This year will be my 55-th hunting season. Well 54-th if you start counting when I hit my first squirrel. My grandfather took me the first time squrirrel hunting with a .22 single shot. My father was too busy working but grandpa had time. I clearly remember thinking this was the most exciting thing on earth. Still do sometimes when I'm with my kids. Grandkids are just starting to walk so they have to wait a little longer.

How many seasons for you? Best memories?

65-including the Stateside dove and quail hunting I managed to get in during my years in the USMC--Best experience was hunting quail with Dad and Uncle Ed, when home on leave for 2 weeks in the Fall of 1964- we were in Kansas- and managed to get into some good quail and pheasant hunting, over pointing dogs. I remember Uncle Ed's big English Pointer named "Jake" stopped on a rock-solid point, and the quail was right by his front paw-- Bird refused to flush, and Jake never moved, in spite of my efforts to boot the little rascal airborne-- finally Jake got tired of the bird's refusal to fly, so he dropped his head and picked up the bird in his mouth, and looked up to me. "One hella of a bird dog you got there, Ed" said my Dad. "He'll get you a limit and you don't have to shoot".. I took the bird from Jake's mouth, wrung it's neck, and added to my game pouch. Today, at age 75, if I had a repeat of that scenario, I'd toss the bird and let it fly away to freedom. All of hunting is NOT in the killing.

I can remember in 1963 going pheasant hunting with my Grandparents, and my Grandpa's beagle run off and killed some farmer's entire flock of chickens.
I was just a toddler.

But I literally have been stoked for pheasant season ever since.
It's about 45 years or so since I started shooting under my own license.

At 70, this will be my 23rd coming. Grew up without a dad or family to hunt with, so the late start. After the service I avoided guns and such. Now I'm making up for it by shooting SxS clays amd hunting all the Michigan birds that I can without wasting one single day of the season.
It is said that God does not subtract from a man's life the time spent hunting birds in the fall. I'm trying to get a good enough lead on that to push my "expiration date" further ahead. Hunting I feel is not about the game bag, but the total experience.
Karl

Hi, cool post (showing my age here), anyway this coming season will be my 52nd. Been hunting with a gun since I was 7. Got my sons to each go with me at the age of 6 and with a gun at age 7. Dad was a pheasant hunter more than a duck or deer hunter. I didn't start hunting them until I was 14. Got dad involved with that thru my pestering him year in and year out. He liked it, but not as much as pheasant hunting.

Great stories BTW!

Best,

Greg

Got my first duck while holding my Dad's gun as he was taking his morning constitutional out the back of the boat. He always said the first cup of coffee was the issue. He almost fell in as I raised the gun and dropped a nice greenhead. The year was 1966 and I was 10 yrs old. He's been gone for 25 years now but that is one hunt I will never forget.

Lots...Started tagging along in 1943...Went to Africa with Dad in 1948-49...aint quit yet...Don't intend to...

I shot my first .22 when I was around 6 or 7, but not hunting. It was a very early production Win Low Wall single shot chambered for the .22 Long. My Grandson has this rifle now. My Grandfather bought it during the depression for less than a Dollar. I got my own bolt action single shot .22 LR at about age 11 & managed to kill a few squirrels with it, though I never shot it very well. Shot my first shotgun at around age 13 I believe, this would have been about '51. That one was a small frame H&R 28 gauge single, killed two rabbits with it that day.
The next year I began doing a bit more hunting, mostly rabbit, with a borrowed Stevens 94 20 ga single.
In the fall of 1954 when I was 16 I bought my first very own double shotgun, a J Stevens Arms & Tool Co 12 ga & began hunting more intensely. My Dad had hunted a bit as a boy growing up on a small farm but had not kept it up so I sort of started on my own. Shortly after this though he bought some Beagle Hounds & started rabbit hunting with me. As long as he was able I spent a fair amount of time with him & those hounds chasing the Bunnies around, but mixed in any other type of hunting I had opportunity for. Dad never cared for anything other than running those dogs. He didn't even care if he actually shot any or not, so I did most of the actual shooting.

This will be my 54th season. I started hunting grouse on Vancouver Island at age 16. My first gun was a C. Crawford Birmingham double 12 with Damascus barrels and brass reinforcement to the slender wrist.
I feel fortunate to be healthy enough to tramp over the prairie after Sharptail and Hungarian Partridge still.

64 seasons.

It's been 63 seasons and a couple of years before that when I was allowed to come along, but not shoot. Began with a Winchester Model 37 single shot .410, which I still take along once every year.

I picked up on dove shoots and followed my grandfather bird hunting from about age 8 or earlier. My actual hunting seasons began when I was 10 ( which was 59 years ago) and I've never missed one so far.

I began with a Stevens model 94 youth model .410. When I was 12 my grandfather gave me his Marlin Fourtenner lever action 2.5" .410 and two trained 15" rabbit beagles. I supplied the neighborhood with rabbits for years.

After a few years I graduated to Bobwhite Quail and bird dogs. The birds down here ran out in about 1990. I went through the usual duck hunting obsession and still make a trip to Sask. every Fall to hunt both waterfowl and game birds.

Turkeys came along here-abouts right along the time the quail ran out. I'm still hard at that...Geo

I was blessed with two grandfathers who both hunted. One hunted quail mostly with my handicapped uncle and the other hunted waterfowl, both would fill in with squirrels and bunnies given the chance. Both were happy to take me when ever I could go. I was the only grandson for one and the only hunting grandson for the other. I doubt I went hunting over a hundred days with them and I wish it had been more. Caring and good to me they were but they were farmers who liked the land and respected game which they taught me was the entire point. If we had a good day and saw a lot of birds we would stop early just to give the birds a break as they would say. Limits were not the point and still are not for me or my kids. I learned their lessons well.

