Who, what, where, when?

[7mmfan]

A thread on another forum got me thinking about how I got started hunting. As I get older and get to know more people I realize that there are a lot of adult onset hunters out there. My Dad and I had a conversation about it over the weekend while we were cutting and packaging my deer meat. My Dad was an adult onset hunter. Him and his 3 brothers grew up as somewhat free range kids. My Grandpa travelled for work a lot and was not much of an outdoorsman. They spent their youth in Nebraska and South Dakota, moving to Western Washington when my Dad, the 2nd oldest, was about 10. They lived out in the woods and spent a lot of time doing adolescent boy stuff out there. Dad said his first hunt was with a borrowed 22 from a neighbor, shooting bullfrogs out of the pond behind their house.

As they got older they naturally progressed to duck hunting, and then finally deer hunting. It's interesting for me to think that my Dad killed his first deer maybe just a couple of years before I was born. I can remember as a young child Dad coming home with deer occasionally. Two stick out in my mind. A huge bodied Blacktail buck, and a small fork horn Mule Deer. It was a natural progression for me I suppose. I never felt like I had a choice to go hunting, but also never didn't want to go. We were always outside fishing or hiking so it just made sense. I was 5 or 6 when I tailed along with him and my brother on an afternoon hunt close to home. I remember thinking that we would be in the woods and climbing hills so I needed traction. I wore soccer cleats. I can tell you that walking across logs over creeks wearing soccer cleats doesn't end well!

A couple years later Dad took me on a weekend Mule Deer hunt over by Winthrop. We hiked a lot, saw some does which was monumentally exciting for me, and heard a guy shoot a 2 point in a clearing that we wanted to sit on, but had been beat to. We came upon that guy as he was field dressing that deer. Talk about an eye opener for a 8 year old kid. The last night of our trip it snowed 15" over night and collapsed our Coleman tent. The signs were there before we went to bed that night. We had a mouse in camp continually stealing marshmallows from the picnic table, making a stash for winter. It was pretty humorous watching marshmallows appear to levitate and float off the table.

My first hunt was at age 13 in Wyoming. We have family that lives in Sheridan who had ample private land access, SUPPOSEDLY. We showed up expecting an easy hunt to find out that the landowner had his family in town and we would not be allowed to hunt that ground. We rallied and found a few pockets of state land nearby with the Thomas Guide. The 2nd morning of our hunt I killed a 3x4 Mule Deer with an 80 yard running shot. Oddly enough, even though we had spent a fair amount of time in the woods hunting in my youth, Dad had never been successful. I had never seen an animal killed until I killed my first deer.

As an adult, I've taken two adult onset hunters on their first hunts. One I was able to be with when he killed his first elk. The other I was able to help cut his deer up when he successfully harvested a Blacktail buck 2 years ago. Both of these guys have turned into proficient hunters, and I feel lucky to have been a part of their start in hunting. Both are taking their kids now and continuing the tradition. I am also at the point where I'm taking my son in the woods with me more. He turned 5 this August. Him and I spent 2 evenings bear hunting this summer and a night deer hunting as well. I now realize why my Dad never killed anything when I hunted with him as a youth. My son is pretty good in the woods in reality, but like most 5 year-old's when he sees something exciting, volume control leaves the room. On our last trip we only had about 3 hours. We spent a fair amount of it inspecting rocks in the road and two salamanders that we happened upon. Which was interesting to me because I've never found a salamander in a road while hunting. Guess I just needed to take a 5 year-old with me. After that, we hiked into a clear-cut I knew of, perhaps 1.5 miles behind a closed gate. I setup the binoculars on my tripod and then laid out a foam pad for him to hang out on with his toys and snacks. He played for a bit but then wanted to be with me and see what I was seeing. The tripod mounted binoculars are absolutely perfect for kids. I was able to just set them up and point at whatever and all he had to do was look. We glassed some, played with some toys, climbed on some slash piles, and then when it got dark we packed up and walked out. The dark timber made him a little nervous but with headlamps on, we practiced our hoot owl calls and the next thing he knew we were at the truck. My goal this winter is simply to get him out in the woods to see some animals, as that is something we haven't seen in any of our trips out. I have been accruing Wyoming points for deer and antelope for several years now and in 2024 I think I will cash them in and take him on a hunt back where I went on my first hunt. Somewhere where game and opportunity will be plentiful.

