Mongo's topic on starting with firearms got me to thinking about a similar topic....
Did you go through any "steps" as a beginner, or take your child through any? I'll give my own as an example, to better explain what I'm asking...

I was introduced to squirrel hunting first, and started using a .22 on them before hunting deer.
I was introduced to deer hunting with a .243 always on green fields in a shooting house or stand and taught about wind and the very basics.
After that, I was taken to the woods with the .243 and hunting from a treestand, and then shown how to find rubs and sign as well as tracking.
And, after that, I was hunting solo (since I was "ready" and my dad went to teach my brother) with a .270 mag, again in the woods.

And now, I hunt with my dad (we're in different spots, he's just my hunting partner) or grampa (same) pretty much anywhere (woods, clearcuts, in tree or ground).

And I pretty much had the same in mind with my daughter, except bypass the food plots cause where we hunt, we have one or two but they're only visited at night anyway. The bottoms are the honey spot, with the big oaks, so was gonna substitute with that.
But, we never get past squirrel hunting....she much prefers to bass fish or go bream fishing (which is pretty much traditional. Everyone else in my family are fisherman, my gramps and me are the only "hunters" (except for the women, although they all stopped after getting kids)My dad only rifle hunted (he's a bow hunter) to introduce us to it, but..lol..I'm the only one it "took" with.
But, the rugrat, she's gun shy...doesn't like "the boom". So, we're still on .22's.

What about you?

Hands thank you for posting a good topic. It gave me a flash back today too. That is also what the outdoors experience is about too.



My dad did not hunt. However he did take me fishing in a pond on one of our Penn game Lands for bluegills and sunnies. First I used one of those toy fishing poles. Then he handed me a bambo pole.

I remember the morning we got there right at sun up. Accross the pond drinking water from the same pond was a magnificent buck with a large rack. That is what started the fire in me a burining.

From 5yr's to 12 years old that fire festered in me. I did fish all those years of course but did not get my first 22 rifle until I was in 7th grade then a 20 gauge single shot youth model JC Higgins. Both guns cost me $25.00 and I paid for them with money from my paper route. Started hunting when I was 12 my dad would walk with me in the woods that first year. The first critter I shot and they were open season at the time was a blue jay. Shot him 40 yards a it flew above me. That little 20 was choked full so it could shoot far even for it's short size. Shortl ythere after I got me my first game animals a Grey squirrel. That was it for my first season a Jay and a squirrel. Missed a few grouse of course and never did see a rabbit.

I had to learn everything from scratch by myself. Listened to my friends in school what they did and how they did it. Read all kinds of outdoor magazines. Eat Sleeped, S - - t everything about the outdoors.

A family friend of my brothers started taking me hunting when I was in the 9th grade. Learned a lot from him about fishing and hunting. I recently called him on the phone and said. "I want to thank you for taking me hunting and fishing when I was a kid.
A good example of one thing I learned was how to fight a big fish. When my dad took me they always broke my line. I would try to horse them in instead letting the drag tire them out. I leraned this from this person. I made sure my 6 years old kids learned right off how to fight a big fish using the drag.


To make a long story short. Over the years I have learned what I know today because of that person being kind and taking me with him and by me just PAYING MY DUES! So the majority of my life I would say my knowledge is self thought.


I also decided that I am not going to be one of those guys who do not pass any of their secrets on. Someday I am going to be passed on and go on to my real home. I don't want to be one of those selfish people that take everything with them to their grave.

What a cool story, Uncle Buck!! Really enjoyed hearing about how you got started!

