How did you start hunting?

[NFA-ADK]

I am not exactly sure what first sparked my interest in hunting, possibly my first BB/Pelet gun? Possibly the outdoor trips upstate with friend contributed. The summer and winter trips to Maine or Penn for the week long vacations with family might have sparked the intrest. No other family members hunted or fished as a passion. In 1987/88 one of my best friends spoke to me about doing a hunting trip for deer and the rest is history.

Deer and big game was something that fascinated me as a child/adult. The fact that big game animals roamed wild woods fighting for survival sent my mind racing.

While I did not become successful untile 2000 the passion for hunting never stopped.

My main point is this: I am sure many hunters had mentors that helped them get into hunting. Having no mentor or person to lead me into hunting, I would state the fact that: Hunting is in my blood...

Question 1: If you did not have a mentor, what factors lead you into hunting?

Question 2: If you had a mentor to get you into hunting, do you think with out that person guilding you, you still would have been into hunting? Why or why not.

IMO you are born with the itch or not. I use to crave watching deer as a kid, guese I am still a kid at heart as my passion has only deepened with every passing year.

The pic is of my first deer in 2000.

Pictured from L-R Shawn, myself, Chris and Greg. The millenium buck. 8pt w/broken brow tine 165 dressed Est. 2.5.

[Paula]

I did not have a mentor, i did go out hunting with someone a few times. My older brother hunted anything and everything, but he was never around. Never had the money to really get started on my own but knew it was something i wanted. I met this guy and he GAVE me everything i would need and more. I got a deer the first yr and here i am

[Elmo]

I've always had a fascination with the animals and the outdoors. My mother said as early as when I first started crawling, I use to go to the neighbor's yard and hug their chickens and they would get mad because I would literally hug them to death. After high school, I got a job at the Bronx Zoo feeding animals and cleaning cages. Hunting never was an idea until I went to college in Michigan where outdoor sports was huge there. For me, it was never really about purely hunting but rather a part of being a survivalist. Staying up late at night at the local coffee shop studying and watching hunters come in for their early morning breakfast before heading out got me interested. I tried talking a couple of my friends into doing it but we realize how difficult it would be to talk our parents into funding our hunting interest while they're grinding flesh off their hands trying to pay for our out-of-state tuition so I buried that interest but never really killed it.

Came back home to NYC and the interest laid dormant the whole time. Then my younger brother came back from being stationed down in North Carolina and he also has a huge interest in being a survivalist and naturally, hunting went with that as well. Our conversation lasted 2 seconds. Me: "I want to give hunting a try". Bro: "Yeah, that'll be cool." Me: "let's freakin' do it". Now that I have the resources to get all the gear, and the resolve to go through with it, I just went straight in...no mentor. Nothing to get me started at all but I have not looked back since. Did all my own research which lead me to stumble on to this forum. My only regret was not doing it sooner.

[Deerthug]

I did not have a mentor either. The closest thing to a mentor was my two Brother in laws and father in law. For many years they always went away for long weekends close to the ADKs at a friends house during firearm season. They often came back with nothing more than a head cold. Although when they did harvest a deer I was the first at the dinner table waiting with a fork and knife in my hands. I never thought I had it in me to actually kill an animal. But after reading a lot of articles and books about where the meat sold in grocery stores comes from the hunting bug finally bit me in 2007.

I was upstate visiting my brother in laws new place in Germantown on Columbus Day weekend. He along with my other BIL and my father in law were sighting in their rifles and just plinking when my younger BIL offered me to shoot his Marlin 30-30. I never shot a firearm before that day. I took a few shots at a target about 85yds. I grouped 5 shots all within 1" of each other. When we saw that my BILs told me I should go for my license. I was amazed at myself. The closest thing I ever got to handling a firearm until then was a pellet rifle at a local amusement park in Flushing where I grew up.

So I looked for a course to take before the 2007-2008 season but could not find one to fit my schedule. So as soon as March came around, I signed up for the Hunters Ed course and passed it with flying colors. Went the next day and bought my license and turkey tags. May 17, 2008 was the first time I went hunting and killed my first Tom at 11:45AM. Needless to say I was hooked. That following November I went out for the first time for deer. I took my first doe at about 125 yds with my Remington 710 30-06 (bought used) in really cold weather. Didn't think I hit it since she trotted off out of sight into some evergreens. When I found her I saw she was hit through and through - both lungs. I was hooked even more after that.

I should mention that if I did not consume or use every part of the deer or turkey I killed, I would not be out there hunting.

I really enjoy being in the outdoors and thank God for being given the opportunity to take an animal to feed my family.

