Who taught you to hunt?

[naturegirl]

The only thing my dad hunted was rattlesnakes so I do not come from a great line of hunters. Actually nobody hunts in my family except my brother who passed away. My mom is still amazed that I actually hunt.

My ex-husband got me started and I'm always teaching myself with the help of other hunters, the internet, & time in the field.

 

UPDATE Dec 2014

It's been a couple years since I posted this and I've come a long way in the last couple years. I attribute this to my love & dedication to the outdoors and hunting. The seed was planted by people around me, but then I ran with it and am now finding my own way.

[HEADACHE]

My dad has never been much of a hunter,

My Grandpa taught me about guns, safety, and how to hunt turkey when I was just a little guy. He also taught me to call coyotes...

 

But pretty much 98% of what I have learned as a hunter has been on my own two boots....

[ready2hunt]

My father/grandfather taught me to hunt and his father before him. I appreciate the fact that they emphasized that the expereience is the trophy you take away from each trip....the meat & antlers of the animal is just welcomed bonus.

 

I am slowly getting my wife to enjoy the hunting experience more and more but she is creek/cherokee so her hunting heritage goes much deeper than mine.

[lucky2hunt]

My Grandfather hunted but NEVER would allow a 'girl' on the hunt, "it just wasn't ladylike". I always longed to go with him, not just because I idealized him but also because I loved listening to all the adventures of the hunt.

 

I met my husband and he hunted with a rifle, 10 years into our marriage and after our kids were a little older, I finally gave in to my longing to chase big game with a rifle. It was fun, but then I saw friends hunting with their bows and I was fascinated!

 

I have learned bow hunting mainly by trial-and-error (mostly error) I read hunting mags and books voraciously and watch some videos. I also ask more experienced hunters tons of questions.

 

It's funny, my best hunting partner is my husband, but we have such different hunting styles (rifle vs archery) sometimes it's a test of patience for both of us... but, I wouldn't trade him for the world!

[Hanksaiditbest]

Good ol pops, I thank him as no one in his family had been hunters before him. He had a draw to the land and the connection between hunters and that land. If it weren't for him I would be missing out on some pretty awesome stuff

[couesdiehard]

Based on my success or lack there of actually, Nobody taught me to hunt. Maybe I should hire an instructor.

The truth is my dad started taking me hunting small game with him while I was still in diapers. Mom made him wait til I was out of diapers after he took me out and she found out he threw the dirty diapers away rather than clean them. (Way before disposable diapers). We hunted small game and fished every chance we had and we often were with my uncles and cousins. One day when I was about 9, we were driving through Salt River Canyon and as we drove around one of the many hairpin turns, I asked my Dad if he had seen the deer down in the bottom of the canyon. He wasn't sure he believed me but he stopped on the side of the road, we walked back and he still couldn't see them til I pointed them out. He said, "That's it, you and your eyes are going deer hunting with me from now on!" The rest as they say is history.

Boy, I haven't thought about that for a long time. Thanks naturegirl for starting this thread. It sure brings back some great memories. I have to call the old man and see if he wants to go scouting for elk!

[reganranch]

Mostly Youtube.

[billrquimby]

I started "hunting" with a BB gun at about age seven or so, then graduated to a .22 and a 16-gauge single shot shotgun, both of which I paid for myself from selling newspapers on the street in Yuma. At age 12, the earliest kids could hunt deer in Arizona then, I bought a .303 Savage lever-action rifle.

 

Although my father hunted, he taught me very little because was an alcoholic, a real outlaw, and a selfish jerk. He wanted to shoot the game himself and include his kills in my bag limits. When I was 13, he purposely allowed me to sleep late on opening morning and then tried to put my deer tag on a buck he'd shot that morning. When I refused to allow him to do this, we packed up and went home without my getting to hunt that year.

 

After that, although I accompanied him on family deer hunts, I always left camp alone, hunted alone, and field dressed and packed in my deer and javelinas without help. I guess you could say I taught myself to hunt in order to compete with him.

 

Bill Quimby

[Snapshot]

I am self taught. Or I should say, My Dad and I taught each other. When my parents moved us to Tucson in 1973, my Dad and I didn't know anything about hunting in Arizona. My Dad made friends with a guy, and he took us out to Willow springs area to hunt quail, along with the shiny new Winchester single shot 20 guage that my Dad saved up to buy me. 2 years later when I was 14, my Dad bought me a new Remington 788 in .308. He could not afford a rifle for himslef so he had to borrow one that year to hunt deer. The next year he bought a duplicate of my rifle for himself. We didn't scout in those days, but just figured things out as we went.

