER MOCCASINS.
I GUESS THAT IS WHEN I'D SAY I STARTED HUNTING.

MY DAD AND MY GARAND PA (TO SOME DEGREE) ARE THE ONES THAT TAUGHT ME...........NOW, IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, MY ALLERGIES JUST STARTED ACTIN UP....

(WHERE'S THAT SMILEY FACE GUY WITH WATERY EYES???)

(Bird Dog)

07/07/08 11:37 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

I got into hunting later than a lot of you. My first time was when I was 32, my hubby took me at his folks place in east TX. I've been hooked ever since! He's also converted me from freshwater fishing to saltwater.

(Pro Tracker)

07/07/08 12:29 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My Dad got me started about the time I was old enough to walk. I would go out with him hunting muleys out around Ft Stockton. One picture still is stuck in my head of me and him watching the sun come up over a big mesa. That was hunting to me. I am by no means against blind hunting but to me that was real hunting.

My first deer at age 8

(Pro Tracker)

07/07/08 01:15 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My Grandfather... aka... Grendaddy. One of the greatest men I have ever known. He taught me so much. How to fish, where to dig for worms, how to run a trot line, and how to throw a stick on the back side of a tree when the squirrel is on the other side to get him to spin around and show himself. Looking back� he taught me much more than that. I don�t see many men like him anymore. Maybe they have all but passed away. He had respect for the land and for anyone he came across. He was eager to help and always made time.

We used to go on long walks for miles with our poles and a single shot 410 and walk from stock tank to stock tank. We would catch fish till almost dark and he never showed that he was tired... Although looking back now, I know he had to be. When we would get home Mema would have dinner going and most nights we ate out on the picnic table.

What I would not give to go walk the stock tanks again with him or go for a ride in his old rambler to Corbit to squirrel hunt down in the bottoms by the big pecan tree.

Some of the greatest memories I have in life were spent with him.

When he got older and was in the rest home, he would always tell the same hunting and fishing stories ....how that one time that he caught the ol' hog....

Guess they ment just as much to him.

Thanks for posting this topic... you brought back some great memories and a tear to my eye.

(Pro Tracker)

07/07/08 02:16 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

In 1965 when I was 5 started dove and duck with my dad and grandfather using a bolt action 20ga that was my father's great grandfather's gun. Hunted everything else except for deer until my senior year in High School Nov. 76 when I took my first buck, a spike. Too cool!! Great memories that I keep and hold dear to me spending time with my dad and grandfather. Gone, but still with me!

(Woodsman)

07/07/08 08:28 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My dad is who got me started huntin when I was 5. Taught me to shoot a .410 that year. I hunted dove all season long with out hitting one. The next year when I turned 6 I finally shot my first bird that landed in the middle of a sticker patch. Dad was so proud of me, he wasn't about to let that bird go unfound. By the time he found the bird, he had stickers from his boots to his neck.

This will be the first year huning without dad there with me. I'm sure it won't be the same.

(Outdoorsman)

07/07/08 09:10 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

My Grandfather taught me to shot at age 5. I started dove hunting at age 6 and then on to ducks the next year. Shot my first deer at age 8. My little hunting buddy, my son Joshua, shot is first deer last year at age 8. When Josh and I are in the blind, I can see why my Grand-dad smiled so much. What a thrill to see a young man experience this thing called hunting.

(Woodsman)

07/08/08 10:01 AM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

i got started in hunting late in life compared to most of you guys. my grandfather and dad hunted when i was young then my grandfather passed away. after that my father didn't hunt for about 15 years. he started hunting again after i left for the navy. so i didn't go hunting for the first time until i was 24. i didn't shoot my first deer until i was 27. since that deer i have been hooked. and each year has gotten better. so if the trend continues i should fill every tag i have this year. i think that my life would be shorter lived if i couldn't get away to hunt

(Pro Tracker)

07/08/08 09:28 PM

Re: When did you start hunting, and who got you started?

Nobody started me. I was raised outside of Muleshoe. Not a lot to do there and I used my Grandaddys 22 to shoot everything that moved. Later my folks picked me up and moved me to town. Dad got me into golf lessons at 12 or 13. The Golf Pro told him that the money was wasted. Every time we got near a water hazard or grove of trees, my mind started wandering toward nature. At 65 yoa, it hasn't changed. I have never been able to understand golf or tennis or spectator sports. To me, the NFL season means hunting time is coming and I'm in the woods or on the creeks and tanks.

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