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

I came from a long line of hunters but I often see guys that say there ancestors did not own guns or hunt and in some cases even were against it. My father was a hound man and excellent deer hunter as well as my great grand father. My Dad used an old sporterized Enfield in 30-06 and my great grand father a '76 Winchester in 32-40. I was following my Dad around when I was about 5 years old killing squirrels and climbed into a tree stand w/him in the hill country of Texas when I was 6. This was about 1957-58. I can't remember a time in my life when I was not consumed w/deer hunting. I'd like to hear from some of you other fellas about how you became a hunter...especially those that didn't come from a hunting back ground and how you became one. powdr

Mine came from my DNA. My dad hunted, but not a lot. He grew up during the depression so hunting back then wasn't all that good and was kind of a luxury. Plus he passed away when I was in high school, so didn't have a lot of time to "pass it on." We did go fishing a lot, which he enjoyed more than hunting. I have four older brothers and I'm the only hunter in the bunch.

So I pretty much picked it up on my own.

My great grandfather, who I never knew, fished and hunted for a living.

"Mine came from my DNA."

Same here. I believe it's called the "Ug Gene". Growing up in Baltimore City my hunting started with a bb gun vs rats. Finally hooked up with my uncle for some deer hunting but he didn't stick with it long.

Ditto. My pop was an avid hunter, and his grandfather was an accomplished gunsmith. My gramps didn't care for guns/hunting at all, but he enjoyed exercising his machinist talents to help us with our gun projects.

My family always hunted. They came over from Germany in the early 1800's and were farmers and tavern owners. We had great small game hunting but not much big game. Eventually, market hunting all but ended big game hunting in southern PA. Through their travels they met some northern PA men who never hunted small game before. So they invited them down, and in turn got invited to come north for deer and bear. Been going north for big game ever since. When I was about 6 most of the older guys from up north quit coming down for small game. Couple years later, farming practices totally changed how you hunt small game and the amount of available game. I can honestly say I dont know anyone in my family that hunts small game today. Big game, well, still a strong family tradition.

My grandfather and a lot of the people who lived in our area. IMO when and where you grew up has as much to do with it as anything else.

My great-to-the-52,167rd power grandfather got sick of eating roots and berries, and knocked a crippled antelope over the head with a rock. The rest, as they say, is (pre)history.

Started with me. Dad was a recreational fisherman until my rich uncle gave him a set of golf clubs when I was about 8. Never forgave the guy either.

I will do anything, even work, to be outside.

Mine is genetic. My father stopped hunting before I was born. He always claimed he was sitting on a stump his first season home after a long European vacation in the mid-forties when a he heard a bullet snap by him hitting a tree near by. Said he didn't survive WWII to get killed in a Michigan swamp.

He always fished, though.

[i][/i]Both Dad and Gramps were out of hunting before I came online.

Grandpa had grown up on a farm in Brecksville, OH and had remained an avid bird shooter into the 1940's. However, the scarcity of birds and the aging of his father-in-law (my great-grandfather) caused him to drop out.

Dad was a big-time trap shooter-- used to compete at Vandalia, but gave it all up when I was a baby.

I had zero exposure to any hunting until I was well out of college and fell in with a group of old farts that were part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. I became indoctrinated about age 25, and have been going full-tilt ever since.

One interesting side note: I had a great uncle that was a hunting . . .er. . . the term wasn't a Jagermeister (that's an icky drink), but it was something like that. He hunted in the Black Forest, and was a favorite of Herman Goering and the like. Dad got to hunt stag with him once back in the 50's.

