Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hunting/fishing mentors...Who's yours?

The guy on the left is as close to my dad as a mentor; though I've corrupted him almost as much as he has me....more like brothers.


Course my Dad (left) and Tom (right) always liked to pose with MY deer when I was off at school; Think I was 12.

And it was....
Ingwe

Dad taught me and my 4 brothers fishing from a very young age. We still fish together as much as we can. Family tradition is to spend a week fishing Lake Champlain. He also taught me how to shoot a bow. Best thing is that he's still here to continue teach my kids and wife. My Uncle and Grandfather also put a lot of time teaching us how to fish.

Ed, a great friend, and long time hunting pard taught me how to hunt and shoot.

We had to learn how to trap on our own.

Dad for hunting, Mom for fishing. Pat McManus has a lot to do with how I am too.

I recall two very drunk bastards making a 5th grader eat deer heart boiled in beer, whilst I was camping/trapping. They were bowhunting and just so happened to snag a nice buck

Memories......

Father & older brothers taught me small game hunting. Older brother taught me how to fish. Taught myself deer hunting. Grandparents were all deceased prior to my birth, so missed that part of growing up. I now try to be the grandfather that I never had to my grandchildren. None have shown much interest in hunting or fishing. GW

I woulda ate a beating deer heart for a good father.

I loooooooove this thread. Happy for those with grande memories....and it's nice to see people thankful for the hand they were dealt.

Yep, I'd do it again.....

You do realize I was scared schitless at the time.....

Drunk probably, but I don't know about the bastard part.......after all we let him join our little party

Just the eating part....which wasn't much of a party.

But you got somrthing to eat

I did mention the bastard part?

My Dad and my Grandfather. Dad mostly on the hunting side, but fishing,too. Grampa was the best catfisherman I have ever known - everyone along the river could be getting skunked, everybody except grampa. He could catch kitties when there weren't any to be caught. Gramps was a heck of a fisherman, but I never knew him to hunt. Dad, on the other hand, loved to hunt - pheasants, quail, ducks, geese, rabbits and squirrels. When I was young, there was no deer season in Nebraska, so he picked that up later in life, in his 40s sometime. When Dad was young, they had little money - no, they were poor - and Dad and the other 2 older brothers, were expected to catch fish or shoot something if they were going to have anything for a meal that evening. They had to be very successful because there were 9 in the house and Dad was the oldest of the kids. Outside of the many memories I have of them both, all I have left are 3 of Dad's old guns and 2 old casting reels from Grampa. None of the guns are "worth" much to anyone but me, but I don't care.

Unfotunately I had no mentor. I had to learn by myself and still have so many things to learn. I hope I'll learn enough to be someone's mentor some day, and I hope it will be my childrens.

Two guys:

one is a old fraternity brother of mine, who is now an attorney - he grew up in California, but his folks came from OK - he has hunted all his life and was responsible for getting me started.

The other is an older gent I met through a friend who can shoot skeet like its nobody's business. He's a teacher and a football coach, so showing people how to do stuff is in his genes.

I love these two guys for mentoring me and feel I owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. That I enjoy their company as much as I do is just icing on the cake.

Dad got me started . I started going out fishing with him soon as I could walk, and he was taking me with him small game hunting by the time I was three. He taught me lots more on those trips than I ever realized at the time and the fun we had together couldn't happened anywhere else.

I was self taught for most of my growing up. The first canoe I was ever in I built myself and yes it must have been fun to watch my first trips but that old canoe took me many miles and lasted almost twenty years. I was feeding fish dinners to my family while still in grade school. I swapped and traded until I had an old British Enfield and started trying to hunt. Then I worked six brutal days bucking hay in hundred plus heat to get my first beater shotgun.

Then an old feller named Charlie Bopp in the town of Ballwin, Mo took me under his wing and helped be get a real start. I must have killed a hundred ducks out of his blinds and boat on the Mississippi. I learned about hunting deer from his camps. He has been gone for over 35 years but I can still hear his voice.

The fella in the bottom right of this pic was my main mentor for shooting , fishing retreivers, everything - my father, A.R. "Bob" Todd.
This pic was from '52, it's the C.I.L recreation club shooting team.

He was a Canadian team coach and ,manager, team member for the World's, Olympic venue coordinator, and a super hunter.
he was also a top class shooter in all disciplines, something you don't always see - not too many trap shooters who can go 100X100 from the fence, and shoot 3P smallbore in the the master class, as well as any other fire arm you out in their hands!

The man was adamant about practising the basics, be it fly fishing or Palma shooting.
Deer hunting with him was incredible, as was shotgunning for ducks or upland!
Cat

ingwe, that picture is priceless! The perfect mentoring pic. Great shot. Tom

Dad fished and taught me how. He had never hunted much other than quail and dove and only had a 22 and a Model 12 in 12ga. The quail were mostly gone by the time I got old enough.

He helped me learn to shoot a bit and took me dove hunting whenever he could.

We both learned a bit about deer and turkey from a former pastor.

Beyond that I fell into deer full blast, and Dad never did care for them that much but loved the sausage. He did love shooting turkeys and I got him a good tom before he died luckily. 11 inch beard and big old bird.

From there I wanted to shoot deer with pistol, mz, bow etc.... and had to teach myself how to do the above and how to reload. No one around us ever did any of that. LOTS of mistakes along the way.

You folks should be thankful, those that had real mentors!!!

I didn't mind DIY, and I think its made me better all over, I have to read and research rather than get told or shown a way, right or wrong. And it goes over into my life, I try to do almost everything I can on my own if at all possible, saves money but is always interesting. Spent the day today putting on hidden hinges I've never seen or used before. Chalk up one more thing learned.