How many hunted when you were younger

[Bitterwheat]

How many went hunting when you were younger and at what age did you start shooting? How old were you when you got your first gun? was it a rifle or shot gun? Did you live in the city or country?  My dad started me when i was about five years old, he would carry me on his back if I got tired. I shot my first squirrel when I was ten, got my first gun when I was 11, it was and H&R single shot .22. and I was rasied on a farm.

[Micheal Fortune]

I first remember shooting while I was 4 at my Grandfathers ranch in Wyoming.  Sitting the barrel on a stump while someone helped me hold it, listened on how to sight it and pulling the trigger my self.

I didn't do any hunting till I was 11, we moved to a place out on the edge of the desert, Grandma gave me a bb gun for my 11th. birthday.  Lot's of lizards and snakes.  Side note, I could run just a little faster than a sidewinder could in the soft sand back then.

13-14 I graduated to rabbits and the shotgun.

The first gun I owned I bought myself at 16, I was fry cooking grave yard shift at the truck stop and picked up a Winchester Model 97 in 16 gage, the "Gentleman's Gage"  Lot's stories surrounding that gun, anything that was in front of it would fall.  $100 was a lot of money then.

I'm 48, I have hunted right up until this year, just getting to be too much of a bother finding a place to go.  I did go shoot a few gophers this spring.  Maybe next year.

[Wymore Wrangler]

About ten or eleven, been doing it ever since, just got back in from bird hunting...   And one took my load of 6's, so I didn't finish out my limit....

[Wrangler Rich]

I guess I was about 8 when I got to go into the field with the men, I know that I was 12 when I finally got to carry a shotgun and shells.  I got my first pheasant that year on opening morning, and have been enjoying the sport ever since.

[Ozark Tracker]

The first thing I remember about shooting was at about 4 years old, I would sit in my Granddads lap and he would hold the gun up and I would sight and shoot, the stock was too long for me to get it up to my shoulder. he would let me shoot till I got tired, I got a bb gun to take out on my own at about 5 or 6.  when I was 7 my dad ordered a savage single shot 20 gauge for me out the sears catalog. I hunted a lot of quail with that gun.  When I was 11, I wanted a pistol, we found a used .22 colt Frontier Scout. at a pawn shop, I've probally shot 50,000 shell through that pistol, spits lead like crazy, still got it. I've had it 44 years and still shoo it ocasionally,

I grew up in the country about as far in the country as you could get, I've been roaming the woods by myself since I was 6 years old, I' be 55 next month.

Nobody had to worry about a kid in those days, you could wonder around and the only thing anybody would do to you was talk to you or offer you a drink of water or ice tea.

I still hunt, squirell, deer, varmit anything that moves.  I just love being out in the wide open spaces.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Raised in the city, well, on the outer edge. Didn't get my first gun until I was 21. A 20ga single shot Ithaca Model 66 Super Single. Boy, was I green. Gave it up a few years later and didn't start back up until '95 or '96 when I got my first squirrels and rabbits. Then along came SASS, haven't hunted since, mostly since having somewhere to hunt is pretty hard to come by. Favorite thing to hunt is groundhogs...........Buck

[PWDFR POSSE]

I started going hunting with my Father when I was eight.  It wasn't until I was nine that he would actually show me how to shoot the rifle just practicing, not shooting at actual game.  When I was ten, he bought me my first .22 rifle & I would go hunting groundhogs with him.  He was an avid hunter & collector of old rifles from WWII & such.  At the age of twelve, he gave me an old British .303 that he had modified, reblued & made a custom stock for it.  That was a beauty!  

He & I hunted all the time clear up to when I was seventeen & then I left for the military.  That stopped our hunting together for 3 years & then we picked back up once I returned from the service.  He & I hunted together until I was twenty-five years old & then I took an interest in wildlife photography & all hunting activities stopped.  I now do my hunting with a Canon Digital Camera!

I kept that British .303 until it was stolen out of my pick-up back in 2002.

[The Arapaho Kid]

I never develpoed an interest in hunting because I never had a "Dad".  I had a biological father, but he would never take me hunting because, as he said:  "You're so clumsy that you'll trip over something and scare all the game away!"  Never developed an interest in fishing either, for basically the same reason.  So I neither hunt, or fish.

Got my first taste of shooting in the Boy Scouts at summer camp.  I think I was 14, or 15 at the time?

[Slim Silver]

Let's see...Got my first gun, BB gun at 7.  .22 rifle at 10, shotgun at 12.  I lived in the country and had all the room in world to hunt and roam.  By 10 I had my own key to the gun cabinet and would get off the school bus, grab a snack and a gun and a few rounds and hit the woods or fields till near dark.  Get home clean and freeze my kill.  First actual deer hunt at 12.

Quit hunting a few years back for lack of anywhere to hunt.  This year my 10 year old daughter said she wanted to hunt!  Started gettin' stuff together and glad she is interested.  Still can't hardly find a place though.

