How Long Have You Been Hunting ...

[Rock Home Isle]

Started hunting sparrows, with a Daisy BB gun, when I was 6 years old…

 

[Campbell]

I’m 56. Been hunting 50 years.

 

[Bigpete]

I killed my first pheasant when so was 5 years old. I was walking down the lane beyond our barn with my sparkler gun (any body remember those?). A huge bird (rooster pheasant) flew straight at me from a cross the road, with his wings straight out. I aimed and pulled the trigger, the bird dropped 20 feet from me stone dead. I run to the house and no one believed me. Finally, my Grandpa went with me and got the pheasant. My mother cooked the bird for supper. A few days later my Dad was talking to a neighbor who said he shot a pheasant on his place and it guided over on our farm, he looked for the bird but couldn't find it. It was a few years before my Dad filled me in on the rest of the story.
I tagged along with my Dad and his best friend from then on when they hunted. I borrowed a shotgun when I was 7 and carried it until I saved enough for my own at 10 years old. 10 years old was the year my parent thought I was old enough to hunt alone. They bought me a pair of Red Wing hunting boots, big enough for me to grow into. I finally wore the boots out when I was about 40. They fit me fine, but had been resoled several times and the leather was bleached white. The boots were a good investment.
I've hunted small and big game since that first pheasant and I will be 78 this summer. So, that's about 73 years.

I love this story. I'm glad your folks didn't take that away from you

 

[hinamanra]

I'm 57 and been at it for 45 years and hopefully when it's my time to go to the happy hunting grounds I do it dragging the biggest buck I've ever taken.

 

[swamperk]

73 now, kill my first duck when i was 5,,using a 410

 

[Kansas Jake]

We wonder why it is hard to get youngsters involved in our sport. I see a theme here. In this thread most are 60+ and started hunting and shooting before age 10. How many kids these days have the opportunity to do that?

 

[Reno]

66 years

 

[Daveboone]

I started tagging along with dad probably when I was about five. He wasnt a very successful hunter, but we had a lot of nice walks in the woods, which I remember still. Hunting carrying a firearm since sixteen, or about fiftyish years. Still going strong and cant imagine stopping, though I have some alcoholic smoking friends who stopped twenty years before.

 

[OldRust]

59 years and like @bud in pa my first experience was being the dog when rabbit hunting. I've been hunting ever since except when work and these store bought joints keep me from it.

Thanks
O.R.

 

[Snake Pleskin]

Sadly it's no longer the Lancaster County of 1965. But get down here in the Southern End and it is still decent. Maybe one of these days some biologist will figure out what happened when all the pheasant disappeared in one year.

My brother lives in Lancaster Cnty, close to Oxford, LLoyds Road, some small wide spot in the road.Small roads barely large enough for two cars, no lines etc. Large Amish farm across the road from him, and Yes, he tells me it isn't like it was back when.

 

[Snake Pleskin]

We wonder why it is hard to get youngsters involved in our sport. I see a theme here. In this thread most are 60+ and started hunting and shooting before age 10. How many kids these days have the opportunity to do that?

Not just the opportunity, but how many actually want too? That's the sad part.

 

[earlwb]

I have been hunting since I was about 10yoa for around 61 years now. Way back then it was all open land. Now most everything is built up houses and shopping centers. Nowadays it is mostly paper targets and occasional pig hunts.

 

[mushka]

I've hunted from about the mid 1950's off and on depending on where I was living and working at the time. Hunts were some of the best times in my life, hope to continue when at all possible.

 

[waarp8nt]

Been hunting unsupervised since I was 12, so darn near 40 years.

 

[senseisugarbear]

I'm with you Kansas Jake..I was a hunter saftey instuctor for 12 yrs.some kids were there for gun saftey aspect , as no one in the house hunted,but the Mother wanted the kid to know what to do if they encountered a gun.We would have live fire on graduation day. all volunteer and instuctors had to furnish every thing.IMO there are not enough Men staying with families today, so the traditions and values are not passed along.

 

[B P Arn]

Sadly it's no longer the Lancaster County of 1965. But get down here in the Southern End and it is still decent. Maybe one of these days some biologist will figure out what happened when all the pheasant disappeared in one year.

Global climate change and rising sea levels (solemn nod).

 

[Rawhide67]

I've only been at it for 44 years. Just an amateur by looks of things here. Although I'm shy of 55, wear and tear are catching and I'm slowing down.

 

[SOLANCO]

My brother lives in Lancaster Cnty, close to Oxford, LLoyds Road, some small wide spot in the road.Small roads barely large enough for two cars, no lines etc. Large Amish farm across the road from him, and Yes, he tells me it isn't like it was back when.

I know where he is. We lived in that area near Lake Octorara before we moved here. He has lots of deer and turkey.

 

[cannonball1]

"SPUGS" English Sparrows - before 1950,
Ducks - 1955 to 1979
First Deer - 1958 continuous every year to date.
First ML deer - 1973 mostly putting modern rifles away hunting with ML'ers.
Free roaming buffalo on the Henries mountains 1983
First flintlock elk 1987
One of my first ML buck ruined me forever.
It is now mentoring time for my Grandkids.
The most important thing right now is how to impress upon the kids and grandkid how and when to CLEAN a muzzleloader. Some don't seem to get the importance.

 

[Ninering62]

I started shooting a .410 single shot at 7, hunting small game at 8, ( in 1970 ) big game hunting when my grandpa gave me my first 12ga pump at 13. I’ll be 60 2mo. So 52 yrs ago. I started muzzleloader hunting about 35yrs ago.