What was your first hunt?

[Rauly]

What was the first game you killed and how old were you?

I was 7 years old. I got home from school and got the old Daisy Red Rider out, filled it with copper plated high powers, and told mom I was going hunting out back. We lived on the back side of a refuge. While walking a tree line I spotted a pigeon roosted in a tree on the edge. I went into stealth mode and snuck within range. The pigeon was kind enoug to let me sorta quietly **** the gun. Then I leaned up against another tree and blasted that sucker right off the branch. The pigeon fluttered to the ground and I had my first game in the bag. Man was I proud. Dad got home and helped me pluck the thing and I ate it for dinner.

I have been hooked on hunting since.

Rauly

[pdxkevin]

As long as we aren't talking 'bout fish or things out of the water.... and not vehicular harvesting... it would be a blacktailed deer a couple years ago. The first steaks were some of the best I had ever had - partly because it was my first harvest.

[nitrobass]

First hunt I went on was at Davis Lake, I was 6 and my sister was 7. We have some funny pics where we're bundled up in some pretty strange clothes. Finding good warm camo clothes for kids back then was next to impossible. It seems like I had a great time but the expression on my face in the pictures tells it differently.

First kill was a pair of grouse shot with a Model 12 20 guage

[TAILOUT]

First hunt was when I was about 10-12 we went hunting at the coast for blacktail, we didnt see any but the elk were everywhere, huge bulls at less than 80 yds, we decided to get bull tags for later that season, went back to the same spot thinking wed see the bulls and nothing but bucks everywhere with no bulls in sight it was rediculous, but I started getting really into it because I was curious as to where the animals went so Im still hunting today. My first kill was right when I got my first hunting license and tag it was the last day of the hunting season last couple hours we were driving home and I saw a deer up on hill off the road a ways, I stepped out went up the hill a bit and layed that little tiny spike buck down I sure was proud! Nothing like one year old blacktail for supper.

[sturgn]

Wyoming age 11, my Grandpa came out from California and took me on my first hunt it was an anterless Antelope and I took a clean 50 yard shot, one of my only memories of me and my Grandfather he died 2 years later. I have been addicted to all outdoors every since!

[id. painter]

Age 8 . Dad let me blast a Ruffed grouse with the 20ga. He was standing next to me holding the barrel up , because I didnt quite have the strength yet . Never to be forgotten. id. painter

[skein]

My first "big game" kill was when I was eight, and consisted of a snowshoe rabbit up in Alaska. It was a head shot from the offhand position with my dad watching. There wasn't a prouder father-son team in the whole USA that day. :smile:

Even today, I would rather hunt than eat.

Skein

[Grantspastor]

Mule deer in NE Oregon where I grew up. I was 13 and with my father's help I took a 4 x 5 buck with a Winchester model 94 30-30 (This does not count the many small animals that fell to rocks, slingshots, arrows, and BB guns)

Where I grew up (or was it the era?) hunting was not just a sport, it was part of the culture, it was a rite of passage, AND without question, hunting season was the most important time of the year. Would sure like to see some of that restored.

[ 02-23-2004, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: Grantspastor ]

[Radke]

I was about 9, living in Bend, using a 10 cent slingshot & piece of gravel. I got a flicker sitting in a pine tree in our yard.

My dad wasn't amused. :shocked:

[Mello-Yello]

I'm not real proud of it...but it was a chipmunk taken with a rock. I'd baited it with left-over pancakes. I was maybe 6 years old.

Upon inspecting my quarry, I cryed my little head off, apologyzing for my evil ways.

(I've since taken a lot of small game with rocks, including one full sized Rooster Pheasant...we were pretty poor)

[ICHTHYDEMON]

I got my first big game in 1984 when I was 10. It was a spike elk I shot with my 30-30. I was probably only 5-6 when I got my first "kill". I had gotten a pellet rifle for my birthday,and was a terror on starlings and sparrows. :grin:

[Hawg Caller]

My first (other than birds with bb gun) was phesant,my dad worked a corn field back in Ill., for a few yrs. I had to be the "dog" while my brother and dad hunted, at age 12 I got my first shotgun and dad took me out, great memories and cool post thanks.

[Fish Hawg]

I was about 6 or 7 and my dad bought me a fiberglass straight bow it was 25# draw. The next day I got some wood arrows with the sliver tips Every day after school I would walk around our 20 acre fence line which had a lot of blackberries and rabbits on it. The next day after school I was walking the fence line and seen a rabbit about 100yrds ahead; I crawled to my shooting range 15yrds and let one fly. The arrow went right through the neck :smile: and stuck in the ground so he could not run off. I was so proud until my Mom saw me caring a rabbit back to the house [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] My dad was also just pulling in when he seen the rabbit, and he was proud as I was My mom and my dad had a few little words [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img] . I can still see the arrow in flight; and I still like bow hunting today :smile: .

[TonTo]

My first game was a grouse with a .22 we were up on elk mtn. it was before St Hellens blew her top so I musta been around 8 or 9. First big game,I was 13 and took a spike X 2 blacktail with my old .303 brittish

[ 02-23-2004, 11:45 AM: Message edited by: TonTo ]

[The Overfishin Condition]

My first "game" was a squirrel, I must've been about 10. I was outside at my cabin shooting cans when he hopped up on my woodpile, I ran inside and asked my dad if I could shoot it. He said yes, I came back out, stepped off the porch and shot from roughly 15 yards, straight through the head. Not a particularly happy or proud moment in my life. Now my first grouse, I shot with a model 12, 16 gauge! That was a proud momenet!

