Who taught you to hunt?

[mattys281]

No one else in my family are really big into hunting, so I learned a lot by reading magazines & books, then going out into the field & sorting out what did & did not work for me on my own. I also got a lot of good advice early on from the late Van Clark, former owner of Prescott Valley Archery.

[Matt Meyer]

My dad taught me how to hunt(and fish). He taught me how to deer hunt as well as small game. He always had time to take me hunting. We spent a lot of time in the Wisconsin northwoods. My love of hunting and the outdoors in general grew from there

[Coach]

As a kid, I grew up hunting birds, rabbits, squirrels - all with a pellet gun. I was constantly turning over rocks and logs catching whatever snake I could. My dad grew up hunting too, but for whatever reason, he gave up hunting, art, photography, backpacking about the time I was born, as best I can figure.

 

It's still a mystery to me, why he just lost interest, about the time i was getting the bug. I joined the boy scouts, hunted every creature in the NE Oklahoma woods, learned to sein minnows, fish, bowfish carp and gar - but I always felt I was doing it all on my own.

 

When I wanted to be a pitcher, my dad put up a net in the yard and tied a t-shirt in the middle. "When you can hit the shirt every time, you're a pitcher", he told me.

 

When deer season approached, I would touch every round of reloaded 30/30 ammo. At best I would sit an old treestand. Usually, my contribution to the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner was a few rabbits and squirrels. Maybe a duck.

 

Around college age, my dad bought me my first compound bow. It was an out-dated PSE but it was all I had. I shot that bow every day with a finger tab and Easton 1117 arrows. My first pair of binoculars were Nikon 10x24 pocket binos, again provided by my dad.

 

I hunted and hunted, and did what I thought then was glassing. Every spare moment in between classes at U of A, I was doing everything I could to learn about hunting. I'd sneak off and hunt the hlls around Tucson with my crappy bow, crappy binocs and absolutely no idea what I was doing.

 

One Saturday morning around Redington pass, with papers to write, tests coming up, I find myself on my first real deer hunt. I didn't get anywhere close to them - I still remember the lead doe catching my scent and ushering 4 or 5 other does and a scraggly 3 point deer out of the area.

 

From then, I tried over and over to get within bow range of a javalina or deer.

 

It seems like it took forever but one day I took my first ever javi with my crappy bow. Not long after I took my first coues with my dad's rifle. I can remember vividly turning off the music, really getting serious, driving into my area and started the process of getting into the hunt.

 

I would love to credit my love for hunting to my dad, but I can't. My love of hunting came from my desire to learn on my own.

 

20 years later, the only hunts I really care about are my sons' huhts. When I have a tag, I am 100% solo unless one of my boys are there wth me. Well, that 's not totally accuate, the last coues buck I got was a hike-in hunt, and had Greg Lewis not been there it would not have happened. Greg spotted ths buck and walked me right to him.

 

Wow, I just read this aloud to myself and I hear my own words - those of a bitter young man, now maybe a bitter older man. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins - take the time to find out what the younger people in your life are doing, what they are interested in and find a way to be a part of it.

[Flatlander]

+1 Coach.

 

Growing up I thought my dad loved hunting as much as I did. Turns out he just loved me.

[rossislider]

Apparently nobody, CAUSE I SUCK AT IT!

[mattys281]

Apparently nobody, CAUSE I SUCK AT IT!

 

 

I once read a book on building roadracing motorcycles where the author dropped this little pearl: "If an engine builder stands head & shoulders above the competition, it's because he's standing on a pile of broken parts."

 

That quote has always stuck with me, as I've found it applies to almost every area of life. You gotta spook a few deer & you gotta blow up a couple engines before you really figure out what you're doing.

 

In my case, I've only built a couple engines & have yet to blow one up, but I spooked hundreds of deer for 15 years or more of bowhiking before I finally figured out how to get within bow range & seal the deal.

[Hoss50]

My father taught me to hunt and love the outdoors. We mostly hunted dove, deer, and elk. I don't think he was taught well, therefore I don't think I am all that good of a hunter, but I get outside and I love it. I will teach my son too if he wants too. Some of my best memories and times when I was a kid was when we were hunting.