38 since age 14, would be three more but I missed those while deployed. Two of the 38 were partials as I missed a big chunk because of other deployments.

46 years since the fall of 1971. I shot a pair of Greenwing Teal in Salem County New Jersey. I come from a long line of South Jersey duck hunters.

This will be my 58th dove season. I will be 66 in October, and went on my first dove shoot with Grandaddy at age 8. I had been given a .410 S x S to care for, and a dove lit on the ground about 20 yds. from me and I swatted him. Nobody knew I didn't kill him on the wing, and I didn't tell them any differently.

Grandaddy took me squirrel hunting with that .410, soon after it was given to me, and all I killed was an owl. Hey, Grandaddy said to shoot it and I did. Grandaddy was the closest thing to God that I knew.

I have a friend, Gess, a bit younger than me, who relayed this story about his first duck hunt with his Dad. They were crouched on the dam of a small pond, early morning, when his Dad said there were ducks coming their way, and for Gess to remain squatted down until Dad said for him to jump up and take them. Gess said that when his Dad said to shoot .... he jumped to his feet and looked straight ahead. At that instant a teal hit him square in the chest and knocked him off his feet and on his back. He said ....... "It hurt!!!". I'll just bet it did.

SRH

63 seasons

bill

47. I tagged along for most of a decade before I was allowed to carry a shotgun, but, I would have gone along another decade just to be out with my Dad.
I come from a very small family, and Dad was it.

But he was all I needed.


Best,
Ted

My dad would take us down to the dump on my grandfathers farm and teach us to shoot with his Winchester 62.

My uncle Jim, one of the best men I'll ever know, along with my dad, came and got me from the farm house one day and practically dragged me a short ways out into the woods back of the house. I say dragged though I was very willing, but my legs were much shorter than his. He stuck a 410 in my hands and pointed out a squirrel out on a tree limb and said shoot it. I think he was surprised I hit it, and he dashed out and retrieved it so the dogs wouldn't get it. I think the dogs maybe treed it, I don't know for sure. I was nine. The legal age in PA is 12, so 51 for me. What's the statute of limitations on shooting a squirrel at nine years old?

I turn 60 toward the end of the month. My uncle Jim let me tag along on a goose hunt when I was five. Even then he let me carry an unloaded Daisy BB gun.

I've missed a couple of seasons along the way for various reasons, but for the most part it's been over fifty seasons.

Dad got me my first BB gun at age 9. First .22 at age 11, Shotgun at age 12. Besides missing a few years while stationed overseas I'd say I've been hunting for about 43 years. Killed more deer than grouse in my life I'm thinking. First sxs I didn't get until 1996 when I was stationed in Germany. After I got hooked on sxs's I sold all my o/u's except a double trigger Merkel 16 and my dad's old Winchester 101 20 gauge that he bought new in 1963 from the Rod and Gun Club in Corpus Christi Texas.

This coming season will be my 47th season, started out with squares, ducks and grouse. 22 shorts and a Remington automatic 11-48. In 410. Grouse was with an Hopkins and Allen 20 gauge.

Got a bit of a late start. At 71 years of age, last season was only my 8th. I have had my own dog,(setter) for 3 years. To me, it is all about the dog work and the overall experience of the upland lifestyle. The size of the bag is immaterial. I shoot only SXS's, for both clays and birds. I'm not counting shooting sparrows and such with a BB gun at age 8-10.

55 for me - it would have been 3 more except for the time that the US Army stationed me in Germany. My father never hunted so I had to wait until age 10 to begin hunting with one of his partners. Hopefully God will grant me more than a few more.

69 for me and I still plan on going pheasant hunting but we gave up elk at 80. just too much work after the kill.

61 for me.

I thought I'd miss one in Vietnam but I got recruited to hunt feral dogs on the base and once they asked me to take my TD-24(bulldozer) and my M-14 and flush out a tiger they spotted in a back corner of the base, all I found was a landmine, I don't think a charging tiger would have made me pucker anymore than that mine going off under the dozer.

47 seasons this Fall. I might have missed a few seasons here and there but not many, & certainly none that I can remember specifically.

My dad took my brothers and I along on duck and goose hunts starting when I was about 7. Not allowed to carry a gun. Just watching and fetching. Better than labs. Lol Started shooting squirrels when I was 8 with a .410.

Got a late start on my own hunting seasons because I spent ages 11 to 16 away at boarding school. First year back home I got my licence and away I went. That was the fall of 1975 and I was 17.

I've hunted something every year since. Some years a lot more than others. So I guess I'm at 42 seasons.

Although technically, wouldn't the spring turkey hunt count as a separate "season". Haha!

75. Dad said start with the real thing; bb guns made bad habits. Started on huns and prairie chicken in Saskatchewan.

I started following my dad around in the grouse woods and after deer when I was 6 or so. I was shooting ground squirrels around our property starting around 8 years old with a Remington 514 single shot 22. I wasn't old enough to buy a license at the time, but I didn't move off our property and there were plenty of ground squirrels to keep me busy.

The would have been about 1963, so it's been around 54 seasons.

I'm 38 and have been at it since I was 9. I've always fished but that's when I got my first bob gun and I still have it. Second was a New England single shot 20 that has killed more game than I can count. I love taking others and sharing the experience more than anything.

