HOPEFULLY THIS WON'T BE STIRRING UP THE POT FOR TOO MANY PEOPLE.

Going back and picking up some of the stuff that has been on here before is fun, especially when we have a wave of new members come on board.

This one has been thru the system before, can't remember how long back, but it might be fun to do again.

How old were you when you first started hunting, not when you first started tagging along, but when you actually were packing a gun and shooting at game?

Who got you started hunting , again the actual killing end of the sport, not just the tagging along.

What was the first game you ever killed?

I was either 8 or 9 yrs old when I tagged my first deer. My dad had got me a Rem mod 788 in .243 for Christmas but "Santa" left it for me two weeks before season began. I killed my first deer, a 6 pt buck. over an oat patch that same year, I guess it would have to be around 1971. I really miss those hunts with Dad, he's just too old now.

6 years old. In Kansas. With my Pops. Mainly upland game until I was 9-10. First game ever killed was dove. Shot a couple quail that first year as well. He made me carry that .410 single shot until he died. I was 13 when I finally got a 20 pump.

6, 20 gauge pump and I believe it was dove or some other bird flying around that day. I was with my Dad and am lucky enough to still be hunitng with him.

My first "hunts", were in our backyard with bb guns shooting english sparrows that came in to eat the feed we had out for our chickens. I was about 10 or 11 at the time.

At 16, I would borrow a shotgun from one of our neighbors and go out with some of the guys I went to school with and try to hunt duck and dove.

My first actual real "game" kill was a dove right after I turned 16.

As for getting me started hunting, I was born with the desire.

My Dad liked to fish, and when I started trying to hunt doves, he would take ne out to places, but he was not a hunter by any means. Some of my friends in school helped foster the concept of hunting and many of them, their Dad's hunted so all of mine was kind of peripheral. I didn't kill a deer till after I turned 20.

My dad took me squirrel hunting when I was 6 or 7. We were both barefooted in Kentucky where he was born. I remember shooting a 16 ga. shotgun and ask him if it kicked and he said no. When I shot it I cried because I was pointing it upwards in a tree at a squirrel!!! IT HURT!!! Killed the squirrel!

just hunting with a firearm i would say 5 or so,with my grandpa's old .410 side by side with the double trigger. we would shoot moccasins and other critters. i shot my first dove around the same time with the same old .410. i was 7 when i was allowed to take a rifle into the field after deer. although i was deadly at the range, out in the field was another matter,i tended to loose my composure and did not harvest my first deer a doe until i was about 8 in San Saba.

I actualy started the killing game when I was 6. I carried a Winchester 67 .22 that my Dad bought for my Mom in 1941. I still have that rifle. My first kill was a squirrel. I still remember my Dad slapping me on the back and calling me "One Shot Bud". I'd remember that if I lived to be 200. My Dad carried the bolt in his jacket so I didn't shoot him in the back. Only when we had a squirrel "treed" did he get the bolt out and put it in the gun for me.

When I was 8, he bought me a H&R Topper JR .410 and I began hunting by myself. We would hit the river bottom in the dark of the morning, go in about 1/2 mile, and split up. He'd cut through the woods and hit downriver while I worked my way along the river to him. Usually, I'd find him about noon.

Bought my own Marlin 30-30 when I was 12 so we could start deer hunting. Still have that rifle too. He and I both started deer hunting the same year so we learned together. I killed my first deer (a doe) on our second hunt.

I started bowhunting in about 1980 so he started the following year (at 68 years old).

When I think about him now, I think about sitting on a river logjam eating a sandwich, walking out of the woods together talking about what we each saw, fishing when it was so cold that the eyes of our rods would freeze up with ice. Stuff that seemed so "normal" at the time. Mostly, I think about his reverance for life. Under no circumstances whatsoever were you to ever kill anything you didn't intend to eat. I gotta stop now.

First time to hunt game was dove in 1994 at Tech. Dropped my first dove on the first shot. Then went 49 for 50 after that. I had a big drought where i played golf and fished mostly and then started hunting quite a bit in 2001. I don't hunt as much now but try to make the most of it with a few trips a year now that I have family and kids. My blind and feeder get hunted once or twice now but I don't pay luckily.

My first was at 7 with the single shot 20 guage my Dad bought me. First game was a squirrel. Still remember that pot of Squirrel and dumplings my Mom made from them squirrels.

My parents, nor my brothers, ever hunted. At an early age I had a fascination with guns. I got my first bb gun by saving up birthday money and then bought it used from my neighbor who was older. My parents, who had refused to buy me a bb gun in the first place, took it away from me. I found where they hid it and "stole" it back. Each day after school I was the feared hunter in our woods with that bb gun. As I got older I got my hands on my moms old .410 bolt action, tube fed, JC Higgins shot gun. I think I was 13 the first time I picked the lock on the cabinet and took the shotty out with another friend. Once I started mowing yards, I started buying used guns from neighborhood kids. My best friend and I continued to hunt each day after school. Because my parents didn't hunt, I never had the chance to go deer hunting until I was 16. The first time I went deer hunting, I was hooked for life! Recently, I have gotten over deer hunting and actually enjoy hog hunting much more than deer.

Long story short, and to answer the initial question, I started hunting when I was 10 with a BB gun, and I got me into hunting.

My dad is an avid gun nut but I have never known him to hunt. He had me out teaching me how to safely handle and shoot guns shortly after I started walking. He bought me a 20 ga pump shotgun for my 8th birthday (1978) and I hit the woods behind my house by myself. My first kill was a squirrel. Mom helped me skin it,then she cooked it, and she and I ate it for supper.