[willhunt4coues]

I have to thank my dad for always taking me out since I was very very young. Like others have said back then we would not scout just go looking around. No glassing from tripods, no dialing turrets (just hold over shots). Since I had started getting into Coues hunting hard core everything else followed Elk, Predator, Turkey have now all become an addiction. I can not go a week without going out to harvest or look for some critter and who is still with me on 95% of my trips my dad and now I have been taking my son out for 4 years now. My son is 7 now and really getting into hunting so I am wanting to teach him what I can in the time I can.

[wyguy]

My dad/older brother taught me everything I know about hunting, although we always teased my dad when he shared his knowledge about hunting or tricks of the trade. Then we tried them out an lo and behold what do you know, Dad actually does know something haha

[Edge]

My family was raised on venison, quail, rabbit and squirrel. I was probably 5 or 6 when I was turned loose with a slingshot and told what I could and couldn't shoot. A year later I had a 40# recurve that my uncle had nearly worn out and a pellet gun.

 

By age 10, I was spending a third of the year living with my grandparents on a remote ranch in sw NM. I had a .22 over 20 ga, Savage and 78,000 acres to hunt on. I supplied our dinner table with meat as well as the dinner plates of the many Hispanic migrants on foot that would stop at the ranch looking for work. They were tired from walking and they ate what we ate and they were never sent on their way hungry or thirsty.

 

I have to credit my father and grandfather with teaching me the essentials of hunting and marksmanship, And my dad for making me understand how patience and just being still is rewarding.

[Greenmachine]

A buddy took me dove hunting for the first time 8 years ago and since then I have collected more than a fair supply of guns, and have taught all four of my kids(and my wife) to shoot. My youngest son is a deadeye dove/quail hunter and can usually get his limit with only a shell or two used without connecting. He has his first cow elk tag for this Friday and I'm super excited to spend more time with him in the woods. Hunting time=family time (as long as they're quiet). My wife and I also have tags, but he gets the first shot (unless we see two, then he and Mama can shoot together)

[GhostTracker180]

My dad and uncle.

[trphyhntr]

my dad. im lucky too because he doesn't suck at it.

[elkaholic]

Three very generous people - me - myself and I -- it was a learning experience

[Couestracker]

This is a great thread!

 

Lancetkenyon, you sir are a very lucky man to have shared and learned so much with your Dad. I have to admit I shed some tears when you mentioned your Christmas present to your parents. Awesome family you have! Thank you for sharing your story!

Of course it made me think of my Father and how I wished I had even a few of the opportunities that you had had.

 

So I got into hunting by being taken at a young age by my Father, Grandfather and Uncle when they went deer hunting in the Chiricahuas. We lived in Tucson back then, I still don't know why they wanted to hunt there when they had ample opportunities in the surrounding mountains.

But man, what an adventure it was getting there back then, I'm guessing it was 1964. I recall riding with my Uncle Rob in his 48 Buick Roadmaster with a fluid drive transmission. I liked that car, looked like a upside-down bathtub with wheels. I was impressed that the hood would swing open from either side or from the front like all other cars.

Anyway, I don't remember what my Dad drove up there, no one had trucks back then I know. I recall getting there at night and taking some terrible "roads" through the woods-we had to get out often to stack rocks in the washed out areas so the cars could get through.

 

I was too young to hunt deer (well that's what I thought for years until I learned otherwise. Now I know I could have, because I was about 12, just don't know why they didn't let me) so I went out squirrel hunting with my Grandfather's .22 automatic rifle - don't remember the brand-but I remember I could shoot it well. So well, I came back into camp carrying almost more squirrels than I could carry and thinking how awesome it was going to be when they saw how successful I had been. Holy cow, my Grandfather came unglued and ripped me a new one. He was mad because I killed way too many and so he made me clean every one of those squirrels and I ate squirrel until I got almost sick. Learned some ethics and conservation ideals over that.

