Where did it start for you?

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

My cousin took me duck hunting for the first time in 2014 while I was in college. Sat in a couple deer stands, did a few more duck hunts through the years. Moved to Washington in 2017 and hunted turkey and deer 2018. Since then I've started elk, bear, upland and waterfowl hunting more seriously. Still have a ton to learn but got my first deer this year!

Adult onset hunting without much of a mentor is tough. I've used this forum and others and youtube to learn just about everything I know now.

 

[william schmaltz]

The family business for 100 years was a butcher shop. We had unlimited access to the best meat imaginable so no need for more. We always worked 7 days a week and come deer season it would be about 6 weeks straight of 16 hours days and 7 days a week processing deer on top of what we were already doing. Waking up in the middle of the night to check the smoke house, etc. The only time we took a break was for Sunday morning breakfast and church. Sucked. My Dad never could understand deer hunters. Spend money on a tag, gas, and gear to bring in 40 lbs of hair-covered meat that he would mix with 50% pork and then end up charging people just as much or more that if they would've just bought sausage from him and saved their selves the hassle. If I would've brought home more meat for us to process, he may have hung me.

I was obsessed with fishing growing up. Never went much b/c the family was always working. In high school, all us guys would go and shoot trap before every football game. That eventually led to me and a couple brothers with a single Mom going out on our own and shooting pheasant, ducks, and geese. We managed pretty good on our own hunting birds and ice fishing through high school and college. My Mom's Dad and Brothers were always big into hunting. Even did annual trips out to MT from ND for elk back in the 70s and 80s. My uncle was eventually my hunting mentor and took me for my first deer hunt when I was a Junior in high school. Best thing that ever happened to me and I've never met a more ethical human to this day. He passed away 10 years ago next month. One year on opening day an easily 160"+ white tail came through where we were sitting. He said shooting that deer wasn't worth having to sit out the rest of the season and missing 20 days of hunting. He was right. He would usually hunt every day of the rifle season passing up numerous great deer and would end up just shooting a few does the last morning.

I always kinda chuckle to myself when I see hunting videos and guys talking about doing some big hunt they've dreamed about since as long as they remember or since kindergarten or whatever. Not the case for people that grew up like me in the place I did. Hell, with no internet or exposure to hunting growing up in the upper Midwest, I probably didn't even know what the hell a Dall Sheep was until I got to college!

 

[Gman12]

5 years old, .410 single shot. On a stand for deer running dogs...

Exact same scenario for me too. I never killed a deer with my 410 but finally did with a 20 gauge. Hooked ever since but my passion has morphed a little over the years. I love nothing better than to be out west every Sept. I'd trade a week in the Rockies chasing elk for the entire deer season at home without hesitation. And I learned about 10 years ago that duck hunting is a blast too.

 

[OregonSteeler]

Excellent thread! Love reading all of the different stories and ways people got into hunting. Here's mine:

Grew up in a very small town in Pennsylvania. Hunting was pretty big as schools always had the opening season Monday off for the first day of deer. My Dad took me hunting a couple of times but he wasn't really big into it. I vividly remember driving 5 minutes down the road and walking to our spots in the dark. He would always make himself a thermos of coffee and me a thermos of sweet tea. Don't know why but I always got super cold once that sun had risen. To this day I can still feel the chill of the November air. I think over the 3-4 years of hunting we did, I shot a doe (but didn't recover until day after and unfortunately meat was ruined) and Dad shot a small buck.

One time I remember. I was probably 13 or 14 and my Dad let me walk to the property we sometimes hunted, about 10 minutes down the road. I now have a teenager and can't imagine letting my 13yr old take a .30-06 into the woods alone to hunt! I shot a decent sized buck but never did recover it, even after my Dad came to help me. Also went hunting a couple times with my uncle but no luck. Overall, I never had the experience or spark that interested me like it does now.

Highschool and college I idiotically didn't have anything else on my mind except drinking, partying and girls. Didn't pick up a rifle for probably 10-12yrs. Met the wife in college and moved to Tucson in 2002. Moved to Oregon in 2005 for my job. While in transition, I stayed with someone who was a big time hunter, along with all his friends. THIS is where I got the bug to hunt and fish. Went on a couple of hunting/fishing trips with them and since then, that's all I plan for and around. Took me quite a few years but now the wife loves the outdoors and my boys are really starting to get into it.

Stopped hanging around with that group for a couple different reasons and went my own way on hunting and fishing. I'm 100% self taught. Consider myself a decent fisherman but wish I was a better hunter. I've gotten a couple animals over the years but the learning curve being self taught is steep. Doesn't matter though, as I enjoyed every minute in the woods or on the water.

I now feel sports and/or outdoors activities are absolutely essential to a kid growing up. Doesn't matter if you're any good or not, just that you try hard, put yourself through some suffering, and learn what it means to be self-sufficient. And get the HELL off those dang phones!

 

[TheBootBowhunting]

Grandpa telling me to climb a bunch of rotten 2x4s up to blue, rusted 50 gallon drum nailed in a pin oak tree. I remember thinking, Im an absolute ninja up here. At no point did I consider that this is nearly certain death. Danger was not in my vocabulary. Full on hooked from then on. It was maybe the most dangerous thing Ive done outside of some trips to Afghanistan and trusting a certain certified crayon eating Marine to tie my spie rigging harness.

 

[rodney482]

Small game and a pellet rifle.. late 70’s

 

[Ahiuranch]

I started hunting with my dad at 8 years old. By that I mean I was going on stalks and going to bayed pigs at 8. At 10 I got moved up to pack mule. At 12 I killed my first goat and at 13 my dad let me venture out on my own stalks with his trusty 30-30 from my grandpa. This photo is my cousin and I at 13 years old with some goats we kilt. I had the Winchester 30-30 he had my dads 22 mag. We got to 15 yards of the edge of the group picked our goats and got them dropped. Tied them up back pack style and packed them back to my dad so he could gut them and take the insides that my grandpa liked to eat. We hunted goats on the way to the beach. Killed them, cleaned the stomach out at the beach, then did some throw net for the surf part of our meal then headed home for dinner. Livin the life
-Kai

 

[harrishunter]

Elk at 13