I won't speak for myself but I took my Dad on a partner moose hunt when he was 90. He said he started shooting sharptail on the farm when he was about 10 so that would make it 80 yrs. My Dad's 93 and now to frail to hold a gun.

Started hunting rabbits with beagles when I was 8. My father would wait till the dogs started a rabbit then put me on a runway and hand me his gun. When I turned 14 I was old enough for an "official" hunting license and could legally carry a gun. That was the start of my bird hunting career. Opening day of pheasant season was a school holiday as far as my father was concerned. No matter where I may have been in the world I've always found a way to go hunting. This season will be 62 years with out missing a season.

Dennis

This year will be my 52nd season actually hunting, 54th if you count the two I trailed my dad around before I could buy a license and shoot game. Took my first pheasant with my father's Stevens Springfield 16 gauge sxs that first year. Still have both the gun and a sharp, clear memory of an experience that gave me lasting interests in both hunting birds and sxs shotguns.

I sure miss hunting with my father and just plain miss him. He'll have been gone 7 years later this month.

My first PA license was A434, 1958. This season will be my 60th. I may have had a MD 1957 license, which would make this year my 61st.

I started 60 years ago, with my brothercousin, on land our greatgrandfather chopped out of the woods, making cotton fields from it. Except for a couple adventures in South East Asia and Europe, I've hunted there ever since. I started off with a single shot 22 bolt action, bought through the mail, from Sears, with money I earned by answering the phone for a local business man. I haven't looked back.
Mike

Started with a Daisy pump bb gun when I was about 9. Got my first "real" gun, a Stevens clip fed bolt action 410 when I was 11. My first game with that gun was during an organized fox hunt where about twenty hunters would show up. 5 hunters would walk into a section from each side. Whatever was in that section had to pass by one of the shotgun carrying hunters. I had a chance at a red fox running town a hedge row [osage orange] toward me. I shot when he was maybe 30 yards from me and he rolled. The fox had three broken legs. I still can't figure out how that 410 downed the fox in that manner. We had a bounty on fox [$2.00 ] if you brought in the ears to the court house, but the fox belonged to the club, and I got nothing. They sold the hide , too, but put on a nice feed at the end of the year. I think that this year is my 63rd.

67 seasons and boy am I getting old! Bobby

In 1958 when I was 10 I got a Remington .22 from my parents for Christmas and hunted (illegally) the next day with it. Got my first shotgun when I was 12 and got my first license that year too. So I guess it will be 59 years this fall since I first started hunting. Tagged along for a few years before I turned 10.

Wow! It's clear we're a bunch of old farts!

I think 62 since I first killed a game bird or animal. More like maybe 60 since I shot my first rooster on the wing and became a real fan of wingshooting. Missed a couple in the middle there when I was living in DC and couldn't get away during hunting season. Was lucky on my overseas posting: Barbary partridge and coturnix quail in Morocco. Came home with my first bird dog: a Brittany that only understood French.

About 63 or 64 years! Shortly after we moved to the ranch in 1950 I was allowed to go out by myself with a .410 Diamond Arms single shot and wreck havoc on the local population of rabbits, quail, ducks, or anything else that moved! Fortunately my bags were never very heavy.

I went along varmint hunting practically from birth --



but my Father didn't rush me into game hunting. I went along at age 12, but my first Pheasants were at age 13 during the 1959 season, here with my Uncle Irv --

69 for me and I plan on going this year to make 70.

Probably 54 by myself, maybe 60 starting with my Dad.
JR

Well some info from Belgium. Before you can put your hunting license in your pocket you need to be 18 yaers old. From 18 yaers old you are a candidate hunter, first you have to pass a written examen. The first hunting examen in Belgium was in april 1978. After this you have 3 practical tests, 1. security about handling guns 2. shotgun test at the trap range 3. rifle shooting. I started hunting in our little country in 1979 and it never stopted.
Cheers, greetings from Belgium, Marc.

Marc, American hunters now need to pass a safety course. Not nearly as rigorous as the requirements in some European countries. But back when most of us who are 60 or over started, we were "trained"--for better or worse--by older male relatives: Father, uncle, older brother, etc. My father shot pheasant out the window of our car. That was illegal, even then. But other than that--and I quickly decided I didn't like that method of "hunting"--he did follow the law and did a good job of teaching me safety. Back then, there was still a military draft in this country, and a lot of men got their first exposure to firearms, safety, etc that way.

60 for me. Started with squirrels with my grandfather's .22 pump that used shorts, longs, and long rifles. I hunted with whatever he had in the drawer. Only admonition I ever received from him was "don't shoot toward the house" and "always be sure of what you are shooting at before putting your finger on the trigger." 8 years old. My how things have changed!!

Here is the patch I received upon completion of our Washington State Hunter Safety course required in 1959 to get my first hunting license.

Researcher,
That's a nice keepsake to have and remember.
Karl

Yes indeed. Gun safety and good gunning manners are the hallmark of a sportsman- as the Paul Curtis said: "The field is the touchstone of the man"-- those words run as true today as when you received that safety training patch in 1959-(year I graduated HS)--

Foxie;
You're just a mere young'un hardly out of diapers yet. I graduated HS in 56.

I started late in life, I was 31 in 1986. my buddies all talked me into it and I was hooked.

Then they all quit within 5 years because their wives didn't like it but I'm still at it.