I was emmediately hooked for life.

Age six is when I killed my first whitetail and I stared hammering birds and squirrels at 4. My dad taught me.

I'm just getting started in hunting. The first time I actually went hunting was this spring in arkansas for turkey. Didn't get to shoot one though. Trying to get on a lease with my uncle this year. I'm trying to learn all I can from you guys on the forum.

I was 7-8 when i took my first dove.
My dad and step dad were involved in my early hunting and fishing expeditions and they still are.

Tagged along and played bird dog for my dad about eight years old. Started dove hunting with my granddad at about twelve. Didn't deer hunt until I moved to Texas in 01.

My dad started me off when i was 9 years old we hunted a place in del rio texas,He won me a 6mm mohawk remington in a football pot and i killed at least 30 deer with that gun it had a weaver 4x on it,sweet gun.Well you would guess that i would still shoot with that gun but someone needed it worse then me so they stole it.But me and dad have only missed two seasons hunting togeather since but that was becouse he wouldnt get off of this crappy place we had in sweetwater tx,So i left but he followed shortly after.We hunted a lease in san saba for 29 years but the man that owned it passed the son took over and you know the rest.But thats how i got my start and its been a great ride since.

I was 13. We just got back from 4 years of living in Germany in 1974. My Dad and Grandpa took me squirrel hunting just north of Powell Park near Lake Sam Rayburn. I was carrying a 20 ga double barrel that my Dad bought me for my 10th birthday at the Ramstein Rod and Gun Club for $36.00.

It was a great day. Grandpa brought his dog Spot with us and he was treeing squirrels right and left. Nothing like the sound of a dog out in the woods treeing squirrels.

I was hooked when my first one fell from that giant pine tree.

I was about nine years old.

First hunt was with my dad and grandfather. Cornered a Skunk in the old trash pit at Grandpas farm. Using a old Hoban #4 SS 22 I bagged him. I was quite upset when I could not take him home with me.

First dove about 11 years old, same farm. Went for a walk and two dove flew over. One pull of the trigger on the Mossberg bolt action 410 and score one for the young hunter. I finished with about nine doves that afternoon could of shot more but ran out of shells (only had one box).

First deer harvested in ninth grade (Blanco Texas). I had missed a few deer earlier that year with borrowed bolt actions. Last day of season doe walks out and one shot burried her. I was scared to shoot because I thought i was going to miss. Begged my dad to take the shoot but insisited on me taking it. Winchester 94 30-30 open sights made in 1965 same year as when I was born. Still have all three guns.

I can remember all these hunts like they were yesterday.

I was able to take my dad hunting last year three times for deer (I would take him all the time but he is just not that interested anymore). It was very nice even thou we did not make a harvest. I will insist that he go more often this year and hopefully he will score. Keep yall informed.

Fun thread, Crazyhorse. I terrorized the sparrow population in my rural area when I was a kid, but didn't hunt anything bigger because I had no older relatives who did. I married a farm girl from New Mexico and became fast friends with her Dad. We built Thompson Center Hawken muzzle-loaders from a kit and hunted mulies in New Mexico for 25 years, filling our tags every single year. Man, hunting with that guy was like hunting with Daniel Boone. Raised in the woods, served as a Marine sniper in WWII, he taught me volumes about hunting. I was privileged to pass it on to my two sons, now grown. We're blessed to own a small ranch in San Saba County and it's covered up in deer, turkey and hogs. Can't wait for a couple of grandkids so I can start training them.

I got a NEF 20 ga for my 7th bday, which is in December. I didn't get to use it until the next fall. Didn't kill a thing that first dove season. But I scared the heck out of a bunch. For my 12th bday I got a Winchester wingmaster 20 ga pump. Still have it in the safe waiting for my kids to get of age. I killed my first deer when I was 19 with a borrowed Remington 700 30.06. I've been hooked ever since.

I guess I was born into it. Living in a little town called Weston Oregon, we were raised on wild game. Dad kept a locker full of Elk and venison. As for poultry, it was pheasant and grouse. Shot my first deer, with a 30-06, when I was 7, shot my first buck with a 300 Weatherby, when I was 9. Got my first shotgun when I was 7, an old Mossberg bolt action 410. Started shooting a LC Smith 12 ga double when I was 8. I honestly can't remember 1 time my dad went hunting without me. Nobody had a greater love for hunting than my father and thank God he shared every bit of it with me. He's 87 now, and we still can’t sit down for more than 2 minutes without the conversation turning to hunting or guns. Homer is a hunting fool and his son's seem to have taken the same path. Thanks Pop!

My dad got me into the great outdoors when I was around 8 yrs old. Started with a .410

Started hunting at the age of six with my Dad.Dove was my first kill.The only thing I would like to have changed is picking up a bow earlier in life.

like so many other kids, i too was the bird dog for many years. my dad wasn't much of a deer hunter, but loved to hunt quail and dove. did quite a bit of it around the charlotte area. when my mom re-married when i was 7, we moved to houston, where doves and sparrows were at the mercy of my crossman pellet gun.

uncle bought the ranch i currently hunt on in 94' i used to go down for spring break when i was around 8 years old and terrorize the rabbit population with a old H&R 20 gauge. my step dad eventually got on a lease in east texas, but did't get my first deer until i was 12 (again in south texas), a little nubbin buck shot outta a ground blind sitting on my uncles knee. ever since then, i have been in the woods every fall, and have been blessed to have good properties in which to hunt on.