[jiminy criquet]

Started with a bb gun as a kid (Daisy Model 25).  Then pellet rifle, then .22.

Mostly get tags for wild hogs these days...bow or rifle, take your pick.  If they're still handing out tags I'll probably grab one towards the end of the year and go out a few days for bear, not so much for the bear but for the fun of the hunt.  No dogs, strictly track and stalk.

Never was big on the need to fill the tag, it's always been about the outdoors.

[Mogorilla]

My dad started teaching me to shoot the bow when I was three.   I started with a bb gun at 6 and shotgun at 8.   Did some 22 during this time as well.  Dad didn't hunt much, just occassional bird stuff, which is pretty much what I still do.  My wife's family are all hunters and she pretty much boycotts it.  They have about 900 acres of combo wetlands/wooded area.  I go and target shoot all the time and bird hunt a couple of times a year.   My wife and I go aon Missouri Camera safaris every now and then too.

[Camille Eonich]

I didn't get to hunt when I was young but I have been shooting for as long as I can remember.  My grandfather started taking me to turkey shoots with him as soon as I was out of diapers I guess.  I was shooting a 12 gage before I was 6.  I got my first gun, a bb gun when I was 6 and I got my first shotgun, a .410 that same year.  I still have the shotgun but don't have a clue about what happened to the BB gun.

Stump took me hunting for the first time.  I like to be out in the woods looking like nothing and smelling like nothing.  Doesn't matter if I get any game or not it's just good to be out there.


Since we started cowboy shooting we don't hunt anymore.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

I got my first BB gun at about 6. Then a .22 at 8 and a shotgun, a 20 ga, a couple years later. LOL, the only repeater was my BB gun. Been shooting ever since.

[Doc Neeley]

Never hunted until I got out of the service. I always wanted too, but my Dad wasn't well when I was a youngster.
I did start my own sons young and they got their first shotguns at 10 and 12. My youngest had to call me last night as he got his buck on the last day of his season in ID. These days (for me) it's grouse and pheasant unless I visit my brother in law in Chico, then we go duck hunting.

[Ozark Iron John]

I don't remember my first time shootin or goin huntin, but it had to have been with my Grandpa.  Pap was a real gun enthusiast.  He taught us kids to shoot when we wuz little bitty.  I remember him teachin my brother when he was so little I could still carry him around.  Rifles, shotguns, pistols, we learned to shoot 'em all pretty much before we could read.

Grandma had a picture of me with a pistol in my hand standin next to a big buck.  I was about five years old.  They all laughed and said I shot that buck, but I figure it was probably already dead and Pap just let me shoot it.

[Mustang Gregg]

Got a Daisy M-1894 for Christmas when I was 6.  It was for killing starlings & pigeons around the farm.
Went out with Uncle Dave & Grandpa Albert with .22 Winchester after rabbits & squirrels at about 8.
I went bird huntin' with Dad & used a 20 ga Stevens single shot about the same time frame.
Got a Ruger 10/22 when I was 11 & went on my own since.

MG

[dangerranger]

I hunted with my dad starting at about 5 or 6.Its gotten down to where I only hunt upland birds anymore. between the kids sports and work its hard to get a day when we can all get out together. we still get out on thanksgiving morning for a pheasant shoot tho.

[Marshal harpoluke]

Started hunting at age 9, hunting alone at 12.

Was offical bird hunter at the ranch till 18, one bullet, one bird--my job was to protect the orchard.

useed 1890 win in 22short, n bolt action Marlin.  Still have the Win 1890.

Shot side match at Rio Salido, cb ammo is too aniemic to knock down targets.  Had to borrow modern Rossi clone, it was in 22 long rifle--it did just fine.

Havent hunted since 1972.

[Derby Younger]

Started with my Dad, walking, no gun. First shotgun, JC Higgins Bolt 16 ga at about 14. First and only triple on a covey rise, three birds, three shots with a Ithaca 37 16 ga at 17.

Rabbits, pheasent, squirrel, quail, ducks, geese etc over the years. Pushed the limit one year in the 70's, Yucatan for Ducks/Doves, Northern WI fishing, Canada for Geese, duck blind in Lacon, IL  - herself thought that was a bit much.

Still have the Higgins and Ithaca.   

[Boon]

I lived in Seattle, Washington till I was 22 years old so all I did was fish.  I did Archery Hunting for Duck and Geese, started doing that when I was 14.  Moved to Idaho at age 22 and started hunting. First rifle was a 30-30 Winchester and still love that rifle. I have purchased several rifles and pistols since then and I just do anything that takes me outdoors and in the woods. I will be 62 years young shortly and have taught my Grandsons and Grandaughter how to shoot. I taught Gun Safety for Idaho for eight years and really enjoyed that.  I will re retireing next year and then the fun and party starts....look out CAS

I also Archery hunted for 15 years