[jokester]

I tagged along hunting with my dad when I was 7 or 8, but never carried a firearm till I was older. My first "game kill" was when I was 12. My dad and I were cottontail rabbit hunting in Southern IL. We had been walking for what seemed like HOURS! Finally, the dog got a bunny up out in front of me and I made a 2 shot kill! Rolled him on the 1st one and put him down with the 2nd! I was beaming, but I think my dad was more proud than I was about it! I've been hooked ever since!
Still love going back in the winter time to rabbit hunt with dad and friends!! :grin:

-jokester

[reeldick]

Between age 8 and 9 I got my first squirrel with an old Stevens bolt action .22 that I still have today. A lot of gray and fox squirrels came down with my brother and I sharing that old .22.

[Erich_870]

My first kill was a widgeon when I was 11. I'd been tagging along with my dad to Sauvie Island since I was 7 so by the time I passed hunter safety I was an “expert“ . We were on Mud Hen, #9 or 10 I think. It was a youth hunt so we had chatted with the grandpa and grand son next to us who were really nice guys. Later that morning a pair of widgeon came right in. I stand up and leveled that double barrel 20 gauge of my dads (that thing was heavy) and blam, dropped the male. That was the coolest, then the grand dad from the blind over yelled out a, “Nice Shot Erich!!” LOL, that made it even better!

[FrogPond]

My first hunt...Dove hunting around Salem with my cousin & dad. I was 11 or 12. I started off with a bang...pun fully intended. I had never shot a shotgun before so my cousin handed me the 12ga Rem 870 that just about knocked me to the ground. After pointing it at a tree & the river without pulling the trigger a small flock of dove flew overhead, rather high. My cousin commented on the doves and my dad commented on their altitude. Well, when they circled back around, I thought we were dove hunting so I raised the gun straight up and let one fly. WOW that was an eye opener...or closer really. When the dust settled I had knocked one down. After retrieving it from half a field away I sat back and enjoyed the hunting stories and let my collarbone heal up.

Now I realize how lucky I was on that shot...I don't know if I have killed 10 dove since that day.

[winterkill]

My first big game kill was something out of a dream. It was during cow elk season,when I was thirteen. We had hunted for most of the day and everyone was pooped, I on the other hand was full of energy. There was about another hour of light left, so I asked my dad and brother to go with me on a short little hunt. They declined and so I set off on my own. As I was walking down an old skid road in some reprod, I suddenly noticed that the forest had come alive. Somehow I had managed to walk right into the middle of a herd of elk. Right away I got buck fever, my knees buckled and my hands started shaking. About a hundred yards down the road in front of me I saw a group of cows, so I begin to set up for a shot with my brothers open sight 30:06.

Between the buck fever, the weight of the gun, and the fact that I was by myself shooting at a herd of elk I knew I had to get closer [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] . Just then I herd a crack closer by, I looked to my right and about 15-20 yards away were 2 cows, I picked one out and shot. She went straight down and never got back up . I was so excited I sprinted about a mile back to the house :grin: :shocked: . I got there and I knew the hardest part was still to come; I had to get my dad and bro to believe what had just happened. I got there all out of breath and tryed to shout, "I shot an elk, I shot an elk. Let's go skin it."

Just like I thought they said, you are full of ****.

I said fine, I'm goin up there to skin it myself if I have to. That struck a nerve with my dad because he said to my brother, I guess we better check it out Eventually we got it out. It took about 4 hours by candle, kerosene lantern and flashlight to get her skinned and gutted, but we did it. I will never forget that hunt, and I have been hooked to this day.
Ian

[ 02-23-2004, 10:55 PM: Message edited by: winterkill ]

[straightweave]

Ah, yes. The beloved BB gun. Shot a fox squirrel out of the oak tree in my parents front yard when I was 9 or 10. My first legal game came when I was 15 or 16. I shot a squirrel out of a tree w/ my Wards Western Field 16ga. Followed that up w/ a grouse outta the creak bottom on the way back to camp.

My first big game hunt came when I was 14. Whitetail hunting in MI. Opening morning a 4pt walks to within 20 yds. Scented me and took off. It was a sign of things to come, because over the course of the next 5 yrs, I missed opportunities to harvest 5 more legal bucks w/ a rifle and several does during bow season. Sad to say, the only whitetail I ever got was w/ the "Duct Tape Express", my '77 Ford P/U.

[willametteriveroutlaw]

I think my first "game animal" was a quali when i was like 7 or 8 with my BB gun. My first big game hunt was for does in eastern Wa, Fired alot of shots.. Couldn't hit anything. My first big game kill was a 380 class caribou that hangs on my wall to this day.

[SHOUGALNITE]

My first big game kill was this last fall. My first day out elk hunting and two bulls ran up the hill to me. The bigger one went into some trees and his butt was sticking out. No shot. But the smaller one a 3 pt. stood fluttering his ears not knowing I was there until a bullet pierced his skull under his left ear at about 40 yards. I would have liked to take a broadside shot but it did not present itself to me. I only had but a few seconds. And also, I got to try the liver and heart after we cooked it of course.