"when did You start hunting"

[getstonedprimitivebowhunt]

It would be cool to hear how and when You all got started "HUNTING"

As for me ...!!! I think the day I was born. I started to hunt for food. But I didn't have a bow in my hand yet. The bow hunting really started in 1968. I got a Howard Hill longbow from Uncle Bernie. I shot a blackbird and was so proud. Two years later I took to deer hunting at age 15. Sure wish I still had that bow. Someone walked off with it. Ya ..I'm still hunting for them to. Been doing alot better on deer.

[bornagainbowhunter]

I started hunting when I still had to run to keep up with my Dad and Grandpa.  They started me off coon hunting.  Talk about trial by fire.  Then when they saw that I just loved it, I got to go about everywhere hunting with them.  So I guess about 3 years old.  I started my boys at about 3 years old also, my 5 yeard old just killed his first deer this past season.

[getstonedprimitivebowhunt]

Can you post his deer pics? Kids are the "FUTURE"  Tell him ..."THUMBS UP"  

[Big Bird]

I started deer hunting when I was 12.with a 40# kodiak mag 40 years ago.and I still have the bow.

[DRR324]

One of my "best"     childhood hunting memories....
For Christmas one year my brother and I both received new pump pellet guns.  He is only 11 months younger than I, and we grew up on a small lake where there were only 6 houses on the end of our road.  We were the only ones that lived here year round.  At the ripe age of 10 or so, we would stalk and hunt every day after school, and if it flew, walked, hopped, etc. it was fair game..... at one point, I had the bright idea to to visit one of the neighbors bird feeders, and the shooting was pretty good.  So for a month or so, we would refill their feeder, sit near the wood pile and take our share of red squirrels, a few birds, etc.  Our downfall was in the details, sitting not too far from the feeder was a large stump with a planter pot on it, the stump was hollow and soon became our burial cache.....  no telling how many critters ended up in the stump, we didn't have time to count.  Then one spring day, a knock on the door- mom answered, made some small talk, and called us up from the basement......  standing there with 2 bulging brown paper bags was our neighbor, and she wasn't exactly smiling.  I won't bother with the unfortunate set of events that followed, but I will say she had the best looking yard all summer, and not a single leaf was left in her yard in the fall- FOR THE NEXT 6-7 YEARS!!!!
I still smile to this day thinking about the look on her face when she picked up that planter pot.....  

[jomama]

i was about 11 got my first bow,shot a squirrel in the back yard.

[Sean B]

I started inthe back yard with the BB gun and a few tweety birds.  As a kid, I was really into Indians, so I mad a bow from an old boot lace and a split sapling. My dad was really into small game hunting, and used to take me along all the time.  When I was 10, my dad retired and bought an old hunting cabin from a friend.  There were some old bowhunting magazines laying around, and that really got me into hunting with the bow.

[lpcjon2]

I have to say I was like 8 or 9 and started with a Ben Pearson jet bow(red)fiberglass.I shot everything from frogs to my sisters Barbie dolls. And I'm happy to say my kids are following the tradition.      

[HOWITZER]

I started when my mother finally said it was OK for my father to take me out into the great outdoors.  Just recently picked up archery though only about two years under my belt, but have been loving it so far!

[pintail_drake2004]

I got my first gun when I was 5, first traps around the same time. I made several bows as a kid from a bent branch-took several birds with it. went rabbit hunting and squirrel hunting as a kid by my self and with a friend. My parents didnt hunt but they supported me and my brother in what we wanted to do. Didnt start on ducks and deer until the mid 90's.

[Dick in Seattle]

Last October, at age 71

[pseman]

Started "hunting" as soon as I was big enough to keep up with my Dad. I was probably ~6 years old. Started bowhunting the fall after I graduated high school(1990). Started bowhunting with traditional gear 3 almost 3 years ago.

[straitera]

Raised on a farm in a log cabin house. Started hunting (tagging along) w/Pa as early as I can remember. Coons, rabbits, squirrel, quail, deer it didn't matter. Nothing I'd rather do. Began hunting w/LB at 12...46 years ago.

[Morning Star]

My dad bought me a BB gun when I was 10.  I started tagging along with him pheasant hunting that year.   Deer weren't overly common around here back then, but pheasants were thick.  Those were the days!

I always had an afinity for the bow.  I can remember cutting down saplings and tying some trot line string to each end.  Arrows were wood dowels I bought with candy money from our lumber yard.  I never killed anything but "time...in my bedroom" after bouncing an arrow off the neighbors dog.

Originally posted by Dick in Seattle:
Last October, at age 71

Thanks Dick! I thought I was gonna be the oldest "new" hunter to reply till you saved the day (HAHA). My parents were not hunters so I never hunted as a kid. As soon as I moved out on my own I started gun hunting and at about age 24 got into bowhunting thanks to a buddy at work. It then took me about 10 years to cast off the training wheels and graduate to the trad world. I am here to stay now and could not see huting any other way.

Bisch

[tradtusker]

My grandfather had a Sawmill in Zaire, hunted Big game all over Southern Africa, my father and all his brothers where keen hunters especially the youngest son.
 When my dad knew i was on my way, he went out and bought me a side by side 12g shotgun       it stayed in the safe until i was old enough to use it.
 I accompanied my dad and uncles on many hunts, shot pellet guns and small caliber rifles and rimfires from a young age, when i was 7 years old my father taught me how to drive by myself and said it was time to learn to shoot the shotgun, i did and i killed a Francolin (spur fowl)  with the very first shot i ever took, by complete fluke... i could hardly hold the gun up but i dont even remember the recoil. Latter on that year (7 years old) i killed my first ever plains game animal with the same shotgun, a Warthog, i still have that photo and hunting has been a HUGE part of my life since, more so than most people can understand.  

Life was good growing up on the Farm in South Africa i would not trade my upbringing for anything out there!!

[Ia Hawkeye]

1943. I had a BB gun and followed my grandfather almost every day . Got my first 22 at age 9 in 1948. (we lived out in the boonies )and we ate alot of rabbits,squirrels,groundhog, coon etc.

[LKH]

Used to go out by myself when I was 7 or 8.  Had a homemade slingshot.  Don't really remember exactly when, but I took red squirrels (don't try and eat them), ruffed grouse and snoeshoes.  Our ruffies were just a bit smarter than a 3 holed brick and you could shoot at their heads a few times before they flew.

[carpenter]

1964,I was 10 years old,Dad got me a 22 single shot rifle,and started me rabbit hunting with him.Two years later he got me a 45# Bear Recurve.Killed my first white tail with it the next year.Been hunting or fishing ever since.  Thanks Dad,I miss you.

[Shakes.602]

Tried in in High School, didnt take.