Hunting without a dad, what is your experience?

[buckeye_hunter]

This thread may not be the most exciting. Heck, it might even get pulled for all I know.

I just finished a book called "The Doorway Buck" and it made me think about my hunting experiences. The author started out hunting on his own without a male role model similar to me.

I never had a dad to go hunting with. Shoot, I never had any guys to go hunting with until recent years. The reason I hunted was something that burned inside me. It is or has been tough in the past to spend so much time alone hunting and not having anyone that understood that desire.

I am a person that loves company, hunting alone isn't fun for me. Sitting on stand alone is fine, but when the day is done it is fun to swap stories.

This isn't written as some sort of sob story. I was just wondering how many guys out there learned to hunt on their own and how many still wish they had a dad or brother to share it with?


-Charlie

[Ragnarok Forge]

I was on the other end of the spectrum and grew up in a huge hunting family.  15 to 20 family members in camp was the norm.  I have completely swapped out on that and prefer to hunt alone or just with my wife and I.  I can be alone in the woods / camp for 2 weeks and enjoy the solitude and peace.  Plus I am way more effective at covering ground and getting close to elk, deer, bears, and cougars when hunting alone.  

Whenever I get a hankering for company I just drive to a close by state campground find a bunch of hunters and spend an evening swapping stories.  

Trad archery for me is a solo sport where the hunting is more important than the social aspects in the evenings. Different strokes for different folks.

[LongStick64]

My father was a big time surf fisherman, showed me how to bait the hook, tie a few knots and a brief casting instruction, the rest was up to me he said.
I still enjoy fishing but I was bitten by the archery bug the first time I saw that Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie on a Sunday afternoon. Always bugged my dad to get me a bow. Growing up in NYC wasn't exactly the sort of place a young man can roam around stumping.
Well I kept the dream rolling until I started serious work and saved up some greenies to buy my own bow.
Never had anyone show me how to pull it off except for some library books and a rare clip of Fred Bear. Dad, well he just stuck to fishing and the best things he taught me were on that beach, Patience and stick with it, keep your senses tuned to what you are doing and you may just get it done.
Funny thing was, later on when I finally could say I was a bowhunter, he asked me if he could tag along. Well as patient of man he was on the beach, he just couldn't handle sitting on stand. Told me, how in the world do I do it. "You taught me how Dad". Guess the old man loved to look out on to the water with the warm sun on his back.
Miss you Dad, you taught me more than words can say.

[NightHawk]

I grew up with a dad but he wasn't interested in doing anything with me. I love my dad but all he cared about back then was where his next beer was. It was just as well because when we did do something with other folks I always ended up being embarressed.
   He did own a bear kodiack and when he wasn't around I'd sneak his bow out and shoot it, mostly in the air so I could watch the arrow fly. I still do that 35 years later, an arrow in flight is still magical to me

[lablover]

Don't think its a boring subject, alot of guys started off on their own. I got started on my own because my dad was a trucker. But think the lord for me there was an Uncle and Grandfather that took me hunting when they found out I was interested. Like you hunting is a solitary activity, but the friendship I gain in the non-hunting parts of archery are very important to me. I have a brother but not near, so we exchange hunting stories via phone, and I do miss my uncle and grandfather. So at the end of every hunt I remember hunts from the past with them.

[buckeye_hunter]

Sometimes, I think that family isn't valued in this world anymore. I had a big family and they all went their seperate ways to get away from the guy my mom married.

I guess that is why hunting is a family and friends thing for me personally. Now I take my girls out to the woods with me as often as I can. They oblige me, but I'm not sure they have quite the same drive to be out "hunting". I still have a lot of fun with them though and hope someday they will love it like I do!

-Charlie

[Spectre]

I was blessed with an older brother who has always been an avid outdoorsman.

 Now its me trying to get him to drop the training wheels and shoot a man's bow!

 This is a good thread---we should honor our families.

[joe ashton]

I had the best Dad a kid could want but he did not hunt.  I was crazy about 'outdoor life' and well any magazine I could find about hunting big game. I did not start hunting until I was 28 years old. Now, my son did not take to hunting at all and that has been sad (God is getting even with me for not taking up GOlf like my Dad hoped I would)

Joe

[wapiti792]

I did not have a pop around but I did have neighbors and friends that would take a kid hunting. I was "ate up" from early on and while everybody else had the "new" compounds in the late 70's and ealy 80's all I had was an old Herter's recurve that my great uncle gave me to play with. I tell 'ya, I never felt like I was missing something. I learned to hunt on my own at a very young age, and my mom would drop me off at a woodlot on Saturdays on her way to her third job.

