Were you raised in an "outdoors oriented" family ? ... I know people who never hunted or even shot a gun or fished much until they got older... But most of the people I knew around here were raised similar to myself, in a family that spent quite a bit of time in the outdoors... My mother and father both loved to fish. My mother was a "fishaholic", sort of like my wife and daughter are now... My father was an avid hunter, and while my mother hunted time to time, particularly squirrels, her passion was fishing... There were always guns in our home, and we often went camping as a family too... I was raised hunting, fishing, and camping...picking blackberries, sand plums, black walnuts, and pecans...running coon dogs and trot lines. These things were just always a part of my life...and in my 20's I got into trapping and predator calling...but it just seemed natural for me to do so....... Were you raised in an outdoors oriented family ?

My mom and dad never did much other farm and church. When I was a kid I found dad's old Crosman single shot gun and darn near wore it out before I was old enough to buy myself a real gun!

Welp, my Grandad had 3 Farms and plenty of Deer doing crop damage (not to mention groundhogs) ... that's how I cut my teeth on Hunting. Never was really super big into fishing, unless it was fishing over at my favorite Uncle's ... including ice-fishing with a sledge hammer, pick, and an axe !!


99er

Wow now this is a real good post.

I could say kinda. I heard stories as a little boy of my uncles on my mom's side hunting when they were kids. thats about all I heard. When they were older they no longer hunted but they did fish. However they never took me. Promised a lot to take me fishing in the ocenan of N. J. However I was in Pa and they were in N. J. We never went much of anywhere. My mom and dad never even flew on a plane.



My dad did take me fishing when I was 5 years old for gills. I remember I was fishing one morning with him on a pond on the Penn Game lands. I looked accross and there was a buck taking a drink of water from the same pond. He picked his head up at me, looked, then continue to take another drink that there is what really got me hooked on the hunting portion.


I did shroom with my aunts on my moms side. Was an ethnic thing, Slovaks just pick mushrooms in the wild.


However that there buck with those big antlers and me with a little 5 year old head on my shoulders is all it took. I had to learn everything about hunting by myself. I can almost laugh at mysel now when I think of all the gear I use to take deer hunting with me.


When I got to be a teenager a friend of my brother who is 5 years older took me fishing and hunting a lot. I learned a lot from him. How to fight a big fish, gutt a deer, and stuff.


If anyone I do owe this person a lot. I did call him up a few years back and tell him thank you for taking me hunting and fishing with him.


I really need to get him something, maybe a gift certificate to Cabelas, or maybe a gun, something of value to say thank you.
if I knew he would predator hunt I could give him one of my electronic callers that I will not use now. One with my sounds on it.


Again good post Mongojo, I like the ones that make me think of things.

grandpa was but he died too early to take me hunting.It wasn't really my dad's cup of tea.I have no doubt it's just in my blood.

yes, both my parents loved hunting and fishing allmost every week end we did one or the other.My two brothers are the same as I, we all love the outdoors.

My mother was "city" coming from a bigger town...although dirt poor, so appreciated the apsect of it.....she did `not hunt at all (we rehabbed wild animals and so she got skewed feelings about it), but she is a fishoholic even to this day. My dad though, he grew up hunting as did pretty much every member of his family generations up the line to as far back as anyone can remember. Dad's side , from all sides, are made up of farmer types, either large scale plantation to smaller ones like I grew up as. My grampa had my dad hunting for food since he was a tyke, just like he did my dad's brother. The girls, they worked the farm but they knew how to hunt as well. And for me...I was fishing as soon as I could hold a pole, and my dad always took us hunting as well. My dad gave me my first real bow when I was around 6-ish and my tag along was 3 years younger but he was only allowed a bb gun. I got my first real rifle (other than a bb gun) soon after and first started deer hunting with my dad. Before, we would just go squirrel hunting.
And now, I get to hunt/share a lease with my two best buds..my dad and grampa.
My mom was a real trooper though. She went from a "city" to out here in the middle of no freakin where with nothing but woods around you, and she never really "enjoyed" out here. Back then..and actually not til after I was old enough to remember...we didn;t even have city water or neighbors even. (WE still don';t technically..they're several miles down the road) . She tried to adapt, but she never understood hunting.

TEll you what though...that woman, she could hit a dime several hundred yards away. She's an amazing marksman...
I still get tickled when they all have to pick up guns, my mom, gramma , and my late great granny....AMAZING shots. But, none hunted. All fish though. And country as daggum turnip greens.

WEll, now I'm gonna agree with Uncle Buck...dang good post, Mongo! REally gets you taking that trip down memory lane.

Thank you all for the compliments............. And UB...I would guess that you are much like me in that the older we get the more strolls down "Memory Lane" we tend to take.................... In fact...just take a look at my signature.

Neither of my parents really hunted or fished until I got to be a teenager although we were outdoors people. Both my grandfathers were farmers and almost all our family vacations were camping trips. I have Native American in my blood from my Mom's side and it was my Pap that started me into hunting and taught me to track and what I could eat in the woods and respect for nature. My other Grandfather and my one Uncle got me into fishing-I remember the first time I was old enough to go when Pop took all the grandsons for a week to the St. Lawrence river. Ever since that trip I ate breathed and slept fishing-nearly drove my parents crazy.
When I got into my teens my Dad started to slow down a bit since I was the youngest of four kids and the only one left at home he didnt need to work all the overtime he did before. So after that I begged that every trip we took on vacation was somewhere there was water and got my Dad to start fishing. Now both my Grandfathers are gone but some of the best memories I have of them are in the woods or on the water.

Iron Fox, I do understand completely.... Looking back now, it seems that most of the memories I have of my father were hunting or fishing related.

Wow.... great post!

Um, regarding me.... yeah, I was raised to appreciate the outdoors. We always went camping, hiking, fishing, etc... But as far as hunting, I turned out to be a late bloomer. See, I am the baby of my family. My grandfather, uncles, and my dad all hunted way way way way back in the day. But yet, when I came along, they had all pretty much given it up.

Butch A.