[Doewhacker]

I was born into a hunting/outdoor family (Thank god) killed my first rabbit at 12 and first deer at 14 in 1994 and the rest is history. I can't imagine getting started with out a mentor, and I feel for you fellas that did it on your own. I am continuing the tradition with my kids, both are outdoorsie and love hunting and shooting and the whole nine. We can be found together every where and thats the way we like it. I got a good laugh one day when I was in the training field with the dogs and turned around to see my 3 year old girl carrying out a dead bird for me proud as could be. I stopped to wonder just how many 3 year old girls would do such a thing, and to us it is completely normal.

[Doc]

My Dad was the first to introduce me to hunting with firearms with a few trips up on the hill with the old .22 for squirrels where I was too young to actually participate, but it still was exciting to a degree. But,my real hunting started in the hay loft of our barn. With my trusty home-made hickory bow with the baling twine string and the fletchless willow arrows, I used to hunt pigeons. I got several which I cleaned myself and gave to my mother who cooked them up. Actually as I recall they weren't too bad. My next victims were snapping turtles down in our swamp. I took an old fishing spear and looked for the stirred up mud and probed the bottom until I clunked a turtle shell and then jammed it in and pulled out a few very big turtles. I chopped off the heads and cleaned those myself too and gave the meat to my mother who had absolutely no idea what to do with it. So, she ground it up into turtle-burger and cooked it up. It was like a lump of chopped up rubberbands. Bad experiment .... lol. Next came the trapline which isn't really hunting, but it did involve taking some wild animals, which just fed the urge to take the next logical step of hunting. So naturally when the time came, I took my hunter-safety course down in the old school bus garage (imagine that). After a couple of years of small game hunting with an old bent-barrel 20 ga. bolt action (which I actually learned to become quite proficient with), I finally got old enough to hunt deer. And so for a few years I scared a bunch of deer until I finally could afford a decent shotgun. About 1960 or so, I got re-involved in archery with an honest-to-goodness real purchased recurve and store-bought arrows. And that began the crazy fanaticism with hunting. I've never missed a season since (gun or bow).

[Nomad]

Well growing up where and when i did,its what boys did. Of course my dad hunted as his and all before them as far as i know . At 13 you'd come home from school grab a shotgun or rifle walk down Lake road, meet up and go in the woods and shoot things ( stumps, beer cans).

[Sambuca]

No one in my family hunted when I was a kid growing up in central Wisconsin. We didn't even have a gun. After lots of begging and pleading, I managed to get a bb/pellet gun and later a .22 and I taught myself to shoot. I took hunter ed at my middle school and did the shooting part on the range in the basement of the school with guns and ammo provided by the school district (I'm only 41, my how times have changed!). Eventually, my best friend in middle school asked his dad if I could go duck hunting with them. I was allowed to go on that duck hunt and then became a regular at their deer camp. I need to send a note to my friend's dad to thank him. How many people, in this day of law suits etc, would take their son's 13 year old friend hunting?

I can proudly say that I have had the extreme pleasure of introducing my wife to hunting. She is from Brazil and had never touched a firearm until we were engaged to be married in 1998. In fact she was terrified of guns (only criminals have them in Sao Paolo where she grew up). Today she is crazy for hunting turkeys, upland birds and deer. It is truly awesome when your best hunting buddy is also your wife and says things like, "I'd really like to go out west and kill a Merriams turkey".

[deerpassion]

I also was not born into hunting... No one in my family hunted until my sister married my now brother-in-law who took me duck hunting for the first time when I was 15... a great way to introduce someone to hunting, high action, good success rate most of the time, more social in the blind than other forms of hunting, and interactive with the calls and spotting ducks... I grew up a true fisherman in South Florida with my dad and at the time that's all I ever did... Used to watch any and every fishing show and when the hunting one's came on I would switch to something else... at the time I used to say well you can't catch a deer or turkey etc, and then release it like you can fishing... My brother in law has a camp in the everglades only accessible by airboat and we used to go all the time.... loved it out there, and as soon as I killed my first duck I was insatiably addicted to all aspects of the outdoors and hunting... hunted duck for about 6 or 7 years, and then tried turkey, killed two osceola's my first year and I was hooked, then came deer the next year... killed my first deer which happened to be a nice buck for florida with my bow and I was HOOKED... without that introduction to hunting from my brother in law I would never have gotten into a passion that seems to more or less consume me every single day.. everyday I either read or watch video, look at topo maps, scout, look up hunting gear, shoot bow or gun, practice calling, look over my gear, or even dream about the next hunt and that turkey or buck comin in on a rope... in some aspect I think about it everyday... I am forever greatful for that, as it is a lifelong passion for me now... some pics of my first deer and turkey, and some ducks... get the youngen's out early and get them hooked!! they will thank you later!

[shawnhu]

No mentor here to get me started. I think the first time hunting was when I was 7. Someone made a wooden gun for me and was loaded by rubber bands. I was to help lower the dragonfly population by shooting them dead. I was pretty good at it too. From that point on, I knew hunting was a tool to control populations, and not just for game and trophies.

