Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How many shooters and hunters here are from non shooting families?

Exbiologists thread in the hunting rifles arena here wherin a few of us are helping out a 15 year old kid from a non hunting family combined with his story that he, like me, came from a non hunting and no guns family has me wondering. Until I read Exbiologists story I had imagined that my experience of having no hunters or avid shooters in my family including uncles, grandparents etc combined with being born and raised in California was something of an anomoly - and a rare one at that - but maybe not so much?

So, do some of you here share this experience? No family mentors or encouragers but a tremendous desire to hunt and shoot from early in life? I have memories of being fascinated by guns and hunting back to age four and have an animal book given to me at age 6 wherin I wrote down what guns I would use on each animal. Minimal gun knowledge then, of course, but I tried and to hunt for and kill is what I KNEW animals were here for!

To what would one attribute such a thing? Reccesive gene? I might note that at 6'3" and 240lbs I am a good bit larger and more muscular than any of my immediate ancestors or family yet I prominently carry each of my parents facial features quite clearly and my voice is nearly indistiguishable from my Dad's, excepting a bit deeper and lower. Don't know if this has anything to do with it but am hoping for some armchair anthropology input here as well. Might there be a REAL modern anthropologist in the hou -um....er.. fire?

1st generation hunter and rifle nutball MARK

That's me. I'm the only gun owner and shooter in my family. kwg

And how do you suppose this came to be? Did you have any hunting friends during your growing up years?

Coming from the other end of the spectrum, my dad is a shooting, hunting fanatic, still at 83. I took a lot of pride in the fact that my dad had more guns (13!) than anyone elses' dad.

Even in my generation there were lots of kids that didn't have the advantage I enjoyed. Pop was always taking multiple kids shooting, fishing, etc. with us that didn't have a clue, some adults also.

Oddly enough, 2 of my brothers don't shoot or hunt.

My hand's up. The last family members that I know for certain that knew their way around arms were my great grandfathers (Scottish/maternal side), who fought in the Boer War.

It is believed that my great uncle on my paternal side (Japanese immigrants/first generation Americans) served in some capacity in WWI with the US Army.

I do not know of any other member in my family who ever really fished, hunted or shot. I'm a curve-bucker, I guess, and a happy one at that!

My dad hunted, but really didn't have the time or inclination to be an avid shooter. So count me in. My older brother went to Viet Nam, likes to shoot, and has collected a few rifles, but mostly military weapons.

My father owned four guns but in all my years I think he may have shot twice and never hunted. My parents thought the outdoors was something you had to endure between the air conditioned house and the air conditioned house.

I am self taught. Had a lot of help from a few non family mentors along the way but must of what I know I learned from reading or found out the hard way.

My MIL gave me here husbands rifle in 2004 (savage 99) I joined this forum to learn about it and you folks helped me out.
Since then I've aquired a few more and taught myself to shoot and reload, although I have yet to hunt my goal is to take that rifle back to MD and get a deer for the old man. Rick

My father died when I was four, he was 33. My grandfather and aunt and uncle told me enjoyed bird hunting. Grandfather had a large farm, but hunted little; he was always ridding the farm of varmints and pests, and I inherited a couple of his guns. He raised me in the fishing boat, but not with a gun- I'm pretty much self taught. No one else in my extended family hunts, but a few have farms and do quite well with rifle and shotgun when the time comes to get rid of a pest. Mother is an ultra-liberal bunny hugger, brother is a Democrat liberal lawyer wannabe politician who is dangerous as hell with a common screwdriver in his hand, let alone a gun.
I'm pretty much the only avid fisher/hunter in the family.

Count me in also. My dad was a farmer, didn't care anything about fishing or hunting.

Not me. Dad and I both earned the Expert Marksman Badge. I've got both my Grandpas' .22's from the Depression. One's a model 12 Remington and the other a Winchester pump. I come from shooters. I am a shooter.

