how did you start hunting and shooting??????

[Cool Arrow]

My grandfather found an old indian osage bow on his Mich. farm, made me a string and some arrows. I carried this thing to the grocery, the Sat matinees and to bed at night. Been in my blood ever since. This was in 42.
     Larry

[LONGSTYKES]

Started Hunting in my teens with a rifle and shotgun. Then I soon graduated up to a Traditional bow, a kodiak. Loved them every since.

[ncsaknech1ydh]

My Dad had a kids bow from when he was little,  so I suppose my interest was peaked as far back as I can remember, maybe 3 or 4, then around 1976 he bought us a Bear 76er that we would shoot when we would go shore fishing along lake Oahe in SD. I would have been 14 or so at that time, never did hunt with it though, I bought a Bear Whitetail hunter in 1984 and took my first deer the fall of 1985 and the rest for me is history! I bought a Groves TD in 1991 and have been shooting Traditionl ever since, the best move I ever made concerning my Archery career.

[woodcock]

Really great to see how it all started for everyone.  Only one hunting trip for me as a kid, I remember there were 4 young-uns and my dad.  I carried a single shot .22.  Dad had a sxs 12 guage, all borrowed.  He no longer hunted after childhood. We followed him single file thru the georgia creek bottoms for squirrel and a covey of quail went up unexpectedly.  The flush and shotgun blasts scared me to death!  That was probably '67 or '68.  Didn't hunt again until after college and usmc tour.  I was a devoted shooter of everything that would sling a projectile, rifles, pistols, shotguns and bows but never could warm up to compounds.  Now my family and I are ardent trad hunters, stumpers and 3-d shooters.  We also love woodcock hunting over our pointers.  I take off from the humdrum and work as a Maine Guide for woodcock for the month of October. Funny where it takes us.  But it is a maturation and progression for all, I hope.  Some "hunters" never seem to get it. The art and beauty is lost on so many.  I think it is the difference between loving someone and a hooker.  Similar relationship to hunting and a pen raised bird shoot or canned hunt.

[illwhttail]

It sure is interesting  hearing other people tell there story.

[Hot Hap]

BB gun @ 8
.22 @ 11
12 ga. @ 12
Recurve @ 14

[OkieJ]

Got my first bow when I was 9 (1967), Hunted my first bow season in "71 with my dad. Turned out bow hunting was not for him but the fire was already lit. Found a older boy who would haul me out to the woods and we are still friends. We don't hunt together much anymore because of our jobs but we still try to get together once aweek and have a beverage.

[Clint B.]

As a boy, I learned about running a trap line, coon & fox hunting with hounds & hunting small game by tagging along with my dad. We didn't have deer and turkeys to hunt back then. I also learned about archery/bowhunting from my cousin & his wife, who both shot in archery tournaments with Black Widow recurves. I was too young to appreciate it at the time, but they competed along side some archery greats who lived in Missouri - Ann & Earl Hoyt Jr. & the Wilson Brothers (who made Black Widow Bows). I learned mostly by hanging out with their son, who let me try to shoot his Bear Grizzly recurve. I later took up the sport by myself when I was a teenager. My first real hunting bow was a Shakespeare Necedah recurve that I bought with my "hay hauling money". Anybody else remember bucking hay bales during summer vacation? It was hot, hard work. I think the big round bale was invented out of necessity because farmers couldn't find enough hay haulers!    Clint

[Flinttim]

My Dad, and no one else in my extended family for that matter, were hunters. That will set your time line back some.But anyway, for my 9th Christmas I got a Daisy air gun and taught myself to shoot. Dad did have a nice Mossberg .22 that he had bought for some reason but he would not let me near it at that age. The next Christmas I asked for and got an Indian archery set. Again, self taught and that included some self taught bad habits too. By the time I was 16 Dad had given me the .22 so I was now "gunned" for squirrels. I needed a teacher. My best Buddy growing up was Don Fleetwood and he was a squirrel hunter par excellence. His pop, a WW2 Iwo Jima Marine Sargent was a born woodsman and had taught Don well.Don taught me what he knew. I parlayed my squirrel woods  experience into the deer woods when deer made their comeback. And I guess it's been all downhill from there .LOL.