 

Next day I went out hunting again (no squirrels!) for whatever, when I saw this rather large bird. Of course I shot it, thinking it might be good to bring back and eat. Man my Grandfather about had a cow when he saw that bird-turned out to be a blue grouse-yelling at me about how it's a protected species, it's not even grouse season and you need a special license and bird stamp, etc. I got in trouble over that one. He made me clean it, we burned the feathers and all of the remnants. Afterwords we cooked it over the fire-it was pretty good! Anyway, learned another important lesson that day.

 

So as the years passed, they all quit hunting after a few trips, I would hunt quail, dove and rabbits with my best friend Rick after school and the weekends. We'd shoot the birds' heads off with our .22's and cook the birds over a fire in the desert. We took salt and pepper out with us. Only killed what we wanted to eat at the time. Never occurred to us to shoot a bunch and bring home the dinner.

 

I would go and spend weekends at my Grandparents place often. I was the only one of us 6 kids that wanted to. I loved my Grandmothers cooking, she'd cut corn off the cob and cook it in butter-yummy! And biscuits, cookies, pies-what were my siblings thinking. I loved watermelon, so my Grandmother would stop at the roadside fruit stand and pick one up. I would eat the whole thing before I went home. My Grandfather and I would play cribbage for hours.

 

I remember my Grandfather called me (my parents most likely) I think I was about 16, and asked if I wanted to go deer hunting with him to the Chiricahuas. Man was I excited! It never occurred to me then that I could have gotten a tag too and tried my hand at it, I was just so thrilled with the idea of getting to go with him on a hunt. He had a 67ish Dodge dart, 6 cyl 3-on-the tree. Man that clutch got to stinking going up the mountain. He darned near got his door handle knocked off in a turn by a vehicle going down the mountain. I never seen him so mad-except maybe the grouse incident, lol.

 

Seemed like forever, but we finally got to Onion Saddle and we got out of the car. I'll never forget how anxious I was for this hunt, a chance to help him on a hunt as an "adult"- well, grown up more anyways. So he walks around a few minutes, didn't even go for a hike looking for sign or anything, and says "Nope, nope, not any good, let's go home". I was shocked and confused and didnt understand, but man was I ever heartbroken! To this day I don't know why he did that. That was the last time I ever got out anywhere with him. A couple of years later, I graduated from High School and soon joined the Navy. His health took a bad turn and he passed away that next year.

 

Several years ago, I traded a shovel full of dirt from his grave with some from Onion Saddle. On one of my hunts in unit 29, I took that dirt and spread it out in Onion Saddle and I carved his initials in a juniper tree. I go up there every hunt and cleanup the area and have a beer or two.

 

Anyway, I loved to hunt, but didn't until I moved to Phoenix after getting out of the Navy and got a job at Airesearch Manufacturing Co. in 1978. I soon got married and made friends with Mike, who worked at Honeywell with my wife. We began deer hunting every year together. More like camping with guns! I now know we didn't have a clue about it, but we still had a lot of fun. We kinda got out of the hunting thing for a bunch of years and life changes.

 

But I still had the bug. I had friends at work that would go elk hunting together. Man, I never even thought of going elk hunting before, but when I heard them talking about it, my bug got to itching bad. I worked on my friends for a couple of years to let me go with them. Finally they said ok, but you have to go take the Game and Fish hunting safety course first. I signed up for the week-long evening course in 1999. That's when I made friends with Jorge, now one of my best friends and constant hunting partner, but that's another story.

 

So I passed the course and me and my 3 friends put in for a late bull hunt for unit 1 in the next year, 2000. And we got drawn! That hunt was the most awesome of my life (up to then), I shot my first elk, a 5x5, out of a running herd on opening morning in 9 degree weather, in knee deep snow! I'll never forget that sight, it was like a movie, the elk were running up a ridge in front of us, about 80 yards away, mostly single file, steam blowing from their noses-it seemed like 2 feet in front of them-I watch.all this through my Leupold scope on my Browning .308 BAR. I waited until my friend Bob shot, then I looked for a bull to go by, I saw a nice one, so I fired and my 5 by 5 fell out of the group. I got my first ever elk!

 

I was hooked for sure after that, and have been hunting like crazy ever since.

 

I didn't mean to write my life story, I might have gone overboard a little. ☺ Thanks for reading though! Happy hunting everyone and Happy Holidays to all.