What year did you start going hunting?

[1 good shot]

I am am just guessing because I hadn't started to school yet when my dad started taking me. Which would mean it was probably 1965 or 66. I remember he let me carry my grandfather's single shot 22 and it was longer than I was tall. I still have that gun. The ejector and firing pin are completely worn down now. My grandfather had it when he was a kid and he was born in 1895. My grandfather is long gone and lost my dad about 3 years.
But that rifle brings back years of memories

 

[Knothead]

~ 1968. Very similar story to yours. My grandfather would let me tag along with him as he would 'run his traps' as they said back in the day. Might even stop and hunt a tree rat while we were out. Like you, I have the .22 today that he carried with him in those days. And it still shoots. Bolt action. Old solid wood stock. Shoots only .22 shorts.
And…..he was born in 1898.

 

[PossumSlayer]

80 or 81 no one in the family was a hunter

 

[younggun308]

2007
Had family who hunted, but it was really an out of the blue thing when I decided I wanted to hunt. Took hunter's safety in 2006. Ordered all the free gun catalogs and gazed at them every day.

Saved up allowance money for my first deer rifle, which I still use every season. Missed a doe late season in Alabama, connected on the youth hunt in October.

 

[Chief44]

My dad started me off squirrel hunting in the mid 70's with a single shot 22 rifle. He would give me 3 shells and when I shot all 3 and had 3 squirrels, he would give me 3 more. If I didn't have 3 squirrels, we were done and we would go home. It taught me to make my shots count. I was deer hunting by the late 70's with a marlin 30-30 with open sights and killed several deer with that gun. Killed my first deer when I was 9 or 10. My dad deer hunted mainly with a handgun and he bought me my first handgun, a ruger super Blackhawk 44 mag when I was 16 and I killed a buck the first time I hunted with it. Been handgun hunting ever since.

 

[Chiflyguy]

1988 Was 16.
Old man had a .22 and a .410
Grandparents had a house in Southern Wisconsin on a lake surrounded by farmland.
Permission was easy to gain access.
My dads hunter safety course consisted of "eat what you shoot and don't shoot yourself.
Started duck hunting the next year. That was an obsession. Hunted every weekend, back then a 30 day season.
Finish school on Friday, enough gas money to get there and back and "borrow" some food from home. Camo clothes were army issue from a Army surplus store.

 

[RUGER]

Chasing rabbits, squirrels and basically anything that happened to go by, about 7 years old, 1974.
Deer, I was 15, 1982.

 

[drawforce]

1980 my uncle started taking me deer hunting

 

[backyardtndeer]

Got a late start, 1992. Was 23. My dad died when I was 2, noone ever took me hunting. Learned pretty well on my own. Killed my first deer in 1994 on our property, a 9 point that to date is probably my best scoring deer.

 

[DoubleRidge]

I'm guessing but around 79 my Dad let me take off into the woods near the house after squirrels by myself...he didn't hunt...he worked everyday all day...but he supported and encouraged me to go for it....so I'd sit in my bedroom with field & stream and outdoor life magazine and dream of hunting....had a good friend who's Dad would take us squirrel hunting occasionally.....First deer was 84.... my Dad was out of town working so my mom drove me and my cousin out to my grandfather's land and dropped us off in the dark well before daylight...(please don't refresh me on the regulations... my mom didn't know anything about any game laws....she just knew me and my cousin were driving her crazy to go hunting)....so many things happened that morning but I'll never forget killing my first buck...2½ year old 8pt.... neither my cousin or I had ever killed a deer....much less gutted one...so in my mind I referenced my hunter safety course book that showed the dotted lines where to cut... crazy I know...but we got it done....had to walk 1/2 mile to borrow phone...no cells in those days... Dad got back in from work and came and picked us up in his old 68 pick-up....I'll never forget those early days in the squirrel woods with my dog and my 22....and I'll always remember the 8pt on that cold November morning.

