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

This is great stuff. I especially like the comment about where one grows up has a lot to do w/one's hunting heritage. Also about one's siblings. Both my brother's hunt but neither are as died in the wool as I was and am. Tracks comments about exposure for his kids and grand kids also makes me thankful that my Dad exposed me at a young age. Once my Dad took me that one time I was hooked for life. I can still remember that first hunt like it was yesterday even though it was 55 years ago. powdr

.......................Ah, never mind.

I will do anything to avoid golf. When I was 9 we moved to a place next to a golf course. My dad played, and one of my brothers really got into it and got very good at it, still is.

I couldn't stand it. Some of us kids in the neighborhood made a habit of doing anything/everything to mess with the golfers.

Every male in my family on both sides hunted. Some more serious than others. It was inevitable for me.

I'm a kid from Kentucky that is one generation from the farm. My dad grew up on the farm during the depression and basically they raised or hunted everything they ate. Rabbits and squirrels were a staple then .
When I was a kid we visited my Grandmother most weekends and I spent time in the summers there. Shot my first 22 at a probably 5 and got my own at age 9-10 and by that time we had the run of the farm. I can remember Dad giving my two older brothers my cousin and I a box of shorts or longs to split and we made a day of it. Groundhogs lived hard as well as chicken killing skunks an occasional fox and countless barn pigeons crows rabbits and squirrels. Nobody got shot& no property damaged I can remember so it worked out pretty well. I still remember watching dad shoot a big fox squirrel out of the top of a big hickory tree with his High Standard pistol off hand when I was about 5-6. I was hugely impressed to say the least. Still am, it was an impressive shot. Anyway I never looked back.

Yeah, and mine hunted Rebels. We don't spend much time worrying about it up here anymore.

Some folks seem to hold a grudge....

Digging this thread.

My mother's 1/2 were not hunters but also NOT anti guns/hunting.

My dad and his folks were hunters but the depression certainly hampered things.
My dad started me hunting squirrels and then to quail.
I was about 10 yo and he borrowed a customized 303 B from a long time friend. Dad stood it next to the front door the night before going deer hunting the next AM.

I remember it like it was last night. To a kid I thot it was the best looking gun I'd ever seen. Didn't know at the time, anything about the cartridge just a great looking rifle.

I've been a rifle nut (loony) ever since. My dad and that friend have been gone a long time now but NOT FORGOTTEN !!!

Mine comes from my dad.




And it's being passed on to my grandson...






Much of my hunting zeal came from my boyhood buddies, Tommy and Jimmy McDonough. We three decimated all life on Peavine Mountain as kids with our BB guns, then pellet guns. Tommy died years ago when he rolled his truck on way back from grouse hunting; he was my best friend.

His older brother Jim and I still hunt together as often as we can manage.

My mom was a great cook ( I say was, because she's now 92 and has discovered microwaves and frozen feasts). She learned game cooking at a very early age. She was the oldest of seven children growing up on the prairie of NE South Dakota. Her dad market hunted to keep a sod roof over their heads in her early days. What she could do with an old tough goose was amazing.

My father hunted when he was a kid growing up, partly on a homestead, in central Montana, but didn�t by the time I was born. He kept a few guns and liked to plink with a .22 rifle or handgun but that was about it. Apparently he didn�t like eating a lot of jackrabbits and sage grouse when he was a kid, which is apparently what the family subsisted on a lot during the homestead years.

I apparently got my hunting fever from my grandmother, who didn�t hunt much either by the time I knew her, and died when I was five. (Grandpa died during the Depression.) But she was a tough woman who homesteaded by herself just after World War I, and a hell of a rifle shot, even using one for wingshooting birds. She liked to hunt deer and elk for meat, and pronghorn when they finally became legal game again. She couldn�t cook anything worth a damn, whether game or tame, but apparently I didn�t eat enough of her cooking to turn me off eating game.

Some of my dad�s friends took me deer hunting when I got old enough, and I did a lot of small game hunting on my own, especially when working in the tiny tourist town where my dad�s brother Larry ran a summer theater. He had hunted deer when younger, but didn�t hunt much by the time I got old enough to go after big game.

My brother didn�t inherit any of it, though he fishes some, and one of my two sisters has fished some too. For a long time they kept waiting for me to grow out of hunting, but finally realized it wasn�t happening.

Mostly from my Dad and brother. Lived on a farm in rural Nebraska and used wild game and fish to supplement our mostly vegetarian and fruit diet. Dad died in 1956 and we moved to the big city of Grand Island in 1958 where I met a special friend and hunting mentor names Joyce Hornady. I hunted with Mr. Hornady frequently until his passing. He showed me how to reload in his office at the Hornady plant.

My dad was a seriously infected hunter and my brothers and me got the disease. My Dad is long gone, but my brothers and I will be hunting together this fall. Soon, actually, mid Sept. for deer and elk.

Mo Ed -

I think you were a lucky dog !

My mothers dad didn't hunt much. He was a sharecropper when she was growing up and there was t anything left to hunt around their place in those days. She stated occasionally there would be a rabbit or a squirrel show up from somewhere. But all that ever raided the chicken house was skunks! Deer where they lived were nonexistant!