Anyway, after that novel, how did you get started? Who, what, where, when?

[wawhitey]

That salamander is actually a rough skinned newt. Neat little critters, but ive only ever found them in or along ponds, never in a road, away from water. Thats strange.

[Lefty]

Ill try a short version.
My dad began trapping at 12 years old making more money than his adult brothers. H was also farmed out and was a waterfowl and pheasant guide, and killed (poached ) for a profit before he went to Korea.

He was adamant his boys were not going to violate game laws. Our Dad took us on weekly fishing trips, and family fishing vacations. We also tagged along when he ran a fall trapline. near our home near Mankato Mn in the 60's and early 70"s

When I was 13 I was a working maniac. My brother and I scrapped copper, mowed lawns sold bait, That year I bought a couple of rifles, , Mec reloader, Ithaca 37 A, Remington .308 and a pile of new traps. That fall the Minnesota deer season was closed. My dad and some others lined up a Saskatchewan deer hunting trip. I had to purchase my own tags, $40.00 and $20.00 mostly with paper route money at.5 cents per paper . Killed a couple of bucks on that hunt.

We also had a neighbor who I worshipped. He had been on the US Olympic archery team and he helped purchase me a recurve from Herters. Gene was single, an avid duck hunter, and trophy North American big game hunter. More than anything he fine-tuned my shooting abilities.
Gene gave me his cast-off arrows, So I was shooting aluminum arrows in the late 60's. Gene Also set me up with a .222, and gave me loaded ammo in exchange for lawn mowing. He also took my Ruger 10/22 to a gunsmith and had 1" scope rings put on the gun, And I purchased a 2-5Leopold
I had big dreams of being a trophy big game hunter.

My brother and I started a bicycle trapline. Muskrats were $3.00 each And we really got into trapping. My trophy-hunting aspirations dwindled, trapping was where the money was at. Last year in HS my brother and I trapped 150 red fox.
Hunted and trapped a bunch of places. I enjoy hard work and the outdoors,,,, So its stuck.

[7mmfan]

That salamander is actually a rough skinned newt. Neat little critters, but ive only ever found them in or along ponds, never in a road, away from water. Thats strange.

Thanks for the lesson. We were near a pond, just over the edge of the road. The other one we found was a typical black and yellow salamander.

[wawhitey]

As far as the point of the post, id consider myself an adult onset hunter. Did hunt with my dad when i was a kid, but never had any big game kills while i was along, but i remember the hunts, and enjoying the hell out of it. A few grouse and pheasant were taken by both of us, but thats it. By the time i was a teenager, i was a bit of a pain in the ass to put it lightly, and didnt exactly get along wth the old man. Spent a number of years being a dirtbag. In my mid 20s i got the bug, started hunting again. Killed my first deer at 27 years old. Since then my life has revolved around hunting.
The thing i remember the most, i was maybe 12, we were driving to wherever it was my dad wanted to hunt that day, and spotted 2 big mule bucks fighting on posted private land. One was a big nontypical pig. We stopped on the road watching this through our binos. I was flat out begging my dad to go knock on the guys door and ask for permission to hunt. He refused to do so, saying no way will he let us. The next day were driving past there again and a couple guys were dragging the big non typical down to the road. We stopped and talked to them. I asked them what the deal was and the one guy said they just knocked on his door that morning and asked, and were told yeah, go ahead. I still remind my dad of that every once in a while.

[Swede]

I was about 7 or 8 years old when dad started taking me hunting. At about 9 he let me carry a 22-rimfire, but I never shot anything with it more exciting than a tin can. My interest in hunting started with dad taking me out but was amplified by reading magazine articles and books on the subject. I soon found myself wanting to have success like the writers had. That has evolved over the years and is now much less about large antler racks than most hunters seem to have. I guess that brings me back to dad and the old times when a 3X3 fat buck was as good as it got. Any legal elk was a great. That is about where I am today.