I grew up in eastern NC, we lived in town, but several of my uncles were farmers and owned farms in the county - we hunted them. We were small game hunters; my Dad and my Uncle Fred started taking me when I was about seven, and my younger brothers came along when they each got to be seven. Hard to believe I'm 50+ years a hunter now! I still hunt some small game - dove this coming Monday for opening day, birds on preserves, and rabbits at the farm in season - hunt rabbits with hounds. Now I hunt deer quite often (we didn't have many deer to hunt when I was a boy), waterfowl in Currituck Sound, and spring turkey - those are my most frequent and most fun game to hunt. Odessa

There were no big game hunters or guns for that use in my family.
I always had the desire and grew up on 'fiftys outdoor mags and developed the dream of someday hunting the Rockies with the "ultimate" rifle, a 30-06
Life got in the way for a while but I gradually got the time and taught myself as much as I could
One day after a lot of years I found myself in Colorado hunting Elk. I had pretty much got past the 30-06 dream but I remembered I had one in the truck, went back and got it, and finally lived the dream.
I made sure my kids got the chance to start early and taught them as much as I could.
Their skill has long since surpassed mine but the joy of being out there with them keeps me going.

Grew up with weapons and hunting. My Scottish grandfather raised sheep and a few cattle and pigs. Being tight with money, as in his livestock was worth $$, he would send his sons out with a pack string and his *shopping list*, way before the days of licensing. So growing up we were always meat hunters first.

My Great Great Great Granpappy! He hunted Yankees with a Whitworth rifle!

My great-grandfather moved west from Tennessee with a family friend at the turn of the last century to homestead a piece of land just outside of Ashton, ID. They were only one or two generations removed from Germany. It was rough going, and most of their meat came from hunting and fishing. It was a subsistence situation, so creeks were dynamited, and game was killed as needed. Eventually, after having several kids who participated in the gathering of as much food as possible from nature, my great-grandpa sold his homestead to his friend and moved. The perspective stuck in my grandfather, and though he lived in metro areas and within towns when he started his family, he was a hunter, fisherman, berry picker, and fungophile in his spare time. My father grew up in this world, and was more at home in nature than in town. By the time I came around, he had lost his desire to eat wild game, so he hunted less and less. I only hunted with him for varmints, and he never took me game hunting. He was an avid shooter and handloader though.

I was very impressed by the guns, bullets, loading paraphernalia from the earliest age, and I snuck into his hobby room and read his loading manuals as soon as I could read, about age 5. The hunting was more of a social thing for me, and I went hunting with whomever I could when I came of age. My kids will be hunters if they desire to be.

From within. No one in my family hunted.

Dad was a fisherman and a bit of a gun nut though.

My grandfather was a bird hunter. Had some great dogs. One of his dogs was pretty well known and a farmer from where I live now wanted to cross his females with him. The farmer and my grandfather hit if off and started hunting together (quail).

My dad would go with them as a kid and head the opposite way with his beagles rabbit hunting. Dad loved it here so much that as soon as he graduated college he bought some land and built a house. I was born a couple of years later.

Grew up rabbit and deer hunting with my dad, quail hunting with my grandfather. Still hunt with my dad, grandfather's been gone 10 years now...man I miss him. If it wasn't for hunting (and bird dogs), I probably wouldn't have grown up where I did...made a difference in my life before I was even born.

I believe the desire to hunt is both exposure to it and inborne thing.

My Dad hunted, but got way more into it because it was something that I dearly loved. On the other hand, I have a brother that loves being outdoors, but rarely hunts and we grew up in the same situation

It didn't hurt either that it was right out our front door. Hunting was cheap entertainment that didn't require much money or travel.

Started with me. Grew up on a farm so there were always guns around and Dad taught me to use them safely when I was really young, but they were just another tool to him.

Favorite uncle was a WWII vet and hunted a lot, he had something to do with it I'm sure.

But a couple of friends and I started hunting together in high school, I still hunt with one of them every year.

My dad had hunted some as a young man and is pretty knowledgeable on guns but with the demands of a dairy farm and raising 5 kids he didn't stay with it. His true love was always farming.

My brother and I started trapping before we got into hunting. We both shot on the high school rifle team and the hunting came as an extension of those activities. Dad always encouraged our trapping and hunting. We didn't have much for a deer population growing up so that came after I left home. Hunted lots of woodchucks, fox, coon and coyotes along with plenty of ducks and geese. It was great to be able to talk guns with Dad even though he didn't hunt.