My dad's family was different. Dad's dad was a notorious poacher and fisherman. He didn't even own a gun until like WWII. He'd borrow a rifle or shotgun. from a neighboring rancher when they needed a deer. He wasn't a game hog. Just took deer when needed. Was feeding a family. But his real forte was catching catfish on a trot or throw line. They were always on the river fishing. In those days the rivers had water in them and the springs were still running.

My dad would on occasion take me bird hunting. He liked to hunt birds. His brother, my uncle, was a big coon hunter! I really enjoyed coon hunting. I still remember some of his dogs long since passed. Pluto, Sally, Ola, and many more. Those were pleasant times. They are all gone now.

Excellent thread - much to think about.

Heritage - I had none. Grew up in busy SE Pennsylvania. I do remember once seeing my very good grandfather arrive home in pheasant hunting gear after a day with folks from his workplace (apparently an "expected" attendance) - but he was not enthused, and I know he did not own a shotgun. Always curious and interested as a kid, but zero opportunity.

So, I created my own hunting tradition after I took my first job after college - in Arizona. Bought a surplus mil Mauser in 7X57 from a Sears flyer, worked it into a hunting rifle, and went hunting mule deer. Got a nice buck.

So, it grew on me - went out for everything I was allowed to hunt as often as possible. AZ was really good that way in the 60s - so over many years I learned mule deer, coues deer, elk, antelope, black bear, javelina, dove, quail, all of the varmints and a few other things. Also became very interested in rifles/shooting/reloading and was tutored quite a bit by a couple of fine older gents. The best.

Other than the initial reloading stuff, have been pretty much on my own - self taught - usually hunt alone.

Taught all 4 daughters to shoot well, but they never became interested in hunting - they just asked questions about my adventures and ate the stuff. Have been teaching all 6 grandkids to shoot - they are good at it - but only 2 are likely to be lifetime hunters. Those 2 are very good. A zillion % better than I was as a kid.

No doubt about that.

powdr;
Thanks for the thought provoking thread and thanks to those who've replied to share their experiences and thoughts on a subject I've pondered over often.

Honestly after watching our two girls grow up I believe that most of our traits are born in us, though indeed where we're born and how we're raised will affect whether or not the particular trait is nurtured.

I was born in very rural Saskatchewan in '62 where almost everyone we knew hunted and everyone had firearms. The pastor at our church hunted, the power guy, the grain elevator guy - but certainly it was all guys back then.

As far as I can determine my grandfathers on both sides hunted once they came to western Canada from Europe and my late father was an avid hunter.

The family joke - so I learned much later in life - was that I came to be after Dad returned from his annual two week moose hunt.

I'm told when I was 3 or 4 that I'd throw a fit when Dad wouldn't take me along on that annual hunt - and my brother who is 9 years older than I couldn't understand it as he wanted to farm - not hunt.

Here's me in '65 with a moose I "claimed" as mine. Yes that's a toy gun in my hands.


A wee bit later, perhaps unsure if I've brought "enough gun" - but still on the hunt.


Again my father's love of hunting and him taking me afield when I was young encouraged my personal hunting journey, but I'm the only sibling where it really "took".

In the final analysis powdr I'm of the belief that it's something we're born with - but that does make sense to me really since we must have hunting, fishing and farming genes or DNA deep inside us from the years when we did it to survive.

Thanks again for your thread sir, thanks to those who've responded and still might. All the best to you all this Labour Day weekend folks.

Dwayne

Grew up in Rhode Island during the '40's and '50's. My dad was an outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman. He hunted birds and kept beagles for rabbit hunting. He'd go on an annual Vermont deer hunt with the boys, mostly drinking, but nearly always brought back a deer.

I remember fishing with him. But I taught myself to hunt small game, rabbits, partridge, squirrels, never with dogs. And I took great pride in dressing and preparing meals from the fish and game I brought in. Tanned some hides. Learned my hunting ethics from my dad and from reading Field and Stream, Sports Afield, Outdoor Life.

Hunted a couple times with neighborhood kids. But there was something magical that happened when I went into the woods, alone. It made me a whole different person whose senses were crystal clear. I'd really love to experience that feeling again.

I come from a family of urban dwellers (non hunters)but had a strong interest and curiosity about wild animals as a child,so read a great deal.I spent a lot of time in suburban woodlots chasing squirrels and pheasants with home made bows and arrows,and taught myself to fish,which I still do avidly.

But I had no hunting/shooting mentors, and no experience. (My parents encouraged the outdoor activity,but could not stop me from leaving the house in the middle of the night at 9-10 years of age to fish somewhere)....that is util my freshman college year when a friend invited me on his family's annual deer hunt over Thanksgiving in central Maine.I was not allowed to carry a gun,but helped the drivers.

As luck would have it,a big 10 point buck was killed on one of those drives and it lit a spark. I bought my first shotgun,and my first couple of CF rifles,and taught myself best I could to use them. I hunted grouse, woodcock,and other small game.Deer in New England were also hunted.

My maternal grandmother was raised on a farm in the "Old Country",and was thrilled with the squirrels, rabbits and pheasants, and grouse and was an outstanding cook in the Old World tradition. She cooked everything for me. The cycle was sort of complete.

I developed a keen interest in rifles, finished college and post grad, traveled, hunted,and shot a lot.I eventually met a solid bunch of citizens who were true rifle nuts, traveled widely to hunt BG and learned a great deal from them.The learning part never really stops when it comes to hunting and shooting.No two hunting scenarios are ever exactly the same.

And here we are...

Great photos Dwayne!!