Legal hunting age in my state was 12 when I got my first license, so 45 years of legal hunting for me. My Dad allowed me to shoot a groundhog with his Savage 340 .222 Rem when I was 8. When he told my Mom about it after we got home, she freaked out and said he was turning me into a poacher. I remember thinking she was being unreasonable.

I got my first .22 rifle at age 10, and still have it, along with the Savage model 220 20 gauge I bought with my paper route money at age 12. Prior to that, I did serious damage to the local bird and chipmunk population with my Whamo sling shot. I had a large bing cherry tree right outside my bedroom window, and when the cherries were getting ripe, the robins would wake me up at sunrise eating the fruit. One morning, my Dad yelled at me as he was leaving for work because I already had 3 large paper grocery bags filled with dead robins. He said they were protected birds, and I couldn't shoot them, but black birds, bluejays, and starlings were OK to shoot. I argued that the starlings ate the whole cherry, and the robins just pecked them and ruined the fruit... to no avail. I still hate robins to this day.

A couple years ago, I was deer hunting with my nephew. We came to the edge of the woods and saw that someone had left a very old man sitting alone in a lawn chair with his rifle, overlooking a small creek bottom. He had to be in his 90's, very frail and decrepit looking, and covered with a blanket on a cold snowy day. I thought that would be how I would like to end my days. Hunting is ingrained into my soul, and it was something I wanted to do as soon as I was old enough to comprehend it. It must be a large part of my DNA, so I guess you could say I've been into hunting for 75,000 years or so.

My story has a pretty similar timeline to yours, keith. I think I learned to 'hunt' with a BB gun when I was in lower grade school. A buddy's dad told us to bring home any green frogs we got for him to eat. It just clicked where I knew I had to make clean one shot kills and pass up other shots. I wasn't supposed to touch kitchen stuff, but by about six, my mom let me choose any knife I wanted to scale and clean buckets of fish because I felt like it. There have been seasons where I haven't done as much hunting as I would've liked, mostly supporting kids when they were in things like fall sports, but some how or another, I think it's in my DNA too.

I've never quite understood the rationale behind thinking bluejays were okay for a kid with a BB gun to kill, but cardinals and mockingbirds weren't. I've always kinda liked bluejays. The ones I absolutely refused to shoot with my BB was a bluebird and a tanager, like a scarlet or painted. Sparrows were fair game ............ woodpeckers, yellowhammers, and pigeons were BIG game. I once killed a chicken with my BB, head shot. That was a mistake ............

I can empathize with the old guy in the chair overlooking the bottom, except I'd rather it be a dove shoot. I am aiming to kill a limit of doves on my 100th birthday, which is October 13th (34 years from now), and if they have to call the coroner afterwards, well .......... that will be okay, too.

SRH

my first trap line was 1945 0nly had about 20 traps. 1946 hunted deer in maine until 1952 when I enlisted and went to Korea 1955 I went to Alaska and flew bush [ beaver L-20] for the USAF and hunted there been at it ever since. hope to make it this year again. dove season opens in sept.

My first was 44 years ago. That number may be somewhat skewed, though, due to the 20 years of active duty mixed in. I was not able to hunt every season.

Stan, I never understood the general disdain for bluejays either. I really learned to like bluejays when I learned that they robbed robin's nests, and ate their eggs and chicks. I can't tell you how many times I climbed out on limbs as far as I dared to reach a bunch of just ripened cherries, only to find that the damned robins had pecked the backside and ruined them. When they weren't eating our cherries or other fruit, they were in the lawn eating the beneficial worms and night crawlers which we also used for fishing bait. When my Dad yelled at me and told me to not let him catch me killing any more robins, all I can say is that... he didn't catch me.

I hope you get to shoot doves on your 100th!

They say bluejays go to hell on Fridays. Bobby

Stan, some people will do anything to get out of cleaning birds. Good luck in your quest to shoot until 100. I took my father and sons Dove shooting when he was 90. Got his limit of doves in less than a box of shells, using a Fox 16 I loaned him. Not bad for a fellow with only one good eye I thought. Heck I'd just like to be moving and lucid at his age. Sad to say he is done hunting he says. Just has no desire to shoot.

The late Havilah Babcock wrote a story entitled "Jaybirds go to Hell on Fridays"-- same as a Bluejay? Our 7 acre yard, heavily wooded with shade trees, hosts: Robins (Our State bird), Cardinals, Bluejays, mourning Doves, black birds, both blackwing and redwing variations, grackles, starlings and an occasional crow.

I have my grandchildren believing that there are 3 species of the dove: morning doves, afternoon doves and evening doves. Some day they'll find out that their Grandfather was "putting them on"> No big deal, as Michigan will get a legal season on doves when Hillary gives hubby Slick Willy a "Lewinski" in Central Park at High Noon.

Well, I'll just let my 50 yr. old grandson clean them for me.

I remember well you recounting that dove shoot with your Dad. I recall your saying that he placed yardage markers before he ever sat down to begin shooting.

SRH

Yup, me too. I'll probably long have been measured up for a box, but wouldn't mind it at all if I could carry my gun and two or three decoys out somewhere. I wouldn't care for a limit or not, I'd really enjoy folding one with cupped wings, that came in to my call. Then, my old grandson can come pick me up with some eco friendly golf cart and gather up all my gear.

