Thread: How did you get interested in hunting?

A bit of nostalgia in another thread made me think about how I got into hunting..... For me it was a bit convoluted.... It was about 1976-77 (I was 13-ish) and mum went to New Plymouth for the day. We lived on a Stratford dairy farm and mum only went to NP about once every 3-months, if that!

Each time she went to NP she would buy me and my younger brother a Disney comic each. Well mum returned and gave my brother a comic and me an NZ Outdoor mag. She figured I was too old for a comic. I was highly pissed off with the mag and put it aside for a few months. Anyway; one wet weekend I was bored and read the mag which was full of stories from NZ hunting icons like Rex Forrester. I was hooked!

I think mum regretted buying the mag because from then on all I wanted to do was go hunting. Dad had an old .20 pump up Sheridan slug gun. Due to Muldoon's import restrictions you couldn't buy the odd-shaped slugs. .22 slugs were too big to fit and .177's dropped out the end of the barrel if I pointed it down. So to shoot a rabbit I had to stalk to within about 5-metres, not point the barrel below horizontal, and head shoot it. I shot rabbits, hares and even a stoat with that old slug gun.

And; it's probably why even to today that stalking is my favourite part of hunting.... Last time I went hunting I stalked close-in on a couple of goats and just watched them for about half an hour.

I got my gun licence at 16 and mum and dad bought me a new Stirliing .22, If you were under 18 your parents had to approve your getting a licence. They let me do so because I'd been in the ATC and had received gun safety training.

So now; over 40-years later I'm still hunting. all due to my mum thinking I was too old for a Disney comic!

Dad really wasn't a hunter but he was a farmer, and like most cockys he had a .22 and shotgun. One night he took me out to a pond as a wee kid (6-7 years old), we stayed out until after dark (!) and got one duck. What an adventure! I think that's what got me hooked. Dad would shoot the odd possum on the driveway, which was always exciting. In my early teens I read everything I could get my hands on, all I wanted was a rifle and head into Fiordland, Greenstone and all teh other areas the cullers would write about.

My Dad introduced me to it. He was share milking on a farm out Piako road. Took me down the end to shot ducks standing under some plumb trees.
The next time was out the back of Motumaoho on the river there behind the old dairy factory and grocery store. Dick Chambers was the store owner and used to deliver or groceries. He would leave gelly beans in the bottom of the box for us kids
Then when Dad brought the farm over Te Aroha way a good friend of his used to come over to clean up the rabbit problem.
Let me shoot my first rabbit off of his shoulder. Must have been all of five. Good 50 meter shot. Funny how fruit trees still featured from the start.
Was a wild apple tree where that rabbit meet his end.
I know it was 50 because latter I steeped it out from where we knelt the old strainer post to the foot of the apple tree.
Then my Granddad taught me how not to and too. Very sad old man but I guess I’d be too if I survived WW1 good teacher though

love shooting - never had a chance to do it as a kid, no one in my family hunted, dad was in the army but never had firearms at home. I spent some time in the army as well which was my first experience with firearms - absolutely loved shooting. Got my licence almost 10 years ago, started with a 10/22 and mostly used it for targets and bunnies. My father inlaw has a farm that sometimes involves long shots on rabbits across gullies - out shooting with him one day he gave me his .222 for a 160m bunny shot - boom - I needed a new rifle after that.
Have only recently started to go out looking for deer - wanted to for a long time but never knew where etc. Yet to get my first deer but hoping to tick that off soon!

I was a fat kid playing way to many video games and one was a hunting one, I had been shooting bunnies and possums for as long as i can remember,

Loved the challenge of big game hunting and the environments to hunt them in,

much much easier on the body then stockcars too

I was brought up with it. My old man got me hooked on fishing, hunting and shooting. I have a ton of admiration for people that are into it without the family support a lot of us had. You guys really had to learn from scratch or on your own.
Dad started my brother and I off young. My brother is keen but doesn't do much because of where he lives unless he comes to Nz. The Military got me hooked on competitive shooting. When I was serving the Army really fostered shooting sports. They were big on hunting as well as it was an option for a couple weeks every year as a unit sponsored activity.
I have seen so many countries and places because of my passion that I probably wouldn't have, if I had no interest. If I am honest, my life and relationships that I have revolve around it.
That's what really disgusts me about anti hunters/gun people. They are not attacking an object or thing. They're attacking who I am, implying my whole life is wrong.

