"when did You start hunting"

[Covey]

Started hunting in my teens. When I graduated, I had to put it on hold do to costruction work and such. I finally got a job close to home about 6 years so been trying to hunt as much as I can. My 11 year old son loves to get in the woods so I try to take him when I go (hate to leave him at home) it's my job but I love it! Jason

[Quinn]

I used to gun hunt when I was a kid. Had an attack of conscience because of my ability to tag 'em while far beyond their natural prey senses.
Got into trad archery a little over a year ago, shooting 3-d.
It's relaxing. It appealed to me mostly because for the instinctive aspect to work well I had to clear my mind of whatever might've been chewing away at it before I got to the range. Well, after bangin' away at those foam animals for awhile it seems my natural predatory instincts were awakened. I'm just been waiting to get consistent enough to get out there and get at 'em. I started hunting about a month ago, nothing yet but I've gotten close and it sure make my heart go to thumpin'.

[widow sax]

I started with my dad before I had a lic myself he use to take me hunting I would watch. I remember him shooting his recurve and going to bow shops with him. He got me a indian recurve for christmas when I was real young had to lay down and put both feet on it and use both hands to shoot it 40lb drawl. I still have that bow one broadhead tip wooden arrow, arm guard, and wornout back quiver and that is the bow I used to teach myself how to shoot instinctively back in 2000. Thirty years ago when I started bowhunting I returned the favor and got him back into bowhunting he had quite for a long time. My best memories of hunting are always when it was with him. The day he hangs it all up is going to be a very sad day in my life he is getting closer to that day every year I just keep hoping just one more year, just one more year.  Widow

[wtpops]

When i was a kid i used to go hunting with my uncle and cuz, i would not hunt at this time i was just a extra set of eyes. They hunted with guns and i just had no desire to use a gun to take an animal, had and have nothing aganist anyone who does but even at that young age it just wasn't for me. Then at age 19 or maybe it was 20 i saw one of those new bowhunting shows, and i thought now thats the way to do it. Saved up my pennies and got my first bow, ya it was a training bow (had wheels). From the first day i was looking at recurves but stuck with the wheels for about 12 years or so, the hole time wanting to try a recurve. I always seemed to have this need to get just a little closer so one day i was looking through my log book and realized i had never killed anything out past 25 yards or so. Once that sunk in i found a used recurve and have been loving it ever sence. There was about a 4 to 5 year break as one of my boys was a 4 sport athlete in high school and i could not miss out on that but as soon as he was done i was back at it. Im 53 now and get just as amped up as i did at 20 when i get in close...

Still to this day i have never hunted with a firearm and i still dont have anything aganist it just not for me.

[doowop]

Dad started me rabbit hunting with my own .410 when I was 7.

[Jmatt1957]

I started in 1968. We lived in town and a friend of mine got a crossman pellet gun. We would walk up and down the neighbor hood and shoot pigions off of roof tops.

[Overspined]

the second I could throw rocks and sharpen sticks. video games couldn't hold a candle to going after things that were alive! some of us just have that strong instinct

[randy grider]

Must have been about 12 before aquiring anything to hunt with, it was a Bear fiberglass bow, about 20 #. No mentor to teach me anything, and i'm still learning at age 47.
 My grandson is shooting a longbow at age 2. He's got a real good start.

[katman]

1967 BB gun and frog population in the local ponds dropped. Was gifted a longbow by my uncle (thanks uncle Ben) in 1973 and shot the heck out of it at straw bales. First bow hunt in 1980 and harvested a doe with that longbow, I can still replay every detail of that season. I have been hunting with a bow since. Later gifted the bow to my young cousin. Just got my nephew shooting a bow last year and maybe he will be a hunter someday.

[legends1]

I was born into a archery and hunting/fishing family.
I guess you could say my entire life i have been envolved,im 49yrs now.I deer hunted from age 12.I was 14 before i ever got my first buck.That was with a 45# Bear Grizley.A day i will never forget.Is been a awesome ride.Realy thankful i was given so many woderful memories.
Now im in the buisness,and can say it never gets old.Im truly a lucky man.

[elkhunter752]

I started going hunting before I could walk, my dad would carry me on his back and have been hunting ever since.  Supposedly I guided my uncle elk hunting when I was 3 or 4.  He claims I did a great job and knew right where I was going.  I started shooting a bow probably at 8 or 9.  This is a neat post, some real good reading.

[Brian Krebs]

My Dad and Mom put me on the front lawn when I was 4 months old; and I didn't play with any of the toys around me- my dad figured out I was watching the ants; and other bugs.
 I remember catching bees with a jar and lid; and the 'king of bees' came for revenge. My mom and dad did not believe me when I told the story of the 'king of bees'. It took a month before my mother realized the avenging angel was a ~hummingbird~.
 ( It told them it had a huge stinger ! )
I think though my first 'hunt' was after I saw a chipmunk fall from a tree. I told my mother about it; and she again doubted me. I was about 4.
 I sat outside the house for a month or more- every day; waiting until another mishap. I was rewarded when a fox squirrel- fell to the ground with a tremendous 'PLOP'. It hit the ground and was knocked out.
 I picked it up; and took it to my mother while she was in the kitchen.
 I had proof; after all that waiting !
If the fire department in East Lansing Michigan has records that far back- I can prove my first hunt; as the squirrel woke up; and after a very long chase scene involving my mother and father- the fire department was called in to get the squirrel out of the chimney.    :D  
  I got a bow when I was 4 or 5; and my neighbors feared for any straight branch on their bushes.
  When the Beatles hit America - I was deadly with my slingshot. By the beginning of the 1960's' I was shooting a Ben Pearson and killing squirrels; and rabbits; and woodchucks.
  Took my first deer with a bow in 1978.
   

[wapitimike1]

When I was born!!!

[Hot Hap]

1955-.22 rifle
1958-first bow
1966-first deer hunt

Hap

[maineac]

Grew up in a suburb in a family that was not interestrd in anything outdoors.  Started fishing at 10.  In 1980 while in college took an archery course and started hunting.  Bought a used compound that I shot instinctive. Started hunting rabbits in a big orchard behind the dorm.  The next fall started walking a couple of miles from campus to look for deer in the woods.  Been hooked ever since, traded my "Traditional Compound' Two years ago.

[59Alaskan]

My father had retired from pheasant hunting by time I was born.  I picked up rifle shooting from my neighbors who had started a company called Trijicon (optics).  Started bird hunting when I was around 19.  Sat in the woods with friends who deer hunted a few times.

My cousin talked me into a compound for deer hunting about 3 years ago.  I am in the process of making the switch to Traditional.  Got my first Trad bow for Christmas.  Have shot it a couple hundred times since, but haven't touched the compound since.

[kstout]

Started bow hunting for deer in 1967 with a Paul Bunyan fiberglass longbow, 40#.  Switched to a Bear kodiak hunter in 1970, 45#.  Hunted small game and shot many carp before hunting deer, but didn't get my 1st deer until 1978, with a proline compound.  Went back to a recurve the next year, and have hunted with recurve or longbow since.  Only used the compound for 1977, and 1978 seasons.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Started shooting bows when I was about 5 in the back yard.  Started going with my dad squirrel hunting when I was about 7.  My dad went bowhunting a few times when I was 8.  He fell out of bowhunting the same year, and when I turned 12 got him back into it, weve been hunting together ever since!

[Mike Bolin]

Tagged along with my older brothers when I was 4. Got a Sheridan pellet gun when I was 5 and took a few tree rats. First shotgun at 6 and was allowed to hunt alone at age 8. Started trapping at age 10. Started with wheels when I was 25 as it was about then that the deer herd in my area started to thrive. Switched to strictly trad bows in 1985, but began to tinker with recurves in 1982. Seldom hunt with firearms anymore. Still love my guns, but I am most content when I have a bow in my hand. Mike

[indianalongbowshooter]

started going with my Dad when I was 5-6 squirrel hunting/rabbit hunting, started hunting on my own when I was 11  for rabbits/squirrel, started trapping at 12 and didnt take up deer hunting until I was 25-26(seriously), had went a few times with friends before that..