Off Season Poll: How did you get your start into hunting?

[Sytes]

10 y/o sling shot a squirrel in our backyard. Pops said, "You kill it, you eat it".

 

[Bonasababy]

Family were hunters and fishermen and women long before I was born. As a kid I heard stories from one side of eating lots of different game--some of it more scarce back then than it is today--and was enthralled by stories of my great grandmother on the other side who used to troll the old fashioned way--in a wooden rowboat--and routinely caught lots of fish. I started hunting and fishing all year long at a young age, and while hunting has taken a larger role still do both.

Teachers, the Murie brothers, Leopold and some professors led me to a path that ended up in a related career choice.

 

[SaskHunter]

Didn't come from a family of hunters. I used to watch those Walmart Jim Shockey DVDs and dream about hunting.

Around the same time, my oldest sister started dating a hunter. He was kind of a greasy skid, but he took me hunting a few times. I dragged my dad and a couple siblings to do hunter safety with me. Bought my first couple gun under my dad's name until I was old enough to do it on my own.

 

[gouch]

My dad was almost 41 when I was born. He had done some pheasant hunting when he was in his twenties and on a few occasions throughout his life he had gone deer hunting with his brother but never really got into it. He liked fishing and like to read about both hunting and fishing, so he subscribed to Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and Feild and Stream. Those magazines are what got the fire burning in me. So, when I got old enough to hunt my dad took me hunting and we gradually learned together, what the hell we were doing out there.

 

[SamS]

My family all hunted so I got started very early. Quickly became an obsession which likely was the cause of my divorce years ago. Nothing has changed other than I have a wife that enjoys it it as much as I do now.

 

[rjthehunter]

We needed the meat. Both my parents worked two jobs outside of the ranch work. I started young because it was contribute or starve in our house.

Honestly, when someone is in a tough place like this, I think there should be leanency in the rules. I don't know what the rules would be, but I'd rather read about this vs some 18 year old prick was out there shooting deer and leaving them lay.

 

[Raisin Bran]

Family tradition that goes way, way back. Long blood line of Elk hunters.

 

[Farmer20]

I began hunting and fishing with my dad and grandfather when I was very small. I miss those. Good memories.

 

[shelbycoltd]

muley freak showed up in my shorts.
on YouTube.
he made it look cool.

 

[AFBeyers]

Fellow Hunt Talkers,

I did not grow up in a Hunting family or even a Hunting culture but for some reason I always wanted to go hunting. I begged my my non-hunting mother to take me hunting and finally my whines were answered with a $50 dove hunt in Uvalde, TX when I was 12. My very supportive mother watched me miss a lot of birds that day but I have been hooked ever since. Since then we have shot quite a few things together (deer, birds, alligator) but I eventually started hunting solo.

I imagine I am the minority of hunt talk and the overwhelming majority of you got started hunting with your hunting family members. Maybe your Dad or an Uncle took you to show you the ropes when you were young. Feel free to comment below with how you started your hunting career.

Grew up in South Eastern Montana going along on hunts with my Father and older brother. Plenty of amazing memories chasing after Pronghorn and Mule/Whitetail deer.

 

[Don Fischer]

Grew up with mom and step dad on Long Island, New York. Mom's family from Oregon all hunted same with dad's family in Michigan but never got to meet them till I was 17yr old. Started cause I think it was berd in, taught myself. Started hunting rabbits with my bow and target arrows, didn't do well. Step dad got me my first rifle when I was about 15, mod 93 Sweed in 6.5x55. Went hunting upstate new York, never got a shot. Infact had the rifle a fair number of years and never shot it. Stepdad grew up in NYC and didn't shoot much!

Today I have 7 rifles and 6 shotguns about 10 handguns and have been reloading since about 1967.

 

[beaglegun]

My grandfather hunted quail 3 times a week when KY actually had quail. He took me every single time I asked. No deer or turkey back then. We grew up hunting quail, rabbits and squirrels, and loved it! I guess we didn't know any better

 

[buffybr]

My Dad didn't hunt, but he bought me a bolt action, single shot Remington .22 LR when I was about 10, and he taught me how to shoot it safely.