I learned alot on my own, but had alot of help from some older hunters that took a shinin' to me because I drove them nuts at the barber shop and sporting goods store with questions. One of the older hunters took me on a youth deer hunt when I was 12 and I took a great doe. The rest is history. I am pretty much self-taught but it has been a GREAT experience. Now I am gonna change history: my children will never know what it is like to be without a dad who will show them anytime the ethics and skills of woodsmanship and hunting!

[Greg Clark]

My family was not a hunting family and I got started on my own.  Not the easiest way but if you can't find a mentor, you either quit or persevere on your own.  I still hunt mostly on my own since most of the good hunting friends I have live outside GA.  Hunting with like minded folks is great but many hunters don't share a like mind to myself so given the choice of hunting with many typical hunters of today or alone, I choose alone.

[Bear]

My Dad didn't have a dad. He taught himself to hunt and fish, and always vowed to be the Dad he didn't have. He was.

[reddogge]

My father didn't hunt but he did teach me to fish.  He supported my lifelong love affair with hunting and the outdoors and my parents did buy me my first bow and arrow set in 1956 and we lived in the city to boot.

I learned everything from friends, books, magazines and my own.

You are darned right I'd like to talk to my dad again.  He has been gone for 15 years now.

I taught my son (hunt, fish, camp)and daughter (fish,camp) and now am teaching grandchildren.  Life goes around.

[joevan125]

When i was 8yrs old my dad had a girlfriend whos dad took me under his wing, i really miss that wonderful man.

He took me on my first squirell hunt and i sat in his lap, 15 minutes later 5 of those critters came out of there nest and he let me shoot a couple of them.

Man was i hooked on hunting and that man lit a fire in me that has never come close to going out. I can still smell the powder that 410 made while shooting those squirells.

The first deer hunt i went on we were running dogs and we had a couple of yearlings come by and he shot one with buckshot.

For some reason that fire burned even stronger after that day even though it was just a little doe.

He showed me how to dress the deer and even let me help in the process, i felt like one of the guys ya know.

I havent seen Mike in over 20yrs but i plan on giving him a visit just as soon as possible.

I bet all those years ago he had no clue what a great impact he would make on my life in the years to come.

I wonder sometimes what my life would be like if he had never took me on that first hunt, its something i will never forget for as long as i live.

[buckeye_hunter]

Bear,

Hope my kids see it that way when they look back.

-Charlie

[PAPA BEAR]

i grew up in a large family,13 kids in all.only one brother that hunted then he got hurt real bad in a logging accident and couldnt hunt anymore.my dad was also a drunk from as far back as i can remember.i pretty much had to learn how to hunt on my own also.i really feel it made a better hunter out of me.i learned through the best possible methods..trial and error were my teachers.looking back it would have been nice to hunt more than once or twice with my father and grandfather but it is what it is i guess.i had a lot of fun learning from mother nature,shes a great teacher.

[longbowman]

My Dad tried to hunt but wasn't much of a hunter.  I only hunted with him when I was 11 and sometimes 12 and then I was off on my own.  I too hunted because I felt it inside me.  I'm the opposite end of spectrum personality when it comes to hunting than you.  While I've shared a camp fire with some good people I'd rather be otu there alone.  My son and I hunt together but never with each other.  When the days done I'll swing buy his way or he mine to see how we did but I'm at peace when I'm in the woods.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

I had a father, who didn't hunt. I was a "anti" until I saw the light in my late 20's. I have a brother who has hunted his whole life and was waiting for me on the other side. I've returned the favor by introducing him to trad archery.

I will do my very best to instill a love of land and God's bounty in my children.

Thank you for this thread!

[buckeye_hunter]

N Cal Hunter,

Thanks for posting your thoughts!

What you and others wrote is proving to be a benefit to me! It makes me glad to see many fathers, and fathers to be, thinking about family and tradition.

-Charlie

[bentpole]

My Dad never hunted or fished.    

[sou-pawbowhunter]

Wow does this thread ever bring some stuff to the surface. I had a great Dad, he showed me the basics of rabbit and squirrel hunting, as well as rifle hunting for deer. He wasn't too sure about "that archery stuff" when I first started with wheels, but he was proud as could be of that first six point I brought home with the bow. Sadly, he wasn't still with us when I got my first longbow buck. I have to say my trad adventure has been very much a solitary experience, except for all the help I have found on this site. Now that I'm getting a few years behind me I think I'd like to share a camp with some like minded folks, not to hunt together as much as share stories and lift each other up around the campfire.