Thread: How long have you been hunting?

Just had another idea for a nothing thread that accomplishes nothing other than curbing my curiosity (and others hopefully).

So how long has everyone been hunting for?

I'll kick things off, I shot my first rabbit when I was 5 but shot my first stag (an old red) coming up 10 years ago now and I've been breathing deer hunting since. A quick ten years mind you with lots of joys and lots of downs - the only thing I would change would to be go back and find even more time to hunt.

Jack

Jackp I had to refer to your profile to do the math on that and work out that you we eleven ...ish when you got your first red (well done). The early onset of "Old Timers" disease is probably the reason that I can't remember exactly when I started hunting but it had to be shooting birds and rats at the dump with a single shot .22 in the very early sixties (at the latest).

Similar start to you Jack, started knocking over rabbits, possums and goats when I was about 5 years old and there wouldn't be too many weeks gone by since where I haven't had a rifle in my hands (30 years later on).

I've made a living out of it for the last 10 years and I still try to get out in the weekends for a hunt with the bow...but that's another (not so successful) story.

kj

Not long enough.

Originally Posted by De la Rey

Not long enough.

+1

Shot my first rabbit at 15, first deer this year aged 22!

Somewhere about 20 years ago I shot my first rabbit and hare, that apparently didn't exist according to the mate who took me out. The next was just over two years ago when I decided to get a license as my 'mid life crisis' thing; so I haven't been brought up with hunting or shooting. Yet to get into the bigger stuff, biggest so far wallaby. Should have started much younger when I was more free to get out there, and in better nick.

Not as long as I should have.

game birds since I was10. shot first deer with a shotgun when I was about 15. just started to get into rifles properly over the last year. spent most of my weekends busting clay's up until now

55 years. 5 years pro meat hunting mixed up with shearing and mustering. Plenty of years left in me too.

Originally Posted by Rushy

Jackp I had to refer to your profile to do the math on that and work out that you we eleven ...ish when you got your first red (well done). The early onset of "Old Timers" disease is probably the reason that I can't remember exactly when I started hunting but it had to be shooting birds and rats at the dump with a single shot .22 in the very early sixties (at the latest).

Yeh that's about right rushy, got him a couple of months after I turned 12, I'll put a pic up of the mount one day, he's a ragged old head but wouldn't change him for the world.
Do you get out much for the deer these days?

Shot a squirrel with a crossman air rifle when I was 7 after plenty of practice in the mid 70's. That was the start of it. Moved too NZ and started on rabbits and Jackos like everyone, then progressed to deer and everything else.
Have awesome mates to this day that have the same interests so there was rarely a free moment we were not out and up to mischief.
Started on helicopters while meat shooting on foot and havent looked back.
When I started on machines pretty much everyone I associated with, was envious, and now its almost considered a sin Ha Ha. I have learned so much about where and when, and the animals I love too hunt thanks to my career and I wouldnt trade a second of it for anything.
I am enjoying hunting and shooting as much as I was, when I started, and now I am lucky to have a son who is starting out and keen. I will do my best to make sure he gets the great start and fostering I had into hunting and shooting and hopefully he will be tooled up for when he has kids.

my story is pretty similar to GM's

doves, rabbits, hares & guinea fowl on the farm when I was a youngster. break-neck .177 then graduated to .22
also learnt to drive on the farm, ute parked in the middle of a paddock, uncle reckons, "righto, from now on you are the driver" spent my school holidays driving him around the farm...

springbok, blesbok, kudu (best fillet & biltong in the world), oryx etc in my late teens

then I got interested in motorbikes, girls and other stuff

side-trip into IPSC and 3-Gun for about 5 years

getting back into tramping and hunting since moving to NZ

Originally Posted by Jackp.

Yeh that's about right rushy, got him a couple of months after I turned 12, I'll put a pic up of the mount one day, he's a ragged old head but wouldn't change him for the world.
Do you get out much for the deer these days?

This year not so much as it has been a terror from a business perspective but I will step it back up next year. I took a Fallow from up the back of my place this time last week so do have venison in the freezer.

56 years lol, I believe I was 9yrs old when I had my first kill,a big rat at the local tip with a slug pistol.Nothing serious until my first Thar at 14 yrs old under the eye of a much older guy.First deer fell over before I turned 14 and a half.
15 and a bit I was killing easy deer on the Coast,after that I was hunting all sorts for a living.
Touch wood I'll still be pulling the trigger for a wee while yet.

Shit this Thread makes me feel old.......
34 now so 24 years of pretty solid hunting.
First deer at 10 with dads 222