What age did you start?

[hi2u]

Curious on to see what age everyone started backpacking hunting?

I'm now 29 and have gone once.

I grew up backpacking a lot, but did little hunting. Now I love the scenery and the hunt!
Saw a post about old age and got me curious to post this.

 

[tttoadman]

Started hunting when I was 12. Started back pack hunting when I was 14 and my brother was 16. We would go for 2 weeks by ourselves.

 

[5MilesBack]

I was 15, that was the minimum hunting age for big game in CO back then.....in 1980. Oh how equipment has changed since then. I just wish I had started archery at the same time. But being LH and that 32 1/2" draw thing was a real hindrance back then.

 

[ReddingArcher]

I think I was in my early 20's when I went on my first backpack hunt. Its by far the most rewarding hunting I have done, reguardless of whether or not an animal is killed.

 

[orionthehunter1]

14, that was the legal age in Colorado when I was growing up. The good old days when me and my dad would be the only ones back in there because most guys were too scared to venture that far back. There were no gps units and only a few people had cell phones. I remember people always asking why we would go so far for an elk.

 

[Desk Jockey]

41. 2 years in.

I bird hunted and rabbit hunted years ago. Started flinging arrows at deer and wearing a backpack to do it a couple of years ago. Hope to keep it up for a long time.

 

[elkyinzer]

Started hunting groundhogs and squirrels when I was 8 or 9. Legally started hunting deer and small game in PA at 12. Went on my first elk backpack hunt, a weeklong spike camp, at 24. Been on two non-backpack cabin based elk hunts since then. As I've grown older, backpacking has rapidly lost the whole romantic wanderlust appeal I initially had for it. I occasionally employ backpacking to get in deep here in the PA Wilds and will backpack again for elk if the circumstances dictate, but anymore to me it's a means to an end, not some badge of honor. I love camping but really prefer to do it more comfortably out of a truck or my favorite, a canoe, if possible.

 

[mfolch]

Started when I was 35, living in NYC, and came to the realization that if I didn't start now and learn what it takes to hunt asap, I'd probably never get around to it.

 

[cnelk]

Not a 'backpacker' per se but I started at a pretty young age.
My dad took me plenty when I was just knee-high.

This is the first deer that I got to lead the blood trailing duties.
We sat together in an old jackpine tree and I watched him shoot it.
Probably about 1968ish - I remember it well

 

[zman]

Backpack hunting: 39
Backpack fishing:15

 

[Blockcaver]

I was 21 when I did my first Colorado backpack hunt. I'm 64 now.

 

[sab]

Took hunters safety at 14. Went on hiatus for 23 years. Started hunting at 37. Did my first backpack hunt at 42. Just turned 50, and wishing that 23-year hiatus never happened! Like the old Nike commercial - Just Do It!

 

[Felix40]

I did my first backpack hunt while living in CO at 21. I also killed my first elk that year. Im 28 now and make at least two big trips a year plus hunting the best "backcountry" Texas has to offer. Hope to move back one day.

 

[oldgoat]

51 actually back packing in, but was truck camping going in a fair ways every day before that. Actually kind of easier on us back packing now, not wearing ourselves out everyday hiking in and out. We don't pack in real far, just camp just short of where we start seeing elk.

 

[AK Troutbum]

My first backpack hunt was for Dall sheep at age 41 and have been mountain hunting every year since. Prior to my first backpack hunt, my favorite way to hunt was float hunting. I haven't been on a float hunt since 2011. Man, I sure hope to still be doing this 20 years from now, but anything can happen and just being alive 20 years from now sounds like a good goal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ranger619]

My first backpack hunt was a Montana elk hunt at 44 years old. This will be my 6th year doing 1-2 hunts a year.

 

[Crotalus]

Started hunting at 12, if all goes according to plan I'll start backpack hunting at 48 (next year)

 

[bluetick78]

I started backpack fishing in the Frank Church at 10 yrs old with my dad. We took binos the next year to look for animals. My dad was blown away by they number and size of the mulies in there. That was in 1988, we backpack hunted in the Frank for many years and did well until the last ten years or so, hunter pressure increased dramatically. Now we backpack hunt several different areas across the state depending on which areas turn up nice bucks or bulls during summer scouting. Hope I get to continue for many more years.

 

[Frito]

Started hunting when I was 9. Whitetail, hog, alligator.....Started backpack hunting when I was 34, after I moved to a state where people backpack hunt.