Stan I watched him. He had not been hunting in several decades. Had to talk him into it. I think the Fox did most of the talking plus his grand kids helped. I put him in an area that would give him good left to right shots with few coming from behind him or few right at him on the end of the field. He sat there and watched the few birds moving for twenty minutes at least. He use to call this reading the field. Then he went and cut five or six tall weeds and placed them out in front of him to use as distance markers and also as marking point when he knocked down a bird. Then he went to work. Steady singles taken, then retrieved. I don't think he shot more than two birds before he retrieved them. In a little over an hour he was limited out. Like I said a limit in less than a box. Better than I have done many a day. If I live another fifty seasons I will not forget it. Gives me hope that I can shoot as long as I want to.

This is very nice topic. It inspired me to try hunting again this year. I'm going to find ole' Winchester 37 20ga to hunt with. Why? It was my first shotgun and being bad shot I'm not going to be able to shoot twice, therefore, I will not have to prepare and eat what I shot. Too much work, but I do want to get back into the wilderness. Thank you.

I now have a collection of hunting licenses going back to 1957 in Maryland and back to 1958 in Pennsylvania, 61 years by my count. Of course, that does not count Whammo, Daisy, and long bow victims at an earlier age.

So I recall, from my modest collection of Havilah Babcock's works- My favorites are "Tennessee" and "Slim Boggin's Mistake", but you can't go wrong with any of his stories.

Shot my first bird, a pintail, in 1955, so 63. Tagged along with my Dad and brother for 3-4 years before that.

Great story about the fox drive. Many Winters ago, a group wpuld meet Sunday AM early-for a breakfast/coffee meeting, to plan out which square sections of farm land we would drive, and who would be the "stand shooters"- My first time out, I could hear the sounds the drivers made, some banging on pots with hammer handles- a streak of red fur came running towards my stand, I swung my 12 A-5 ahead, like on a rabbit crossing, shot, and rolled the fox over twice.

This was when a prime Winter fox fur pelt might fetch upwards of $30.00, a fact I didn't know, as I am not a fur trapper. I had a heavy load of coppered 4's (homage to Nash Buckingham I might guess)- the fox was riddled, and the pelt was not worth much in that condition.

Since then, I have shot many fox and coyotes, mainly with either my Sako .243Win, or my Dad's older M70 30-06-- but I'll always remember that first one. RWTF

47 years with a real gun and at least 53 tagging along. Can't remember how old I was but I remember the first time I got to carry a bagged rooster, but it was huge and I was very honored to be entrusted with it.

I tagged along and picked up (don't know when that started)until I was trusted with a .410 single at ten. I'm seventy now so I guess I've been hard at it for 60 years...Geo

Shot my first bird, a mourning dove, my first duck, a Susie, and my first pheasant in 1962 with my then new Ithaca Model 37 12 ga. All of the birds were taken with the very first shot at the species! (I missed many more afterword!) The dove was taken with the very first shot at a bird with any shotgun!

56 years...

51 years for me. Started with a new .410 Savage pump my dad bought for my birthday.
This year marked 82 hunting seasons for my dad but he said this was his last season for hunting.

Bless his heart.

Hope he has a change of heart and you enjoy more time afield together. 82 seasons is my new goal!

I started with a 22 when I was 10 and moved to MDL 12 16 when I was 12, I am now 77 and just shot limits of ducks Friday and Saturday. hunted for 67 years!
bill

I do not know how many season my father hunted. Growing up in the Great Depression I expect it was more about feeding a family than hunting as we think of it. As a kid I remember him and his brother taking quail over his pointers or his brothers setters. One with a A5 and the other with a .410 double. In those days the daily limit was 10-12 birds depending which state you were hunting in, Maryland, Delaware or Virginia. In a 20 mile circle they could hunt in all three states, taking limits in each. I wish I had been old enough to hunt with them. 30 plus coveys a day, with birds in so many places you could let them rest once you took a few bird out of them. You never had to ask permission to hunt.

I don not know when he started but he was still taking a limit of Dove into his early nineties. Call it 80 years plus or minus a couple. He is no longer able to hint but we did enjoy my son send pictures of a couple black ducks he and his girl friend shot this week. That boy is 18 years and counting.

I kind of feel like a young buck here, only been 44 seasons for me.
Started when I was around 10 with a muzzle loading double shoot squirrels and ducks for the table with my dad.

Got you beat! Started in 05 at 28. First grouse with a Beretta 302, hooked ever since! Lucky 13 for me!

42 for me, with the past 27 mainly on waterfowl. I missed one or two while serving overseas with the Navy. I find myself more and more just enjoying being out and not so much focused on shooting. I look forward to the road trips home to Upstate New York and occasional trip back up to Maine.

53 years with a gun and at least 55 tagging along. I still remember my first rooster. Killed him with a second shot from a J. Stevens Springfield 16 gauge my father had let me use when I went hunting with a neighbor. I still have the gun. It started me down a long road with sxs shotguns that has left me with more than I reasonably should own.

61 years with a shotgun. A few years prior to that with a Daisy BB gun.

I've only been on a few, started about 3 years ago, at 23. My Dad was never a hunter, but definitely a shooter, so I didn't start until I met the right group of friends and started working in the firearms industry. Hope for many more!

Welcome to the forum Rocket, and Happy Holidays.
Karl

Great to hear, Rocket. You've got a great resource here for any questions you may have about most anything related to shooting and hunting. Please visit often, don't be afraid to ask questions. You're embarking on a wonderful journey. I've got two sons, 33 and 36, that I raised into the sport, as well as going at it for over 60 years myself, so I've got plenty to share, as do many others here. Welcome!
JR

I came out of the womb hunting....

Hunting with weapons for over 50 years.