 

[Duck dogn]

I am am just guessing because I hadn't started to school yet when my dad started taking me. Which would mean it was probably 1965 or 66. I remember he let me carry my grandfather's single shot 22 and it was longer than I was tall. I still have that gun. The ejector and firing pin are completely worn down now. My grandfather had it when he was a kid and he was born in 1895. My grandfather is long gone and lost my dad about 3 years.
But that rifle brings back years of memories

Can you attach a picture of that gun my story would be almost same as yours mine is a single shot stevens

 

[Rancocas]

1958. I was 10 years old then and at that time, in that state (NJ), 10 was the legal age for a kid to carry a gun and hunt with the adults. However, I had actually been allowed to tag along with the adults since I was 8, but not allowed to carry a gun.
I have only missed one hunting season since 1958 and that was 1967-68 when I went to Vietnam.

 

[arctic_cat]

1996. 10 years old

 

[1 good shot]

Can you attach a picture of that gun my story would be almost same as yours mine is a single shot stevens

It will be a few days
Its at my other house

 

[tree_ghost]

When I was 5, back in '89, my old man would sit me in his lap and jack his climber up the tree to hunting height. Once we got to our position he would turn us around and lay his gun over my lap and hold the stock with one hand and the barrel with his other effectively making a "fail safe lap bar". I loved it and wouldn't change a thing. When I was 7 he got me a Stevens single shot .410 and buddy every squirrel in North Ga knew my name and that was good because at that time there were very few deer where we lived. After I got a little bigger, around 12, and more into deer hunting than squirrel assasinations, he got me a Stevens over under 30-30/.20ga combo. He'd send me with one cartridge of each and tell me " take your time and hit him with your rifle on the first shot, if he takes off running then pepper his @$$ with that buckshot quick as you can lol" Ahh the good old days!

 

[DMD]

Probably 1985. I was a late starter too. Around 20. I'd hardly shot a gun, and never hunted. There was no internet to research things, of course. And I didn't really have any close friends that hunted nor a mentor. So, I learned pretty much everything by trial and error. And I made lots of errors. But, it made me a better hunter in the long run I believe.

 

[wsm]

In 1970 with my Dad ,had a 20 gauge double barrel stevens shotgun , my Dad liked to rabbit hunt ,we always had 5or 6 beagles .

 

[Chickencoop96]

if I remember correctly, I actually started hunting in 2007 with my old man at 10 years old. I had only been a couple times when I was younger, but we didn't have a lot of opportunities to go before then. I'll never forget, we were sitting on a hill overlooking a pond in the AM on a cattle farm in Andersonville TN. it was early rifle season and I hadn't shot enough to be proficient with dad's rem 700 7mag. I was freezing my scrawny tail off and wanted to move but he kept urging me to stay put. finally, after I turned plum blue I guess, he decided to walk with me over the other side of the hill. Sure enough a buck had been making his way across the other hill towards the pond. Dad asked if I wanted to shoot but I wasn't sure I could hit it at that distance 150+ yards (if not more) So he shot it. we sat and waited before going and retrieving this buck. I remember dragging this buck out with my old man, having forgot the cold, and wanting to take my first deer. to this day I have not ever seen a buck with a rack like this one did. it was a 4 point that had a 5th broken tine and it's antlers came full circle like a mature rack without all the tines. really neat looking deer, so he had it mounted. out of all the hunting memories I've made over the years this one is still the most vivid. There were a lot of firsts with that hunt, and then the following year I took my first buck, and so began the addiction. From then on I never missed a another deer season until l joined the the military in 2015.

 

[Gravey]

My dad only squirrel and rabbit hunted so I'm guessing I was 6 or 7 when I started tagging along with my BB gun. That would have been 1979 or 80. My grandfather and uncle on moms side deer hunted so I was around 12 when I started going with them. Didn't kill my first deer until I was 16 on my last juvenile hunt. Got interested in turkeys while in college when I saw one while deer hunting. Had some buddies show me the ropes and then killed my first one in 1994 if memory serves me correct. We roosted it the evening before and tndeer's own Coker called it straight to my gun barrel the next morning.

 

[BSK]

Killed my first rabbit and some doves when I was 16 (1978). Went deer hunting for the first time in 1979 using a borrowed Stevens double-barrel 16-gauge with slugs. Killed what would be my best deer for 2 decades (2 1/2 year-old 8-point grossing 104) on my first ever hunt in Logan County, KY.