How long have you been "hunting"?

[roadrunner]

4 or 5 years old on a deer hunt with my dad in November.

Remember like it was yesterday - super cold morning and walking up a flat piece of sandstone on an incline that had frost on it with my hands in my front pocket. Yep, you guessed it...my feet slipped out from under me and fell face flat on the rock.

Then it got real cold.

Last memory of that hunt was dad building a bonfire when we got back to the truck and drinking hot chocolate while warming up next to the fire.

Been hunting or "going outside" for several decades since.

 

[Amos Keeto]

"... Last memory of that hunt was dad building a bonfire when we got back to the truck and drinking hot chocolate while warming up next to the fire. ..."

When we got a "shack" instead of a tent, grampa put a one eyed cook heat stove in.
He could build a fire in that heater that could run you out of that 12'×12' shack
...even on a COLD day!

 

[Ross]

This is my 50th yr afield

 

[*zap*]

55yrs hunting.
65 yrs fishing.

 

[Billy Goat]

I came from a non-hunting family. My dad never saw the point in it, he'd just go slaughter something from the farm.

I think I was 12 when I got my first big game kill, it was with a bow. I had chased pigeons for a long time with an arrow, connected on a few, but it really cemented i was a hunter once I got a deer with a pointy stick.


My dad wasn't exactly impressed, that wouldn't have been hard to do while I was doing chores, let alone the time I spent off the farm trying to accomplish it.

He didn't care that much, I got done what I needed to do. But it was sure a different reaction than others I was around.

I think a few of y'all on the 'fuge?

 

[grfox92]

I have been obsessed with Hunting since as long as I can remember. 4 years old was when I started watching hunting VHS tapes. Started hunting when I was 12 and haven't missed a single season. That was 27 years ago.

I bow hunted whitetail exclusively for the 20 years in NY. It was a year round thing, hunting all fall, long season, between Connecticut and NY I hunted from September 1st until December 31st. She'd hunted the winter, ran cams and scouted in the summer.

At one point my mother came to me crying explaining she was afraid people would think I was crazy for how obsessed with hunting I was. Nothing has changed. Still as obsessed, with 4 kids now, luckily I'm only a little crazy but live a normal existence .

Now I live in Wyoming and hunt Antelope, elk and Mule Deer every year.

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[willtim]

I'm 68. As long as I can remember.

 

[Caseknife]

Close to 60 years. Started tagging along with my Mom deer hunting and was the "retriever" for grouse with both my parents. Killed my first buck with my Dad's 1937 Model 70 '06 when I was 14.

 

[weekender7]

At age 2, I can remember my dad and grampa coming from their "lease" with two deer.
I didn't comprehend everything, but I remember it being interesting.
The next fall, at age three, dad took me with him. When it came time to hunt, dad piggybacked me up into the tree stand, wrapped me in a blanket and tied me to the tree so I wouldn't go to sleep and fall out of the tree! LOL!
I turned 75 today. Oct 27th!
Okee-dokee! I didn't really "hunt" for several years.
At age 6, pop handed me a double barrel .410 and I was allowed to shoot a dove off a power line.
That was my first "taste" of blood!
I don't recall my first squirrel or duck or any other game until my first deer in 1967!
Point being, I have been hunting, or in the woods "with" someone hunting (dad or grandad) since I was 3 years old. I missed killing game for some of those years when my kids were young, but I found a place or some time to hunt during those years.

I've been hunting now for 72 years!

63 yrs for me

 

[Meshnasty]

24+ years for me. I started deer and duck hunting at 12 but I was shooting pigeons, sparrows and starlings on my grandpas farm as far as back as I can remember. They weren’t safe from me and my crossman.

 

[casey36]

Shot my first deer and small game at age 12. At that time you had to be 12 to hunt in Pennsylvania, no youth hunts yet. 49 years now.

 

[Amos Keeto]

I have been obsessed with Hunting since as long as I can remember. 4 years old was when I started watching hunting VHS tapes. Started hunting when I was 12 and haven't missed a single season. That was 27 years ago.

I bow hunted whitetail exclusively for the 20 years in NY. It was a year round thing, hunting all fall, long season, between Connecticut and NY I hunted from September 1st until December 31st. She'd hunted the winter, ran cams and scouted in the summer.

At one point my mother came to me crying explaining she was afraid people would think I was crazy for how obsessed with hunting I was. Nothing has changed. Still as obsessed, with 4 kids now, luckily I'm only a little crazy but live a normal existence .

Now I live in Wyoming and hunt Antelope, elk and Mule Deer every year.

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The lease was 45 miles away.
I'd borrow dad's truck and leave after school on Friday. Had to be home for church Sunday morning OR Sunday afternoon.
Mom asked me one time, "Don't you ever have a date or hang out with your friends?"
Came in one Sunday morning. Mom said, "You missed it! Randy, Jim and Roger (class mates) got picked up for minors in possession of alcohol!"
"Well mom," I said, "That's a normal weekend for those three!"

Dad told me he needed his truck next week end. Imagine my surprise when I got home and dad's truck was sitting in the drive. (?)
When I walked into the house, Mom said, "I got you some biscuits, bacon and eggs! Want to go hunting this weekend?"
She never complained about me hunting again!

"TAKE YOUR SON HUNTING AND YOU WON'T HAVE TO HUNT YOUR SON!"

 

[CorbLand]

I don’t remember at what age but I remember bouncing around in a 70s Bronco on the Idaho desert when I was single digits. Older than 4.

Got my BB gun when I was 8 and shot every bird I could hit. My mom told me I couldn’t shoot robins and my grandma said no shooting the killdeer. I shot a lot of robins but did leave the killdeer alone. I loved my grandma too much.

Hunted some in high school and got really into duck hunting in college.

Overall, probably 26 years, in some form or another. Some years I am more dedicated than others.

 

[Smokey Bear]

Been fishing for as long as I remember. Dad didn’t hunt. Wish I could have made a trip with either of my grandpas but was too young I guess. My first year hunting my buddy and I had damage control tags. Doe tag. We got the call and headed out. When we came around a corner in the area to hunt a lady waved us down from her car. She asked if we had the damage tags. We said yes. She said if you see a doe come right up to you to please not shoot. A few corners later a doe comes right up to the passenger window. Could have slit its throat. We honored her request at left it. We still did get our does. That was in 92, and I was 22. The following year I got my first blacktail buck. Just got back from the woods near by, so 33 years here. Great thread!

 

[kwackkillncrew]

Dad used to duck hunt alot, in college then gave it up for a while. I remember being really young and seeing him head out to bow hunt deer and it got my interested. I found some decoys in the shed one day and asked him what they were about. That next fall he started duck hunting again and brought me out to watch for the first two years so i could learn and get the idea of it without worrying about shooting. When I was 7 he got me a single shot 20 gauge new England pardner. Few years later got upgraded to a 20 gauge pump and a few years after that a 12 gauge. Been at it for 30 years now and the last 15 years in ak hunting for stuff I never thought I would have the chance to hunt. I always said the first harlequin I shot I was going to mount it. After seeing how abundant they are up here and basically no different then shooting a wood duck in mn, I decided to eat my first harli and every other one I habe shot since then. Only ducks I'd mount any more would be a oldsquaw (or long tail for you PC type people) or a king rider (which will only happen with pure luck because i refuse to pay $4k to shoot a couple sea ducks.)

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[Dennis]

Started some time before this photo in 1950’s shooting my old long bow.