[Snapshot]

I started "hunting" with a BB gun at about age seven or so, then graduated to a .22 and a 16-gauge single shot shotgun, both of which I paid for myself from selling newspapers on the street in Yuma. At age 12, the earliest kids could hunt deer in Arizona then, I bought a .303 Savage lever-action rifle.

 

Although my father hunted, he taught me very little because was an alcoholic, a real outlaw, and a selfish jerk. He wanted to shoot the game himself and include his kills in my bag limits. When I was 13, he purposely allowed me to sleep late on opening morning and then tried to put my deer tag on a buck he'd shot that morning. When I refused to allow him to do this, we packed up and went home without my getting to hunt that year.

 

After that, although I accompanied him on family deer hunts, I always left camp alone, hunted alone, and field dressed and packed in my deer and javelinas without help. I guess you could say I taught myself to hunt in order to compete with him.

 

Bill Quimby

 

I started out with a BB Gun also, until I shot the rear window out of my Dad's pickup, and also the barn window. I never saw that BB Gun again.

[SirRoyal]

As far as I can remember I always had the passion to hunt .Hmmmmmm wonder how it got there , could be when I dropped from Mama and the Doctor screamed "Oh My Goodness he's a monster" . It must have brought out the animal instincts in me , cause I's been hide out in the woods ever since! Lol

 

So who learned me: My Dad fed the monster venison and elk meat and that just made the hunger worse. I begged everybody I knew as a kid who was a hunter including my dad, my uncles and my dads friends to take me HUNTING! I learned from each one !

Then I spent a lot of time out alone taking what I had been taught and adding to it.

I is still learnin myself to hunt at 49 , Strange though most of them call me now when its time to hunt!

[NRS]

As a kid I learned stalking by chasing rabbits with a homemade slingshot whenever we went on picnics around central AZ, then our dad taught us to shoot with his old pump action .22. I then got into reading hunting magazines with writers like Jack O'Connor and learned everything I could from them. The rest of my education has been by trial and error and listening to anyone that would give me any tips on how to do it better.

 

I now take the time to take my son out and teach him how to hunt.

[THOR]

I will give almost all of what I know about hunting to my Father. We have done a lot together and I know he won't admit it but he has learned some stuff from me. i could not have done it with out him. Great times and great memories, and many more to come!!!!

[Antmo23]

My Pops (Jack Morales aka Mexican Jack) taught me how to hunt when I was just a little guy. Still can't believe he had the patience to deal with the bazzillion questions I threw his way. I had always wanted a elk rut hunt and when I finally got drawn for archery bull elk in 2010, i think he was more excited than I was! We also got drawn for 6a whitetail, which for me was awesome cuz it was the place of legends. As I kid, I always heard about the hunts and always wanted my turn in the canyons. I was lucky enough to take a 5x5 bull on my elk hunt, and a last day, by myself forkie in 6a. It was the best hunting season of my life. Unfortunately, my Pops didnt get to enjoy it with me, he passed away on August 8th, 2010 . Hunting for me was always therapy, but it got even more important after that. And that little forkie was a huge buck for me. Not his score or his weight, but what it meant to me. For all the crap, all the hurt, and all the obstacles I had to go through, taking that little buck all by myself told me, take a breath, youre going to be alright. He said something to me that ive repeated to myself whenever i didnt want to go for a run, or didnt want to go outside in the heat to fling some arrows. He told me "son, youve got a golden ticket in your pocket that everyone I know would love to have, don't waste it." I've repeated that exact same quote many a time and it always works, lol. So a big thanks to my Dad and everyone else out there that introduced someone to hunting or fishing, you've forever changed lives for the better, THANK YOU!

[trophyhnter]

My brother and I had slingshots and BB guns that we chased everything that we could find. Fishing was my true passion at the time but over the years my dad would tell us all of his hunting stories which only fueled the fire. When we were in high school my brother prompted my father to ask a church friend to take him out so we could tag alone. Well he forgot his tag and had to go into town to get a duplicate on openning day and he has not stopped forgetting something since! He taught me the old school stuff of walking and walking and hoping you can find something and shooting an iron sight lever action 30/30. We have had countless GREAT DAYS around the campfire telling stories and poking fun at each other in spite of a harvest! As the years have gone on I have taught my dad and older brother and others a lot about patience, glassing, stocking, and shooting!!! I am proud of that because I have spent a lot of time hunting by myself because no one could go! I tag along on all of my dads hunts as his "guide". I now rifle hunt (mostly archery hunted before) and we rifle hunt deer together.....I have been blessed to spend time in the outdoors with great company and now all my dad talks about getting to hunt this my two boys who are 8.5 months and 2 yrs 4 months old! I CANNOT wait for that day but I CAN wait as my dad and I still have a lot memories to make before then!