My dad didn't hunt or own any guns.
I fished a lot with my grampa when I was a kid.
Fishing is how I my best Friend and I connected at first, he and his dad started me down the road of hunting/shooting. We still hunt elk together.

First generation hunter/shooter, too. Dad had a .22 on the farm with which he shot rabbits out of the garden, purely a survival thing as the garden was critical. My youth was corrupted by O'Conner, Kieth, Jordan, and others. Maternal side was Quaker so you can imagine how popular that was to them. "They'd look at me and wonder where they went wrong. It was TV that did me in. Roy, Gene, Hopalong, Pancho, and the Duke every Saturday morning, fighting the good fight. Good standards were taught in those old shows. I still wonder what happened to my Fanner 50 with the greenie stickem caps.

An interesting question. My dad didn't hunt or shoot. I don't know if it was because he didn't have the interest, or whether it was the long hours he worked and the limited money for recreation. The lifestyles that defined middle class were much lower when I was growing up. My maternal grandfather was a sportsman, but he lived too far away and died before I was old enough to get involved. My father had an uncle who was a gunsmith and a trap shooter of some renown. I never met him, but a 12 ga. side-by-side found it's way into our house from him. I am the oldest of four brothers, and am the only hunter and shooter. My interest in shooting started the usual way with BB guns and cowboy and war games and movies. Target shooting at scout camp and small game/waterfowl hunting were just things I latched on to and enjoyed. I joined the service right out of HS. As a young man I moved west, and big game hunting came naturally, as most of the guys I worked with hunted. As I have aged, my interest in hunting has diminished. I really can't explain it. Similarly, most guns don't turn me on anymore, meaning I don't care to acquire them. It's more like "That's nice". I have developed an interest in BPCR shooting, and the .22 version. Unfortunately, the nearest matches are several hours drive from here, but I get in as many as I can, with my best shooting partner, my son. We'll be heading to Texas for a long range .22 match in September.

Paul

Grew up in central Chicago. Dad took me fishing twice that I can remember. First real gun I ever held and shot was in the military. Started to hunt, shoot and fish with friends here in Texas, which is the best thing the military did for me when they sent me here.

I watched all of the TV westerns and I think they awakened a sleeping gene. My grandparents lived at the edge of Chicago and there was still some open land around their house. I spent many hours stalking rabbits with the BB guns.
My first successful deer hunts were the spot and stalk variety which is unusual in this area of TX. Shooting, hunting and riding horses have always seemed like natural activities to me, like something I've always been able to do but couldn't because of where I lived.
Would seem to be in the genes, however all of my relatives come from Germany, I am first generation American. Had a high school buddy from Chicago show up on my doorstep one day and he said as he looked at my modest collection of rifles; "We always new you would be a cowboy someday!"

My hands up.

Hunting skipped one generation in my family.

Grandfather was a forester/hunter, Dad is a psychiatrist, I am a forester/hunter again and also got my youngest brother started; now a hunter and officer in the German Army.

My dad told me stories about my grandpa hunting when he worked on a ranch.
I never saw my dad or grandpa hunt while I was growing up.

Got introduced to hunting when I was in high school, had a lot of friends that hunted and they always asked me to go along.

A few years back I talked my dad into going hunting, now we deer hunt together all the time.

I've tried to get him to go and shoot clays with me but has no real interest in it.

That's cool cmg. You look like a hunter.

JM

Thanks JM. One of these days I may qualify...

I am one also. My dad cared nothing about hunting. He would go squirrel hunting about once every two years and owned nothing but an old double barrel shotgun. We borrowed a 22 rifle when it came time to kill a hog or beef. My Grandfathers on neither side hunted but my Mother had an uncle that was an avid deer hunter at a time when deer was scarce around here. He took care of a camp's dogs year around for his membership and they hunted in Arkansas county, where the White River Refuge is now. I never met him because he was dead before I was born. I have wanted to hunt and shoot guns ever since I can remember and mostly had to learn on my own. This place and the old Shooters helped me learn to reload and I owe them and the good people on them a lot. miles