They can all eat a giant bag of dicks.






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I grew up in outback Austria we didn't have playstations or cell phones back then I didn't and still don't to this day watch tv back then it was eat your breakfast then got told to piss off outside and don't want to see you till tea time first I didn't have a rifle so I just used to practice sneaking up on animals then the day came when I was allowed to have my own air rifle still remember it a baikal ij38 I think man did I shoot some stuff with that I even saved up and the local engineering place silver soldered a scope rail on it and it progressed from there

My father and uncles told us stories when we were kids, of their hunting exploits when they were growing up on the West Coast. Deer and pigs made up the majority of the stories, and they were always told with such gusto and hand waving, that all of the kids were in awe.
Trips back down the West Coast always had dead animals, and more great stories to be told, and every now and then we got to sit in the helicopters.
Sadly these trips stopped before any of us were old enough to actually tag along, but the hunting seed had been planted.

Raised by a solo mum, 4 siblings. Still a townie even now. Remember going into Sterling sports as a kid and looking at the guns on the wall. Around intermediate age had a go with an air pistol at some soda cans at mums friends house. That was the start. Then the husband invited me possum shooting. It was cold and nasty but so interesting. Joined ATC and did a little bit of small bore and shot some 303s. In my early teens dad got into a pretty serious motorbike accident so now he needs people to care for him.

Eventually got my fal in my Early 20s. Mum hated guns but didn't let her personal view stop my application. She also worries alot if I'm out hunting. So I don't tell her untill after a big trip. Had a 22 that sat in the safe unused for a few years. Eventually a friend 10 years older who I did a bit of fishing on his boat got into it and we went on some local doc blocks to shoot some goats and that was it. I was hooked. He taught me so much. When I first started hunting I wouldn't even touch an animal after it was dead. Now I'll take the heart and liver for my dogs sometimes.

It's partially having an older male role model and doing things I felt I missed out on as a kid. Spending time with friends and away from everything else.

Like many rural kids, I grew up on a farm and the Rakaia River was just down the road. Guns, rabbits, hares, quail and my fox terrier every weekend. Great memories....and still making a few now. It all came naturally as the old man in his younger days was a high country musterer and hunter, passed on a few tips to me and I was away.

Greetings All,
I wrote about my initial exposure to hunting in my intro a while back so won't repeat it but a few years later, 17, working and with my own car a friend and I started to do a few tramps. From time to time we saw deer, usually in pretty easy spots and thought knocking over a few for the larder would be a good idea. Legs of venison my Uncle Hec dropped of vanished pretty quick so my cobber and I both got a .303 and "hunting" started. Neither of us had a mentor and consequently results were meager. I still got the outdoor bug and have hunted with modest results ever since. Early on I got interested in hand loading and that has been and still is my main interest. I still get out and enjoy sitting on a rock and admiring the view. A trip on which I have no need to make any loud noises or carry anything heavy is appreciated more than any other.
Regards Grandpamac.

well one night after they had polished off a flogon of sheery before going to bed....the old lady forgot to take the pill...nine months later I popped out with the urge to hunt firmly planted in the DNA....

Grew up around hunting of a different kind and before the UK government banned hunting with dogs. We used to follow the East Kent fox hunt when it was in our area by bicycle as we were far too poor to have horses, we also used to follow by bicycle the Wye college beagles when they were out chasing hares. Moved on to being a beater for the pheasant drives as this paid real money. Also did a lot of sea fishing in the English channel.

Moved to NZ 4 months before 9-11 and got seriously into rock climbing and caving being based in Nelson and a ton of tramping. Step son introduced me to deer hunting once we moved South although I have yet to shoot one but do cull the rabbits, magpies etc on our land and the neighbours.

My father used to do duckshooting with a group of mates on the home farm in Hawkes Bay, but that was the only hunting in the family.
Then when I was 10 Dad sold the farm and bought a farm with a large area in bush in the King Country, that had wild pigs. My brother and I knew all about hunting wild boar from the Asterix comics, and had great visions of huge tree houses with wild boar roaming beneath. Turns out it's not like that!
The shepherd on the farm was a very keen pig hunter and took us under his wing, and also got us into live goat capture, possum skins, snorkeling for paua and crays, floundering and eeling, etc, etc, etc. He is long passed now, but I know he's "upstairs" waiting with his horse saddled ready to go hunting or diving when I get there.

Awesome stuff! Keep them coming!