[maineac]

Like Tim, came from a family of non-outdoors folk.  Mom wouldn't even let us have darts.  Neighbor let us use a longbow he had when I was around ten (first target I made out of a cardboard box had a running turkey drawn on it).  In college took a 1 credit archery course and fell in love.  Bought a used compound (80).  Started hunting rabbits around the area of the campus, and hunted deer the next fall. Bought a lab my senior year, and a shotgun after I graduated.  Hunted as much as could ever since,  came back to trad 3 years ago.

[Don Stokes]

I really don't know- my earliest memories of childhood include trying to sneak up on neighborhood sparrows and rabbits with my dime-store bow and arrows, the kind that had rubber tips to pull off and throw away.

[BILL LEU]

Grew up in a family of hunters. Dad always had a BB gun around and thats what I terrorized the chipmunks with along with the fiberglass longbow. When I reached the ripe old age of ten he let me go deering with him, by twelve I was able to hunt in WI. My Dad was a gun hunter, never bowhunted, he got me a 20 gauge mossberg for Christmas we went squirrel, pheasant, and deer hunting. I remember watching Wide World of Sports and Curt Gowdy was the host, the show that day was when Fred Bear shot the grizzly while hiding behind the rocks and bolders on the waters edge, after seeing that I knew I just had to get a bow, after begging and pleading with Dad he gave in. The fiberglass was set aside for a bear take-down but I too have had gone to the darkside but never all the attachments shot instictive both recurve and compound. I've been hunting with trad gear exclusively since '98.

Lonnie Coker recurve--62" 54#
John Holzrichter recurve--60" 55#
Cascade Whitetail Hunter--56" 57#

[ishi1archer]

I started in 3rd grade when I met my buddy Jim. He gave me an old fiberglass lohgbow of about 15#.We had our bows with us at all times and hunted frogs,fish and birds.That was in 1964 and we're still friends to this day and I've been shooting trad ever since even thoe I did shoot a wheely for a little while. That bow also started my collecting bows and archery equipment. Have about 150 bows now.

[illwhttail]

It seems most of the guys on here are over 40.

[Bighornangler]

I have to thank my dad for instilling the interest in hunting for me. I can remember when I was three years old and watching my father clean the rabbits & pheasents after coming home from hunting and looking at his old Model 12 Winchester Pump gun standing over in the corner. I think that was the beginning for me. I wanted  a toy shot gun for christmas every year after that. Then it was making bows out of saplings and trying to shoot rabbits or other critters. My father was never much of a deer hunter and he didn't do any bow hunting but he definately planted the bug. I even remember making a Lemonwood Bow in high school. It didn't turn out that well, but I had fun. I've been hunting and fishing all of my life and will continue until I can no longer do it. By the way, for you guys who are scratching your heads about Lemonwood bows and toy shotguns for Christmas, that was back a long time ago. Today toy guns are not politicly correct. I am 75 and have just much interest as I ever did. Sorry if I got a little carried away.

[Danny Rowan]

My dad was a hunter and fisherman. From the earliest I remember we always went fishing for two weeks every summer. I started shooting a bow when I was in grade school and have shot one every since,my close childhood frined got me into shooting bows. We lived in the country outside a small town and my bro and our friend would jump the fence and hunt rabbits and such in the pasture of the ranch that butted up to the little community we lived in for hours. Used to gun hunt but have not done so in a long time. Been at this for over 40 years, always with a trad bow, shot a wheeled contraption one time but did not like it.

[Ed Q]

First need to learn how to shoot well enough to hunt, learn how to field dress and butcher a mammal and learn how to actually hunt like the rest of y'all do.  Tried it a few times as a teen in the swampy backwoods of southern Mississippi, but that always ended up with my buddies and I shooting pine cones and making so much noise talking and tromping through the place that every living creature within a half-mile radius had cleared long before we entered.

As for shooting archery, I started with a Bear recurve when I was 13 or 14 or so and sadly broke it shortly thereafter.  That was well over 30 years ago, and it hasn't been until last year that I started back up again, this time with a Bear Montana longbow.  As much fun as I'm having with it, I don't exactly know why I didn't pick it up sooner than then, but better late than never I reckon.

[illwhttail]

[LKH]

Slingshot.  I was deadly and anything that got close was in danger.  I think it really helps when I make a quick shot with the bow.  Then when I got older I got a bb gun and when I was 11 I bought my first bow, a Bear Panda.

There was no one around who shot a bow and I sure had some bad habits.

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

I vaguely remember watching my dad shoot a deer when I was 3 years old. I have been hooked ever since. I guess I am the odd duck here. I started shooting traditional 4 years ago at the ripe old age of 15...I am loving it!