In Belgium, it is a little bit more complicated, you must have 17 before you can participate at the examen to obtain your hunting license and have 18 in the coming hunting saison ( from july 1 till 30 june the next yaer). I started to hunt in the saison 1979/80, so next saison it will be 39 yaers. I am a real novice compared to many members of this forum.
Cheers, Marc.

Marc, do you have to be that old to hunt with ferrets ?

I still have my deer tag from my first deer in Maine [1944] killed an 8 point drop tine this year a total of 205 deer in my time. I'm 84 today that makes 74 years.

Wow-84 years-- And 74 of them afield in the many hunting seasons we all are fortunate to enjoy-and the memories and perhaps fotos from those days afield. That is good news to me, at age 77, if I am careful, as I try to be, I hope to make that 84 year mark, and hopefully, can still shoot a Model 12- or a L.C. Smith, and maybe, still hit the bird in flight.

Barn pigeons are my "vade mecum" in the off seasons. Two of my favorite area dairy farms also have ponds (cattle piss drainage) next to corn and soybean fields- Great for crows and pigeons with decoys- but it always seems that when I am hunting those farms during the longish waterfowl seasons in Michigan's Zone 3-- I get many crows and pigeons buzzing the field decoys, perfect range, but with steel shot being enforced, I guess I am too cheap to fire a $1.00 shotgun shell to possibly kill a bird I'll never eat.

Late duck and goose season re-opens this week-end. All the ponds and swamps that held birds in October are frozen over, but with area crop fields providing fodder, the geese and mallards are on the river that flows by my acreage-- So, weather permitting, a M12 and Rowdy, my Lab, will be out and about, after another goose dinner-

The pheasants we used to bag on some of those same farms are gone- nobody really knows why- my guess- clean farming. Can't blame the farmer for using sprays that take out weeds and also insects-- two of the many things pheasants eat- especially grasshoppers. We are too far above the Indiana/Ohio line to get any serious numbers of quail- and we'll never get a dove season here-- so, 90% of my hunting is for waterfowl. C'est La Vie!!

1948 here, but I do remember riding along in my dad's '39 Plymouth with his buddies road hunting ditch parrots in western MN during the early '40's. He shot his trusty Nitro Special, having already given up semiauto machine guns during the drought years. Still use his Alumacraft Ducker from 1947...still the best duck boat ever made in my opinion.

Your opinion of the "Ducker" was also supported by the late Nash Buckingham. When you mention your father's Nitro Special, wonder if you have it yet today.? One of the best economy boxlock shotguns ever made- and a break-action shotgun is a first class choice for a road hunt--better than a magazine loaded repeater.

Years ago, a neighbor was detailing road hunting for grouse in Michigan's UP-- the gunner(s) rode on the front fenders of a Jeep (WW2 surplus) and used .410 single shots- popped the pat in the head with a load of birdshot-- Not the GBE approach to "Sir Ruff", but meat in the pot-

For families that made it through the Depression years, hunting was not so much for sport, but for food--

Reading this post I'm young to the hunting scene and doublegun as well. This is my 28th season. Growing up Dad had a plethora of rifles/shotguns/handguns. We were always going to the range. Not until I left the house did I start hunting and all that I had to learn on my own. I've killed many bucks with a rifle but this year (I'm 48) was my 1st kill with stick and string! What fun that was.

48 years for me, took my first squirrel with a 410 at 7.

Yes Daryl, hunting rabbits over ferrets start here when the hunting saison is almost finish and I like it more when it is cold and with snow on the ground. I dont have the exact number of rabbits that I have shot in my hunting carriere but sure around or over 4.000.
Cheers, Marc.

Yes Run I have my dad's Nitro Special and several others in my motley collection of American doubles. He made a gorgeous checkered beavertail for it and shot trap with it for years, getting his share of 25 straights. Have two Duckers that I trailer as clamshell, holding all gear inside out of the elements. Also have a couple original oars that are far scarcer than the boats themselves.

64 hunting seasons. I didn't expect to live this long (78), and am surprised that I can still hunt birds. A new metal knee helped a lot. I bought a new bird dog last year....

Good to know, Halk. Ithaca produced the LeFever Nitro Special from about 1922 to 1948, I think. Years ago, I had a 20 ga. Nitro Special, 28" barrels and non-selective single trigger- great grouse gun with open chokes-- My former hunting partner and next door neighbor bought it from me, for his teen-aged son to bird hunt with--after about 3 years of me "loaning it to his lad" and apparently he shot it quite well.

Your Dad's Nitro must have had tightly choked barrels for him to score that well at trap- 16 yard line--Back in the day, when I shot trap, Win. Model 12's were "King", but the Ithaca "Knick" single barrel trap gun was also often seen, also over-unders.
The confidence a man has in his gun, no matter what make or model, often has a lot to do with how well he scores with it.

Fox you are allowed one reply in this thread.

1978 was my first taste, so I guess 40 years for me. I wish I could keep going for another 40 seasons, but that's a bit optimistic.

65 Using a Stevens 410 bolt action, clip fed, my first animal was some sort of small hawk, which were fair game in those days. A few weeks later I got to go with my dad on the Sunday hunt of the Sure as Shoot'n Fox hunting club. We had about 15 to 20 hunters, walking into a mile square section from each side. Sometime, there would be action. Saw my first fox [red] and he was running along a hedge [osage orange] row toward me. I shot and he tumbled. I could not believe it. When I got to him he was alive, but had three broken legs. I could probably never do that again. Also, got a jack rabbit that day which was rare in southwest Iowa. My first and only one of those. It was almost as big as the fox. A friend made sausage out of the jack, and it was terrible. The fox was taken by the club. They used the hide and bounty money for an end of the year feed. I thought that unfair.