It wasn't until a couple years ago that I turned my passion for paintball and airguns into hunting. Now I take pride in hunting for pests and the occasional game to take home.

[fishuntrapper]

although i was born in buffalo, i lived in virginia from the time i was two till i was eleven. all my family loved to hunt. small game was the big deal and first on the list was squirrels. there must not have been very many deer in the western coal mines area of virginia at that time. i dont recall seeing one alive or dead. but lots of small game hunting. living on a 500 acre farm and not needing a licence till you were 16, i stayed in the woods. my dad bought me a new shotgun when i was 9 years old and i hunted on my own (dad allowed me to stay home from school and hunt one day. come in to get some lunch and watched the kennedy assassination thing).

then we moved back to new york, and had to wait two years before i could go hunting again. that was really tough. i had a lot of influence from dad and grand-dad for hunting and fishing. got into trapping on my own, (although i did know one guy that trapped, he was quite tight lipped about everything), when in my early thirties.

hunting small game and turkeys are by far my favorites. deer fill the freezers. my son doesnt hunt much, but is an avid fisherman. my daughter loves both ,but has time for neither. i have three grand-children. two are so envolved in sports(thankfully not video games) they have no time either. third one is 14 months, and really seems interested in the items for hunting and fishing more so than toys. also likes to look at the mounts i have more so than the other grand- children. even watches hunting and fishing shows with me. keeping my hopes alive. i guess mentors had a lot to do with starting me, and i will continue by my self if need be. wish all could see the enjoyment in our sport.

thanks

[First-light]

I always loved the outdoors. I can remember reading Outdoorlife and Field and Stream and seeing the ads sleep under the stars and catch your breakfast from a stream, become a forest ranger. I was 10 at the time. My brother was the first to take me hunting and it took off from there. The excitement of your first hunt the sleepless nights can't be matched. Smell the woods on 30 degree windless day. Hear the sound of deer before you see them all these things keep me coming back. When you hunt there are three things involved, yourself, nature and the deer. It's an awesome challenge that I always look forward to. People say in the Fall things start dying around them.

I think just the opposite, it's where life begins. The Fall lights my inner sole and let's me get in touch with what's important in life. All this happens on the deer stand and I would rather be no other place. As we move on in life priorities change and shooting that big buck isn't so important. Just being out there and hopefully passing on traditions to the younger generation. My best trophy wasn't that PY deer I shot but was the smile on a 14 year old boys face after he shot a button buck on his 1st bow hunt. I mentored him and will never forget the experience.....................

Edited August 25, 2012 by First-light

[WNYBuckHunter]

I started getting interested as a kid from family friends. My father had quit hunting before I was born, and worked so much to support us kids on his own, had no time for it. A bunch of my friends hunted, and thats how I got into it. I had no mentor and learned most of it on my own. I gave it up for 4 or 5 years in my late teens and early 20s when I lived out of state, but picked it back up again. I didnt really take it too serious until I started bow hunting.

Now I am doing for my kids what I always wished my dad would have done for me.

[bubba]

The trips to my family hunting camp as a kid got me started. Both my parents hunted although my Mom spent more time carrying her 30-30 in the woods then she ever actually hunted. The good food, fun and fellowship had me hooked. We had 40 acres surrounded by public access land in the edge of the adirondacks. My Dad and uncles got the property on a 99 year lease and built a camp. Long story short the under age girl who inherited the property did not want to sign it over as agreed when she became of age, so we lost it. It tore my mom and dad apart when that happened. I worked hard to build my camp and have a place to go. My parents both died before they ever got to go there and see it. Neither of my grown daughters have an interest in hunting or the outdoors, so I teach hunter ed classes and mentor young people as my way to pass along the traditions and heritage. Sounds sappy I know, but that is the way it is. My door is open to pretty much anyone who wants to hunt. I am afraid when I die, my kids will sell it all. Hopefully someone who appreciates it as much as I do will get it.

[Paula]

can't wait to see it!

