How Long Have You Been Hunting ...

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SUBJECT: How Long Have You Been Hunting ...

For me with health condition and the desire to give a 100% effort i had to stop. Didn't like admitting this but when it's time it's time. Now I go with the young guys and play camp cook, still buy a license for the season, have had some nice animals come through camp getting spooked from near by. Fun stuff and I like to hear some of the stories the kids come back with.


Like said, "50 years seems to be my marker" on getting out and about. I miss all of these things, but need to know when to stop. Funny now after having a few health issues end of last year, but the timing was right on the money.

How are you guys doing as you get older?


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Since I was twelve, fifty two years now

Followed Pop around since I was 6 yrs old, my first deer at 10. First BP animule was a bull elk at 18.

Got my first archery deer license in 1975. Hope to have at least a few years more.

I'm 66, and still going strong. My hunting today has been relatively light only hunting on google doing research............ Of course there's always The Hunter: Call of the Wild on Steam, I get tired when my character gets tired or my fingers which ever comes first. And yesterday I did go to the Neighborhood Wally World hunting grocery bargains.

I guess its been about 60 years for me. I'm 69 and I started hunting when I was about 9 or 10. I don't hunt much anymore but I still do a lot of fishing

Wore my dads hunting vest before I was 10 to carry his quail. Never did get into the bird hunting but fell in love with squirrel hunting w/22 LR at 12. Never saw a scope in those days and didn't think shot was sporting for squirrel. 70 yrs old now.
Dave

Started rabbit/squirrel hunting when I was 8. I'm 80 now so 72 years.

I’ve been hunting since I was 12 years old, for 58 years. Even as I type this my pulse still races at the thought. So I guess I won’t be stopping any time soon.

Been hunting on my own for 54 years, and I plan to hunt till the day I die. Can't think of a better way to go than out in the woods hunting deer or squirrels.

Grimord said:

Can't think of a better way to go than out in the woods hunting deer or squirrels.

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A local "old timer" went that way. Never came back from a morning of turkey hunting. On searching for him, he was face down in a field having already moved on to the next hunting grounds. Apparently he had a heart attack suddenly while walking in. I always thought that was a perfect way to go.

If I count following my Dad around for squirrels and "bringing them around to his side of the tree" then I've been hunting about 55 years. If I count from the time I had my own license, about 48 years. Other than a .22 for squirrels, I was a bowhunter only until I was 40, then added traditional muzzleloading.

My brother in law took me squirrel hunting in August 1971 at the time he was dating my oldest sister and a month later he got a free trip overseas via the US Army. I got a daisy pump BB/Pellet gun for Christmas that year and shot many squirrels with it. 10 pumps and a well placed .177 pellet and I had squirrel for supper thanks to my mom a great cook from southeastern Kentucky. Those old steel and wood daisies were great compared to what they are today. I was 5 years old at the time and allowed to roam every local woodlot and hunt as much as I wanted the early seventies were a wonderful time to grow up. 49 years since that hunt. And didnt know what a hunting license was.

46 years. College roommates started me out when I was 18. Now besides hunting, I spend March/April training dogs, give them a few months break and back at it again in August until the season opens up. I go as hard as I can every day out knowing on the great creator knows when my hunting days will end.

Since I was about 8 - 65 now, my dad hunted till he was 84 and passed, Last deer of his life was shot that November he passed that December. I hope I never stop until I pass. I still get just as excited about opening days as when I started hunting. Off seasons are spent on the range and prepping gear for the openers. Move a bit slower but that is a good thing.

Been hunting about 55 years or so. Started out about 3-4 years old holding the flashlight to shine in rabbits eyes while my dad shot them. Yep. That's the way it used to be done in Tennessee on private land.

Also, getting old ain't fer sissies.

Getting old has stages, geezer, codger, coot and finally I am out of here. I am going to go out sideways and sliding, yelling been a hell of a trip boys see ya on the other side.

Bout 57 years, started deer hunting at 11. Dad and his crew liked young fellows to be the top drivers and watchers in those North Central mountains of PA.

Thanks,
O.R

Started rabbit hunting with dad at 7 carrying a BB gun. Will be 60 in March. Couldn't think of a better way to meet my maker than out in the woods.

Well, I've always been hunting something, since I could crawl, be it frogs, turtles, grasshoppers, then later sparrows when I got my red Ryder. To be honest, I was the best damn sparrow hunter that ever lived. I didn't realize it at the time but I was doing spot and stalk sparrow hunting, and was cutting my teeth as a still-hunter by nature. At the time it was just what worked, and got a third grader birds to carry back home. Looking back,, I had it right. And later, it was also what gave me the most success as a bowhunter. I have only ever killed one deer out of a tree stand (selfbow), and have never had the patience much for it, the rest have been still-hunting.


Later, I got my first .22 and a recurve, but with bowhunting came deer, and squirrel hunting became just something you do a couple of times a year. These last few years have rekindled my passion for small game and now the wits and passion for squirrels and critters just outweighs the deer for me. I enjoy it more, Even though I still wear myself out chasing deer each fall with a longbow.

I'll tell you though, there may be glory with archery hunting deer, and showing off your buck each year and telling the story, but at heart, there is nothing I enjoy more then having 4 squirrels on my belt and trying to figure out how in the hell, on a day like today, i am going to apply myself to get just one last squirrel to make a limit in some valley when I've got everything working against me.

Buck Conner said:

For me with health condition and the desire to give a 100% effort i had to stop. Didn't like admitting this but when it's time it's time.

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Buck, if you're ever up in south dakota, ive got a spot you can drive right up to. You get anything, from a mouse to a moose, and I'll take care of the rest...