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

My desire for hunting and the outdoors came from my grandfather (maternal side) and my best friend's family.

My grandfather was FBI for close to 30 years and an avid hunter (earlier years) and fisherman (later years). He also did lots of exhibition shooting.

Here he is in his early FBI years. He's on the right standing next to his target that qualified him for the FBI's Possible Club. Look up those requirements some time, he did it with a revolver.



As I was growing up though, my mother wouldn't even let me have a BB gun. She was against hunting and my step father didn't hunt. She blew a gasket the couple of times that she found out my grandfather had snuck me out to go shooting.

Starting in 5th grade, I began spending a lot of time at my best friends house (still my best friend to this day). That's where I saw my first Cabela's catalog. He and his older brother started taking me bird hunting when we were in JH and that hooked me.

When I turned 18 and headed to college, I moved out of my parents house and within two weeks I had a shotgun, rifle and a BB gun

That was a long time ago and I've made sure that my boys didn't have to sneak around with friends to learn about hunting.

It's something that we do as a family. It's not a time for me to hide from my family at deer camp or a time for my kids to have to learn from someone else other than me. It's that time when my boys start getting excited (me too) about heading to camp, cooking out, having conversations and time together at camp that we'll remember the rest of our lives. Don't get me wrong, we have a wonderful time together at home too, but deer camp time is special.

I'd give anything to have been able to spend time hunting with my grandfather. I did however get to spend lots of time fishing with him and those are my most treasured childhood memories.

My wife doesn't hunt, but she likes to go with us and helps me process all of our deer. She also likes to shoot and go camping.

This is my oldest boy's first deer taken about 5 years ago when he was 8:



Here's my youngest with a buck that he took a couple of years ago: