How Long Have You Been Hunting ...

[SOLANCO]

Sounds like we both hung it up with the same amount of time on the ground - hunting. I use to hunt Lancaster County all the time when I was younger. Then moved, that was a mistake that I have had to live with since 1965.

Sadly it's no longer the Lancaster County of 1965. But get down here in the Southern End and it is still decent. Maybe one of these days some biologist will figure out what happened when all the pheasant disappeared in one year.

 

[Billy Boy]

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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.

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Had some really good luck over the years.

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Fun and educational times with some really good folks, thank you.

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When you start hanging up old ventures, you decide to hang them all up at 50 years.​

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?


..

Small game - 68 yrs, big game, 62 yrs. Still at it, nothing quite as invigorating as rolling in a warm gut pile…

 

[Dale Lilly]

I am 90; my first gun was taller than I. That would be about 83 years ago, Oooooooh how time flies. Polecat

 

[Stykbow]

37 years for me. Hope I have at least that many more ahead of me.

 

[Mtman725]

Since I was 10 ,59 years how and still going.

 

[Rudyard]

Well ime 77 but still hunt steep stuff , ML of course . But must admit the hills are getting steeper theses days. I put it down to global warming . I used to be' fit as a Buck rat' but now ime more' blowing like an old horse '
Rudyard

 

[LME]

I am 90; my first gun was taller than I. That would be about 83 years ago, Oooooooh how time flies. Polecat

I have been taking up space on this earth for a long time! I am younger than you by ten years. If I make it to your age our hunting years will be the same.

 

[Dale Lilly]

I have been taking up space on this earth for a long time! I am younger than you by ten years. If I make it to your age our hunting years will be the same.

You'll make it. Stay positive and active. I only have one more hunting goal. I would like to shoot a wild/feral pig. Maybe this fall. Dale [P.S. A few deer but I love hunting rabbits, squirrels, quail, pheasant, grouse, ducks, marmots and prairie dogs. Gets my heart pounding.]

 

[ffg]

63 years ago shot my first rabbit with a 16ga pump, and this past November missed an 8-pointer when my arrow clipped a twig, do it till I can't!!!

 

[Marshhawk]

Since I was 13 and old, deemed enough to safely handle my granddad's double-barrel .410. Been at it, off and on, ever since. I'm now 70 and just came home a couple hours ago after checking on the deer stands we moved in February. We'll rig them for hunting in late July so the deer get used to them. Season starts August 16, but I usually wait 'til October. I spent 5 longest years of my life in New York in my early 30s. Not much hunting. And 2 years in Texas with no hunting. If you weren't on a lease you didn't hunt. Been in S.C. since '85. Done a lot of deer hunting here since then. Still climbing trees. Hope to score this year with my CVA .45 cal. flinter.

 

[Marshhawk]

Oops, 13 and deemed old enough ....

 

[senseisugarbear]

I'm the youngest of 7 boys. we'ed load up in a 9 passenger station wagon early to be on the field at day break. I carried a unloaded pellet gun to learn gun saftey.got to load it once in awhile to shoot a treed squirrel. Got my 410 at 7 yrs old. We would make big circle North and wind up back at the car for a hot lunch. then head South to be back at sundown..It was the stuff that dreams are made of Pheasants would get up 15 or 20 at a time. Quail every where.Rabbits where nuts. Squirrels plentiful.. Shells cost .97 cents a box. .22 shells were 5.00 a brick..We'd be up till mid night cleaning game.I'm looking back on 60 seasons,and forward to as many as God allows. already got my duck stamps and 3 deer permits to fill for 2022.

 

[user 49399]

About 55 years but nowadays I mostly shoot cardboard and paper critters.

 

[iloco]

65 years. Don't hunt any more due to health issues.

 

[Bigpete]

For as long as I can remember I tagged along with dad,so if that counts its been 40 odd years. If you count from when I shot my first rabbit,then 37 years. In the first 25 years while I lived on a farm,I hunted pretty much every single day. With my old job in the vineyard I probably "hunted" 2 or 3 times a week. Now I'm in a new job and I probably only hunt once a week on average,depending on whether my arthritic knee is playing up. Hopefully I can keep going another 20 years but I haven't played nice or looked after my body very well lol

 

[Kansas Jake]

Sparrows with a single shot 22 with birdshot and then with a BB gun over 65 years ago. I don’t hunt much anymore.

 

[Stub]

I killed my first pheasant when so was 5 years old. I was walking down the lane beyond our barn with my sparkler gun (any body remember those?). A huge bird (rooster pheasant) flew straight at me from a cross the road, with his wings straight out. I aimed and pulled the trigger, the bird dropped 20 feet from me stone dead. I run to the house and no one believed me. Finally, my Grandpa went with me and got the pheasant. My mother cooked the bird for supper. A few days later my Dad was talking to a neighbor who said he shot a pheasant on his place and it guided over on our farm, he looked for the bird but couldn't find it. It was a few years before my Dad filled me in on the rest of the story.
I tagged along with my Dad and his best friend from then on when they hunted. I borrowed a shotgun when I was 7 and carried it until I saved enough for my own at 10 years old. 10 years old was the year my parent thought I was old enough to hunt alone. They bought me a pair of Red Wing hunting boots, big enough for me to grow into. I finally wore the boots out when I was about 40. They fit me fine, but had been resoled several times and the leather was bleached white. The boots were a good investment.
I've hunted small and big game since that first pheasant and I will be 78 this summer. So, that's about 73 years.

 

[Colonial Boy]

Been hunting since I was ten, that’s 80 years ago and still get out with the flintlock 20 gauge after rabbits and hare; and a fox if one gets unlucky and crosses my path.

 

[bud in pa]

First time I was taken out to hunt, I was 8 years old. This was in 1954, my father and uncle hunted rabbits, pheasants, and quail in Long Island NY. Little did I know that me and my cousin were to become the family hunting dogs. I learned to hunt by going through the sticker bushes to kick out the rabbits. I turned 78 this year and I admit to missing a few seasons in between for various reasons. I can't hunt like I use to because of new body parts. I still get out as much as I can, not too hard since I have over 5000 acres of woods behind my house.

 

[R Ellis]

58 years i am 66 now and have a few more years to go good lord willing .my health is still good