It wasn't until I was in my 2nd year of college that one of my rooommates invited me to go deer hunting in NW Colorado with him. He loaned me a Win 94 in .32 Win and I shot my first deer. I proudly hung those trophy spike antlers on the wall of my college bedroom, and we enjoyed eating his venison the rest of that quarter. I went hunting with him again the next year and shot my first bull elk.

The next year I bought my first centerfire rifle, a .30-06 that fulfilled my hunting needs and kept our freezer full of deer and elk venison until 1977, a few years after I had moved to Montana. My new hunting partner here had several different caliber hunting rifles, and he gave my a .30 Gibbs case that I thought looked so cool that I had my .30-06 rechambered to .30 Gibbs for elk, and I built a .257 Ackley for deer and antelope, and a .22-250 for varmints.

II didn't really get into the Montana hunting advantages until 1978 when we moved from NW Montana down to the Bozeman area. Here, I am within 100 miles of the Unlimited Bighorn sheep Units, I have deer and elk literally right out my back door (I saw 30 elk in the pasture below my house this morning), and in the late '70s and through the '80s I was able to draw multiple mountain goat and Shiras moose tags. I had to buy a second freezer for all of the meat.

Shortly after I moved to Bozeman several of my friends here invited me to go with them on a DIY caribou hunt in Alaska where I shot my first caribou.

For many years I have decorated the walls of my house with pictures of wildlife like the old Remington calendar pictures and Nancy Glazier prints. By 1988 these pictures in my living room had been replaced with shoulder mounts of that caribou, some of my best deer and antelope, my best 6x6 bull elk, my 1st Shiras bull moose, a half mount of my mountain goat, a black bear rug, and my 3 bighorn rams.

I also got re-married that year, and she said that my house was not big enough for her and her two kids and all of my taxidermy, so I built a 2,000 sf addition onto my house. The top floor of that addition is 30'x35' with 9 1/2' side walls and a 14' cathedral ceiling and became my Trophy Room. There was easily enough wall space in there for all of my taxidermy.

By 1999 I had hunted all of the big game species in Montana and I began looking at international hunts. A cancelation Dall Sheep hunt that year, where I also shot a mountain caribou and a wolverine, in Canada's MacKenzie Mountains sparked my interest in international hunting. Then a group hunt in South Africa the next year opened my eyes to African hunting.

With the cost of trophy and shipping fees of African animals, I decided on my first African hunt to hunt different animals on each trip. That led me to 5 more African hunts with camps throughout South Africa and hunts in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. So far I've hunted 36 species of African animals and have taxidermied mounts of most of them.

In 2007 my GF (now of 24 years!) went with me on a Great hunt in New Zealand. A week of hunting from a very luxurious Lodge and 2 more weeks of driving on the wrong side of the road all around the south island. And mounts of 4 more critters to fill my Trophy Room walls.

In 2015 I completed Grand Slam Club's Super 10 of North American Big Game animals (7 were on DIY solo hunts), and when I attended their banquet in Las Vegas the next year I booked a hunt for Dagestan Tur in Azerbaijan. That was probably the most physically challenging hunt that I have ever been on.

Since then I've done 2 more hunts in Alaska and 4 more hunts in Canada that not only increased my taxidermy bills, but also filled most of the wall space in my Trophy Room and my living room. I am also very honored that my Musk ox and 2 of my caribou (and 2 pictures of me with those 2 caribou) are included in the latest B&C all time record book.

I'm slowing down now and didn't do a big hunt this year, but I still want to do at least one big hunt every year, as long as I can.

