Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Your hunting heritage...where did it come from?

I'm pretty much a product of my "envyronment" My Dad was convinced by his buddies to start hunting when I was a very small boy and he was in his early 40's. They were a bunch of farmers & rural labourers who had heard about the fantastic moose hunting available in the Cumberland House marshes of NE Saskatchewan when the "new" Squaw Rapids dam was built on the Saskatchewan River in the early 1960's. My 10 yrs older brother got to join in soon enough, but I had much more than ten years to wait to hunt moose with Dad. Nothing in the world could possibly seem as exotic and desirable as my Dad's hunting stories about Cumberland House, and the truckloads!! of moose that they brought out were truly amazing to my young eyes. I would pet and covet Dad's sporterized .303 SMLE any chance that I was allowed to.
My maternal Grandpa would come out each October from his new home in Edmonton to hunt ducks at our farm. I was his retriever. We'd drive the back roads in his Caddilac and jump shoot teals ( me wearing a huge pair of waders the whole time) , or wait at the edge of a barley field and shoot mallards. The skies were dark with ducks.
My first really good toy was a double barrel "shotgun" dart gun ordered from the T. Eaton Co's Christmas catalogue. It had had a wind up Mallard as a target. I bought my first Daisy BB gun at 9 yrs, with $2 that I earned myself on our farm, and got an impressively powerful .177 pellet rifle the next year. My younger brother and I were hell on english sparrows, mice, rats and ground squirrels on the farm after that. At 10 years of age, I figured I was ready for the big leagues and longed to graduate to duck shooter instead of dog. I bought my first .22 at 12, and got the chance to hunt ducks at 12, using my Dad's 12 ga Ithaca pump, and to hunt whitetail deer at 14, using my Brother's .303. Have been hooked ever since.

Growing up where and when I grew up, I didn't know anyone who didn't hunt. And I guess my family being in the rural south since about 1700, they always hunted. From the time I was seven or eight years old, I had a BB gun in my hand every single day terrorizing all the local birds. My dad had been a big hunter, but by the time I got big enough, he worked too much and had sort of lost interest. Of course, he took me enough to get me started and by the time I was 11 or 12, I was out after squirrels practically every day by myself.

There is something to the genetics thing though. My grandfather on my mother's side was a big dog guy. He always had dogs running "wolves" as they called them and my uncle loves to run dogs on deer. My brother has told me about going out on countless nights with Papaw as a little kid and sitting with Papaw and his buddies while they drank a little and listened to the dogs. Well, my mom's maiden name comes from a Norman French word that means, literally, "Keeper of the Hounds". Somewhere back in time, one of my ancestors was a hound keeper and that love of the dogs has made it all the way through to the present day.

My Grandpa lit a fire in me for the outdoors that is currently being passed on to my kids. Thanks Grandpa!!!!!!!!!

I grew up hunting and fishing.

My family migrated to California in the mid-to-late 1800s, settling near San Francisco. My great grandfather was a watch-smith, fisherman, hunter, fireman, and cycling enthusiast. He was a part-time market hunter for waterfowl as well. They hunted and fished for the meat, which was a major source of their protein especially in lean times such as after they lost their home in the '06 earthquake and fire and moved back toward Santa Cruz to start over.

This photo of my great grandparents and their kids is from about 1890. You can see a few fishing poles and creel on the left front corner of the tent. I think the location is south of Monterrey in what is now Los Padres Nat'l Forest. They were living in that area at the time. My grandfather wouldn't arrive until 1902.


I think this photo is from about 1910. My grandfather (on the left) is holding a 16ga single shot he was given when he was 5. He used it to great effect. That gun now lives in my safe, along with the Model 71 and A5 he bought in the 1930s that were his main guns for the rest of his life. He was the best shot I've ever known, and a terrific story-teller as well. He was 67 when I was born, so I didn't get to be with him in his prime, but I was there when he used the .348 to kill his last deer in 1978. He neck-shot a running buck at about 70 yards after complaining all day about how he couldn't see anymore. He liked neck shots with the .348 because, he said, they didn't waste any meat.

My family has always liked well-appointed camps. All the family photos are of horse-and-buggy or car camps. My dad was a teacher, so we had many 3 and 4 week long camping/hunting/fishing trips as a kid. I'm the only backpacker.

I think I got the bug for backpacking from the writings of John Muir, whose home was in the town where I grew up. I was fascinated by how far he could travel carrying almost nothing. And the stories of the Sierras and Alaska captured my mind. So when I turned 16, I started backpacking and fell in love with it. Later, as the numbers of my hunting partners dwindled, I realized that I could hunt out of a backpack as well.

My son is now 5 and he's been camping in the style of my family - lots of gear, spacious tents or popup trailers, etc. We started 'practicing' backpacking this summer and next summer we'll take some trips. He loves the outdoors, fishing and hunting, so I think there is a good chance the traditions will carry on in my family.

Cool pics Htr3!

I'm a 1st gen, started later in life... in 2012! I wish I had started a whole lot earlier but I'm loving it and am thankful for my freedom and opportunity to hunt. I hope to pass on the tradition to my son and daughter.

Eric

Htr3

Thank you very much for posting those photos! I have a thing for vintage hunting photos! Very nice!!!

Bob

Here is the earliest record I have of a hunting/ military ancestor:

Captain Jared Robinson served in the military 1755 to 1759 in French and Indian War as Private then as Corporal. He served in the military 1775 to 1779 in Revolutionary War as officer - 1st Lieut, 2nd Lieut, made Captain in 1779. He was a government trapper following his time in the military.

My parents grew up in the Arkansas Ozarks where deer were very scarce in the 30s and 40s. My dad always had a bird dog when I was a kid. My granddad had coon hounds and squirrel dogs. My two brothers and I grew up fishing and small game hunting starting with bb guns. I had bird dogs and hunted quail and pheasant here in Missouri until the bird population made it not worth it. There are plenty of deer here though, so I'm having a blast reloading for the wife and myself. We hunt here and go on an occasional elk hunt out west too.

This is an awesome thread!
My hunting heritage comes from nearly every area of my ancestry as well as upbringing. Being American Indian and raised on reservations I never knew a time when I wasnt exposed to hunting regularly. Al the non Indian family members are or were hunters too. Matter of fact my moms father was of Irish blood and he became a heck of a hunter and well known fisherman after getting out of the Navy and marrying my gram and moving here. I have his Remington 721 270!

It was my dad who taught me how to hunt and fish and be a woodsman and horseman. He also instilled in me the value of good hunting dogs and the idea of reloading -he had not gotten around to doing it yet but it was always the plan. I had my first 22 at age 6, was hunting small game with bb guns, that Chipmunk 22 and a Westernfield .410 and killed my first deer at 10 and have been hunting and fishing all my life. The tradition continues on as my nephews are learning as well.

Growing up a subsistence hunter on the reservation, northern california, and always being ready to take advantage of an opportunity I learned early on that shot placement is everything but still a properly designed round for the task can sure help, and magnums are not necessary for anything I do.