[bubba]

you are welcome any time

[growalot]

Moms dad and his wife...hunted and fished everything and always had beagle and bird dogs..and I grew up in a neighborhood of boys...so we all squirrel hunted together...moved away..but seemed to gravitate toward ppl that hunted.... married into a hunting family

[landtracdeerhunter]

I've enjoyed reading all your posts. My Grandpa and Dad use to take me on pheasant hunts back in the 70's, when u could bring home your limit. I raised 95+pheasants for many years, and released on the farm. Pheasant hunting was most enjoyable as we had a great irish setter that could really work a bird. I then had a family friend, serve as a mentor, taking me coon hunting every weekend in season about 1975. Watching the blue tick and red bone dogs work the trail was most enjoyable. He had a blue tick, run a trail silent, and barked only when coon was in tree. Remember one night, we had a huge old buck coon,that I shot in the head, run down the tree, about to jump on me when the dog grabbed it by the throat, killing it. That was a night I'll never forget. Always found it amazing how many hunters would be in the woods those nights with coon dogs. Lost hunting for a while with marrige and children but got back into it heavy when my kids were of age to deer hunt. Now it's full speed ahead. My kids out hunt me big time, and that's great. They bring home some beauties,so proud. Just added trapping today, having gone out with my brother in the 70's. No record in Albany of my certificate so, completed trapper ed coarse. Surprized how many, we'll lets say, experience mature people were there. They say 70% of fur bearing animals die from non trapper take. Interesting.

Edited August 25, 2012 by landtracdeerhunter

[ncountry]

I did not grow up with family hunters. Mom and Dad both hunted when they were kids but did not continue the tradition. All of my friends hunted ,and I learned much from them and their fathers over my teen years hunting rabbits and grouse mainly. I had always said when invited to deer hunt or camp that "aaah I cannot shoot one of those cute deer". Sometime in my early 20s one of my friends finally convinced me to go .He gave me a 32 special lever action w/iron sights to use and away we went. After shooting every bullet I had (I think they held 7 shells?)at the 1st deer I saw ......a 90lb doe...... I was hooked.Nobody told me they wouldn't just pile up like a rabbit or bird lol. Perfect D/lung shot but she kept on flopping around .. never cut a hair with the other 6 shots. Now this very good friend and his family are not what we call by today's standards very ethical hunters. Poor , and if they needed meat they shot meat . Soo.. I didn't start out with the best roll models as far as modern hunters ethics or laws go. I have changed over the years to their chagrin to a "horn" hunter and maybe a doe during archery. I like the challenge of trying to target an older or harder to find deer. and my family only eats 2 deer a year. I still probably spend more time wandering around the woods just "scouting" or napping under or in a tree than I do actually seriously hunting .I probably have killed more deer in my blue jeans hiding in the brush..than I kill now with my $100s worth of camo and treestands.but that is what makes it great !!

[ELMER J. FUDD]

When I was young all my uncles and my father would hunt thanksgiving in the Catskills (Durham). I wasn't even allowed in the backyard, and all I wanted to do is tag along. I couldn't wait to be a part of the gang. My next door neighbor took myself and his nephew for our hunter safety course as teens. My father took me on my 1st deer hunt. I didn't hunt much until I was in my early 20's with a friend who bow hunted. Around the same time a relative of mine had some good spots and we hunted gun often. I took the bow course a year later just to get more time in the woods. I am now on the same boat as WNY with the kids. My dad worked a lot way back when but hunts once or twice a year now.

[JimmyDaSavage]

I was born into Hunting. My dad was raised in the country in Vermont and his dad and all of us would always spend time in the woods. I was happy being around the woods and big game since I was a very young age. I am inbetween my brother and the deer in this pic.

[Pygmy]

My Dad and all of his family hunted and fished...

That was true of most of my classmates, also...Back in the 60s it was kinda the THING TO DO out here in rural Steuben County.

I got my first BB gun when I was about 8 and terrorized anything small enough to fall prey to it, from chickadees to chipmunks..

When I was 10, my Dad let me hunt on our property for squirrels, rabbits and woodchucks with his single shot Stevens .22. On Christmas Day 1962, when I was 12, I recieved my first real gun, a Winchester M69 .22...

Hunting and fishing have always been my passion...

[PostedBoys Gallego]

My full story is in the Buck contest for 'My First Catskills Buck' (first signed up under chrismgon, then changed to this nick)

I am also keeping a hunting log for this season here if anyone is interested:

http://www.huntingch...tskills-Journey

But the picture below will say it all...

PS: This is a Garage in Queens NY, not ur usual country boy.

Edited August 26, 2012 by PostedBoys Gallego

[Nomad]

Bubba you'er a good man.

The lesson here is take someone hunting.

My friend who now lives in washington state and is very active in his state bow assc. a friend of the St charles family, and works pro bono for hunting groups became a hunter because as a paperboy some of his customers hung deer from trees in their front yards...

Edited August 26, 2012 by Larry302

[Uncle Nicky]

I got started as a kid, my father hunted every chance he could get. He was too cheap to buy a dog, so I became his dog....he'd send me in the thickest brush he could find to try & flush birds & rabbits. Once I turned 12 I got my license. I was pretty pitiful at first, but kept at it.

I have 2 boys, both have taken the safety course. The oldest completely lost interest, the youngest stopped for a year but seems to be coming back around. I make it a point not to push them, it's not for everyone. But they do enjoy eating whatever I bring back from the woods.