 

[WVmike]

Grew up on the farm in WV that I still live on to this day. My dad started taking me squirrel hunting when I was old enough to start shooting, probably around age 7 or 8 not sure. Started with squirrels with the .22 cricket then moved up to the .22 magnum. I went along deer hunting with my dad around age 10 just to tag along and see what it was all about. He didn't let me carry a rifle for deer hunting until I was about 12 and it was the marlin 30/30 lever action that he still uses. Didn't shoot my first deer until the following year and it was a day after getting home from school on the second week of rifle season in November in WV. Walked home after getting off the bus and decided to look over behind our house on the hill and there happened to be a few does standing in the field. Told mom I was going to get a rifle and give it a shot. Of all rifles, I grabbed my dads .264 Win mag Model 70 that he used and decided to shoot from our back porch at one of the does in the field which was about 350-375 yards away. My dad actually was pulling in the driveway as I was getting setup for the shot. I will never forget he said, "what are you doing?". I said I'm going to shoot that doe over there on the hill. He said, "you're not going to hit that". I fired the shot and the look on his face was of excitement and he had a grin on his face from maybe proving him wrong I'm not sure. Not the most conventional story but that's how I harvested my first deer. Credit to him for teaching me not only how to shoot but how to do it safely. He was in the Marines up until I was born and his dad taught him how to shoot while growing up on the same farm we still have today.

I've been hunting deer since then every year except for the years when I was on deployment. Don't squirrel hunt as much as I did back then but my oldest is 10 and he has already harvested a doe and a four point so far and he has shot a handful of squirrels. When he shot his first deer, I don't think I've ever been that excited in my life for someone harvesting a animal. My daughter is 7 and wants to shoot a deer this year and I will be taking her squirrel hunting also.

This year will be my first year hunting elk in Colorado and I'm excited to get after a different animal. In the years to follow I would like to take my oldest when he gets a little bit older that way we can experience it together before he grows up and moves or whatever he may choose.

 

[geetar]

My dad started taking me out for walks in the woods when I was about 5. He started letting me go with him on short afternoon hunts when I was about 6-7 and I started toting a gun when I was 10. Took me 4 years to get my first buck at 14.

 

[Ought Six]

When I could sit up on my own, around 1.5 yr old or so, my dad would put me in a backpack while he shot upland birds or looked for sheds.

I started going to antelope camp with him at 2 or 3 and shot my first jackrabbit with a .20 gauge at 4. I called in my first turkey for my dad at 5 or 6, funny story.

Shot a lot of trap, pigeons, rabbits, prairie dogs, foxes, coyotes, and other stuff before I could hunt big game.

I’ll always regret when I was maybe 9 or 10, my dad woke me up real early and asked if I wanted to hunt that morning and I said no, I wanted to sleep in, something I rarely did. Even at that age, it wasn’t a road hunt, but was 5 to 6 mile loops in big, steep, roadless country. That morning he shot a big typical mule deer and packed it out solo. I wish I would’ve been there for that and to help pack meat.

By the time I was 12 I had seen so many nice deer come through the house that I wanted to hold out for a good one. I put on a lot of tough miles for a 12 year old over the course of the season and passed 22 bucks before notching the tag.

I was rarely left home from the time I could walk. My dad and I have shared a lot of great hunting memories. I hope my kids say the same about me one day.

 

[Jdan9]

My Dad, took me pheasant hunting when I was 12 years old. Took me to Shell, Wyoming when I was 14 on a mule deer hunt with his buddies. I was hooked!! He introduced a couple of my friends from non hunting families to the great outdoors and when we were 21 we traveled back to Shell, Wyoming, hunted mule deer and they were hooked. I’m 67 years old and have gone on at least one, sometimes as many three western hunts every year since That hunt and most of them since have been with those same buddies, their sons, my brother and his son, cousins etc… My Dad, who I think of every day I know has a smile on his face!!

 

[chrisenglish01]

father and grandfather got me in to it

 

[Creedance91]

Grew up in a family that very casually hunted or fished. No big game, just upland bird hunting. Definitely had firearms, shot some trap, went fishing occasionally etc.

Really got more into hunting as an adult. Enjoy the problem solving and sense of accomplishment when you do something difficult. Hunting deer and elk really scratches that itch for me. Was lucky enough to live in MN and have friends and family that were welcoming of my reengagement with hunting and let me tag along or join me on hunts.

 

[achadwick]

I started hunting more that 55 years ago., My father started me hunting with a BB gun at ~8 years old then advanced me to pellet gun then single shot 22 LR to single shot 20 gauge when I was 12.