Don't know that I went thru any "steps" actually... When I was growing up every boy I knew had a BB rifle and a Barlow knife (and he carried his trusty Barlow to school too...I mean, how could you play mumbly peg at recess without it?)........... But I "started" when I was big enough to walk, by following my father into the woods when he went squirrel hunting with his little Manchester dog, Roy... Living beside Bird Creek, at the edge of town, a BB rifle was often a constant companion for us boys here.... My father was a hunter, and he usually took me when he went...and my mother liked to hunt squirrels with Dad, so she often went too, but really, she was more into fishing... I never really thought much about it, it was just "the way things were"...but Dad got me to shooting different and more powerful firearms as I grew... But then all the boys around here were pretty much raised the same way back then... We hunted squirrels, rabbits, dove, quail, prairie chicken, ducks, and occasionally deer, but there weren't so many deer then as there are now...and not nearly so many turkeys either..... Back then my dad kinda had "a thing" for used BB rifles...and we always had probably 12 or 15 laying around. He liked working on them...... Then a fella that owed my father 10 bucks came by one day and told him he was sorry, but he just didn't have the money, and wanted to give me his old single-shot .410 rabbit gun to "make things square"...(I still got that old gun, by the way)... Then one Christmas I found a new pump 20 gag. shotgun under the tree... And a few years later I bought my first, that actually belonged to me, rimfire .22 rifle, an Ithaca saddle gun, that I also still have. I paid it out weekly with money from my paper route. I still remember it cost the princely sum of 22 dollars and change at the local OTASCO store downtown............................ I donno... I was just raised with guns and hunting... But then, pretty much all the boys I knew around here were raised that way back then.

I am like Mongo I don't know of any steps we all just had a pocket knife and a BB gun and ran the woods and the creeks from little up. My Dad was a stickler for gun safety and insisted on compliance and if I wanted to have my BB gun I had to listen. I guess from about 10 I was allowed to take my 22 out without supervision and shoot chipmunks, rats at the dump, and Starlings and such.From that I grew into big game and bird hunting to where I raised and trained bird dogs, mostly English Setters. I still mostly like rifle shooting such as informal target and bench shooting. I got into reloading about 42 years ago and most of my game has been taken with ammo I have loaded.

I tried to instill the same firearm safety in my sons and grandsons and all of them and my grandaughter like guns and shooting.

Well, for me, I am the baby of my family and the only boy. I remember hearing about my father, grandfather, uncles, etc... all going hunting in the 50's and 60's. But yet, when I came of age in the early 70's, they had all given it up. So I had no one to show me the ropes. My father and I always went fishing for years, but sadly, we just never went hunting.

So, after all these years, after I retired from the Coast Guard and settled down, I got interested in hunting. I went through hunter education and pretty much learned on my own what to do and what NOT to do.

I also have to publicly thank 99er, for sort of taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes. Without 99er, honest... I probably would have given up out of frustration.

You are very welcome Butch, thou I believe I did have "help" from Bawana, "Miss Winston", and "Miss Daytona" !!





The two most influencial folks in getting me initially "hooked" on Hunting were my dad and my favorite uncle. Do to time constraints (full-time job and Grandad's farms) Dad was primarily my Deer hunting mentor & partner, where as my uncle was more of my small game & varmit hunting bud and had a certain way to keep things interesting to say say the least (this is the uncle that took me ice fishing one winter armed with a sledgehammer, pick, and an axe).

There were plenty of fond memories as a youngen from blasing groundhogs, varmits, etc with uncle to all of Deer hunting with Dad ... doing everything from crop damage Deer Hunting on Grandad's farms to the 2-man walk & sit Deer Drives (sort of a lost art today, IMO).


After 2 years of Tech School, I landed a job with General Electric and moved to Virginia at the rip old age of 19. Although I still hunted some, I sort of driftted away from hunting for a few years. I then had the good fortune of going to VA Hunting Camp with a crazy-assed, guitar plucking, partying friend of mine, that was more or less run by John (my friend's stepdad at the time). What a wild bunch they were and not very surprising my "hunting spirit" had been "reborn" in a wilder "southern" sort of way. John ended up becoming my new best hunting buddy and more like a 2nd father after my dad passed away. My "2nd coming" was totally complete when I once again took up groundhog & varmit hunting to improve my shooting skills for Deer Hunting.

John and most all of the other "VA Camp Elders" have since passed on thru the years and only a few of remain. John was kind enough thou to leave his "ol Hunting Bud" with ... the Bawana ... who, so much like John and my PA Uncle sure as hell knows how to keep things quite entertaining to say the least !!


Some of the more interesting VA Hunting/Fishing camp quotes thru the years ...
"we got the power now !!"
"and the preacher & the high sherriff said ying, ying, ying, YAMAHA !!!"
"different fire, same old smoke"
"now how that saftey work ?? ... BANG !!"
"nay, we'll won't get stuck, it ain't that damn wet"
"shutup and just pass the damn peanuts, would ya"


99er

LOL..those are some hoots of sayings Eli

Cool stories guys, real cool to hear how ya'll started out!