I got a late start. Dad didn't want guns in the house after his WWII experience and with 10 kids in the house. He was wounded twice and hospitalized for 16 months after the last wound. When I left home for good, I hunted with friends and bought my first shotgun, a Browning Sweet 16, over 50 years ago.

The first hunt in which I was allowed to carry a gun myself was in the fall of 1962. My next door neighbor loaned me his .410 Winchester 24 for a squirrel hunt. My dad left me beside a tree with the gun and 2 shells, with strict instructions that I load only one barrel at a time. A squirrel came by and I managed to get him, and so began my hunting career and my fascination with sxs shotguns.

The neighbor was willing to sell the gun, but he wanted $40 and my dad said that was too much. I've tried to buy the gun a couple of times since but it has passed down to the third generation in their family now so I have accepted the fact that I will never own it.

I learn something(s) new almost every day. A friend from boyhood got a used Win M24- 20 gauge, 28" barrels about the same time my father gave me his M12-20 gauge. I still have that shotgun, and he has his M24. But I never knew WRA offered that double in .410 bore- I believe at one time WRA had a break-action single barrel in .410, and of course, the M42 pump, which I think they offered first in about 1933. Often called "the baby M12!

The 2 shell limit your dad followed somehow reminds me of the late Ernest Hemingway, who received a 20 gauge single shot around the age of 12-from his paternal Grandfather- and Hemingway's father, Dr. C.E. Hemingway, only gave him 3 shells per day. You learn at that early age not to waste your ammo.

It might have been the late writer, Charley Waterman, who wrote two phrases regarding shooting afield: (1) A good shot is frugal with his ammo. and (2) Don't bet your folding money against the man who shoots a well-worn pumpgun. I would add, well worn double shotgun to that!!

Started hunting with a bow and a BB gun when I was 12. About that time I got my first squirrel with a BB gun...a fox squirrel shot in the eye at about 8 feet! Soon after a cottontail with a arrow...he was in his bed. That was 1960. My father couldn't afford to buy me a gun so I first bought a .22 bolt gun around 1960, and then a shotgun in 1962. I was working on a ranch so I had money. No car, but a bicycle. I read all the books and magazines about hunting and fishing I could. An early favorite was Scattergunning, by Ray P. Holland. I remember him liking #7 shot and 12 gauges with IC/F chokes.

I first bought an Ithaca Model 37 12 gauge for $74.48. With it I killed the first bird I shot at... a dove with the first shot. Went on to shoot the first duck, a Susie, and the first pheasant...each with the first shot at the species. I killed the first two squirrels I shot with the 12...a pair of grays running through the tree tops. Then I found geese...shot the first three geese I shot at...a triple on lesser Canadas...

Is that enough history?

Now I shoot as much as ever and use doubles but miss many shots!

Thanks for posting this. I tried to look it up and I couldn't find any evidence that Winchester ever made the model 24 in 410. So I think you have corrected a "memory" of mine that is incorrect.

To be honest, I have just assumed it was a model 24, and I have assumed that for decades. It was certainly a sxs .410 with DT, and I remember that the man who owned it wanted the outrageous price of $40 for it because it was a Winchester. The gun was not in very good condition in 1963 and I don't think it could have possibly been a model 21.

I was 9 years old when I used it and have no memory of actually noting the model number, but I did get to handle the gun again sometime in the 70s. The owner at that time told me his father had owned it before the neighbor and he would never sell it. But I thought I remembered verifying that day that it was a Winchester.

I think my memory must be flawed, and the gun must have been of some other make. Thanks for correcting me.

Coosa;
I too was never able to own the first shotgun I ever shot. It belonged to an uncle (Married to Mom's Sister) & had been his father's. He was going to pass it down to one of his Grandsons. The Grandson doesn't have it & no one seems to know where it went. This one was a little H&R 28 gauge single. He did let me borrow it & use it once later in life & while I had it I weighed it 4lb 2 oz.

That first day I used it I killed 2 rabbits with 2 shots. The first one my uncle had spotted sitting in a clump of briers & called me over. He told me to aim at his nose & shoot his head off, so I did, He then told me I was now blooded so the next one had to running. I then jumped one but he was in such thick stuff he was out of sight before I could get the gun up. Next one my uncle spotted again squatted down at the base of a small tree in an open area, so he called me over again. He reminded me this time I couldn't shoot until it ran.

I started walking toward that tree & got so close I could have kicked him. I kept wondering why isn't he running. I would later learn this was typical of a rabbit if he thinks he has not been spotted. I then paused to think how was I going to make him run. When I paused he, of course, bolted like a streak of lightning, running so fast his ears were pushed back along his back.

How I managed I'll never know, but I cocked the hammer back on that little H&R as I brought it to my shoulder, swung on the rabbit & pulled the trigger & he Somersaulted. Needless to say, I was walking on air after that shot. Ah, the memories.

Add me to the list that never got to own his first shotgun. My Daddy owned a huge country store on my Grandad's farm here. He was very confined by it and didn't get to hunt much, as the store hours were something like 7 am until 8 pm, 6 days/week. Sunday was church day and Sunday hunting was forbidden in my household back then. We had a neighboring landowner who had made a lot of money in the cookie business, Murray Cookies, and was a great friend to us. When I was eight yrs. old he took me down to his house one day and gave me a J C Higgins .410 S x S, with Tenite stock and f/end. Killed my first doves, quail, rabbits and squirrels (and one owl) with that little gun. I shot it for several years and he took it back and gave me a 20 ga. M11 Remington. When I turned 16 Daddy gave me a new 1100 Rem. 12 ga., and the M11 went back to Mr. Murray, too.

