When Was The First....

[ScottR]

Hunt you ever tagged along on?

I was 8, Dad had bought his brand new 4-wheeler and he pulled me out of school for a couple days to go up to his favorite area for a deer hunt. Memories that last a lifetime.

 

[JimP]

Knowing my dad I was a grand old age of 5 months.

The first one that I actually have any recollection of I was 4, and then I remember quite a bit about the one when I was 5. Dad had a old 49 Mercury and we couldn't make it up a hill to where he liked to camp so he backed down to where some Californians camped and that is where that car stayed. Mom was taking care of my sister who was 10 months old at the time and had a whole herd of deer walk through camp while my dad and I were out on the opening. Mom had to hitch a ride into the nearest town to call a friend who came out to pick up me and dad along with the parts that he wanted off of the car.

 

[mallardsx2]

I got a beagle for my birthday when I was 6 or 7. He was going to be my hunting dog. I named him Ringo.

My first ever trip out rabbit hunting. Ringo got after a deer. My dad told me to stand still and he would be back. Half hour later I heard 2 shotgun blasts and my old man came walking back up through the woods with Ringo's collar in one hand and his 16 gauge in the other.

"We will get a new dog..." or something along those lines if I recall.

It was a quiet 1 mile walk home.

Ah yes, Memories that last a lifetime.

 

[Winchester]

As Mallards said, I got a beagle for my birthday when I was 6.
He was my dog and became a fantastic rabbit dog ... "Tip" the wonder beagle!!
I shot my first rabbit over him a few days after my 12th birthday.
I was standing on a log in a briar patch and the shotgun knocked me backwards into the briars ... but I got the rabbit.
My Grandfather was watching ... I never heard him laugh so hard.

 

[eaglemountainman]

I was about 6. The family always spent a week, every year, chasing deer in the Adirondacks. My dad and Grandpa would always take me with them. I'd sit next to them at the base of a tree, or follow in their steps in the snow as they unraveled a buck track.. That was the beginning of my stillhunting schooling. It's still my favorite way to hunt whitetails. I was always full of rapid fire questions. Gramps used to call me his, "early warning device."

What I wouldn't give for a day in the woods with either one of them....

 

[buckbull]

I was probably about 8 years old and hunting rabbits with dogs. Seems like that's a bygone era now. I think most kids today (at least here in the midwest) their first experience is hunting deer from a treestand.

 

[D_Dubya]

I was 4 or 5 and tagging along behind my Dad, he told me to stand still while he peeked over a small rise about 20 yards ahead. I don’t remember saying it but I’ve heard the story often, I whispered not so quietly, “BLAST ONE DAD!”. He peeked over the rise and got out of view behind a cedar tree and BOOM!, he blasted one. I remember the dead doe very clearly, I tagged along for quite a few more hunts before shooting my first deer at 8.

 

[Rich M]

The first hunts I went on were small game hunts - pretty much walking along with dad, me carrying mom's 20 ga sxs. Never saw much but got to shoot the gun every time out. One trip we bumped up a pair of black ducks, dad missed but that image is etched into my memory and hooked me on duck hunting for the next 40+ years.

First ever deer hunt was at age 8 w bow - drizzly opening morning, walked over to a field and here comes a fork horn. Missed him with all 5 arrows I had - he wouldn't leave and was very interested in this kid slinging arrows at him that he'd easily dodge. Range was about 20 yards.

First rifle hunt dad put me on an overlook and kept on up the mountain. Sitting there behind a deadfall on one of those heat seat things. opened a hard candy and a yearling deer pops its head up on the other side of the blowdown - we look at each other for a while. Then deer puts head down.

 

[memtb]

I can’t be certain of the exact age, but, I’m guess’n around 5 yo...... following my father and uncles through the thickets of Central Louisiana, continually getting slapped in the face by brush, black berry switches and saw briars. I probably left a better blood trail than some of the game shot! memtb

 

[Gr8bawana]

My dad used to carry me on his shoulders when he and my brothers would go rabbit hunting and I was about 4 years old. To keep me busy he would give me a piece of barbed wire about 2 feet long and tell me to stick it down the rabbit holes and twirl it around and that the rabbit fur would get caught on the barbs.
Who knows how many hundreds of times I did it but for some reason I never caught any rabbits.

 

[Buckbob]

The first hunt I remember going on was with my dad bowhunting in Northern Michigan. I remember climbing into a treestand that at the time seemed like it was 100 feet up that tree, probably more like 18 feet but I was only 7 so it seemed a lot higher. My dad shot 2 bucks that night, we still talk about that hunt dang near 30 years later. Still one of my favorite hunts to this day.

 

[kidoggy]

I don't recall the first hunt I tagged along on but I do recall the first time I fired a 12 gauge and kilt a wascawy wabbitt.

it was back in the early 70s during the days of the idaho bunny bashing events.folks would line up with baseball bats and walk through the sage bashing bunnies there were so many back then it was insane.

any how .............

I was 6 or so , I had been tagging along with an older brother who was hiking and shooting jackrabbitts . we stopped for a break and were sitting atop a big boulder when a jack came trottin by below us .
my brother asked if I would like to shoot it .
of coarse I said ," hells yah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

so I put the shotgun to my shoulder ,aimed , fired and purt near blew that bunny in two.
I also purt near rolled over backwards off that rock and would have had my brother not caught me while laughing his head off.

I had shot.22s quite a bit before that but that was the first gun I ever fired that had a kick to it.
got a big bruise on my shoulder that I remember thinking was pretty cool.


at night we would go out spotlighting rabbitts around the hay fields . three or four of us in the back of the truck, with just one .22 that we would trade back and forth with each kill. it was not un common to kill 100 bunnies a night .

we did this because the first 50 feet or so around the perimeter of the hay fields was always eaten to the ground from all the rabbits feeding on the alfalfa. next morning we would go out and move pipe and all the carcasses would already be gone from scavangers.

we still get explosions in the rabbit populations from time to time but nowhere close to what happened in the 70s.


you could hardly throw a rock without hitting one. it was crazy!

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I was the only boy and the oldest child (had 3 younger sisters) so my Dad started taking me hunting and fishing at a young age. I remember lots of hunting trips when I was 6 or 7. Rabbits, doves and waterfowl all were targets. There was no hunter safety training requirement back then and I got my first hunting license at 6 or 7 years old. Dad gave me a single shot 20 ga shotgun to go along with a single shot .22 rifle I got as a gift from one of my Dad's friends (another story for another time).