The little .410 is now in the possession of one of Mr. Murray's grandsons. I thought, awhile back, I wanted to buy one like it ..................... until I saw what they were/are selling for. Yikes!! No, thank you.

SRH

"Never got to own first shotgun" !! Well, I am lucky enough to have my first one. Stevens, 410, bolt action, clip fed. Stock is some light wood. I refinished it all many decades ago. Still has a couple of paint brush hairs in the finish and a black forend tip. I'm not sure if the original gun had a black forend tip, but it wasn't either horn or ebony, but this one is painted on with whatever black paint Dad had around the house. Thinking about it , now, I should shoot it again. Maybe the first time since the 50s.

Darn right you should! If I had mine I'd still be using it. I've got the first .22 I ever shot, my Grandad's. It is in my pickup right now. It's a Remington 33, single shot.

SRH

Got my first shotgun and started hunting in 1971. it was a Coast to Coast hardware store pump. Not sure I've ever matched the excitement of getting that first shotgun.

Dave,
First shotguns are the ones that are best remembered, just wish that I would have had the sense to keep it!
Karl

I still have mine, not because of fond memories but because I don't feel is it safe to shoot or sell. I'd love to find a $100 gun buy back program to sic this on.

I hope and pray you never get your wish, in this nation.

SRH

Well, it's been several decades that I've been holding on to it for this very reason. Still have it, so it seems our guns are probably safer than we thought.

I still have mine, but it is literally worn out.

Vigilence is adamant. The British thought the colony was "safe", too. Never underestimate an enemy with a cause.

Are you an NRA member, or do you ride free there, too?

SRH

I'm betting he's an NBA free loader too...



Lack of attachment...is that causation of lead poisoning or just liberal thought

Never overestimate your enemy either. You seem quite consistently guilty of that.

Yes, I'm an NRA member.

Stan:

I still have my dad's first (and only) .22, the very same Remington Model 33. When I could still shoot iron sights (my eyes don't cooperate anymore), I found it surprisingly accurate for an inexpensive .22. He bought it used and never felt the need to acquire something more.

They were fine little rifles and I plan to use it to teach my grandchildren to shoot when they come of age.

Rem

Rem,

Mine is so worn out that the bolt lifts in the rear when the trigger is pressed. You can't shoot hyper-velocity rounds in it or gas will blow back into your face. But, I'd never sell it for $100 in a gun buy-back. The sentimental value to me far exceeds that amount.

Glad you're a NRA member, BD. Wish you'd change your mind and donate here. I don't agree with everything the NRA does, and I'll bet you don't either. BTW, I made two donations last evening here for 2019, one for me and one in memory of PA24.

SRH

I have my Dad's old 16 gauge H&A single, which is probably the first gun he actually owned. I also have an old Birmingham proofed W Richards that belonged to his Father, my Grandfather. My Son has an H&A (.32 S & W (not long)) top break revolver which belonged to him & my Grandson has a Winchester low wall in 22 long which he bought during the depression for less than a dollar. This gun was actually bought for my Dad's younger brother but ended up being given to my Grandson by my First Cousin, This was the first gun I ever shot.

The little H&R 28 gauge was the first shotgun I shot. The first rifle I owned was a Stevens model 15 bolt action single in 22 LR. First shotgun I owned was a J Stevens Arms & Tool Co 12 gauge double, wish I still had it. My only desire for the little 22 would be pure nostalgia as the first gun I owned.

My first "real"gun was a Stevens .410 model 94 youth model. When I outgrew it I traded it off for something else I have no more. I do still have the Marlin Fourtenner lever action my Grand-Father gave me when I was 12...Geo

Rem;
I couldn't recall what a model 33 was so had to look it up. Found it stated it was Remington's very first bolt action rifle & due to that is a highly sought-after collector gun which fetches high prices. I suppose they meant Remington's first 22 caliber bolt action as I am certain the model 30 centerfire based on the 1917 Enfield. preceded it.
My experience with Remington 22s is that almost all of them, from the cheapest ones on up, have always been very accurate.

I’ve never been able to understand the sentimental attitude regarding guns. Different stokes for different folks, I guess. My ancestors, including my Dad had guns, but really they didn’t give a hoot about them. My first gun was a Model 17 Remington I inherited from my grandfather. It had a short stock and the recoil pad was made from several layers of leather. I shot it a bunch as a kid, but as an adult with that shorty stock, it was all but useless to me. So, I gave it to my vet for his grandson. I was told the kid loves the thing. I don’t regret giving it away and I don’t miss it even despite the fact it was my grandfather’s gun. I have plenty of others that better suit my needs now and that I much prefer.

How about pocket watches, buzz? Or shaving brushes, or fountain pens, or pocket knives? Would those things be unimportant to you if they had been your grandad's?

Not trying to sound convicting, just trying to understand. Because, all those things of my grandad's are special to me. All those things, including his guns, remind me of things that happened to him in his life, and seem somehow more important because of them.

I'm not morbid about them, and they are not a part of some shrine, but they have a special place in my memory. I gave my brother our grandad's gold pocket watch when he moved away to Arizona some 25 years ago, because I wanted him to have something tangible of our family's past that he could look at and hold, and I thought that object might accomplish that for him. I asked him about it last year and he said he had passed it on to his oldest son.

Strange how personal objects mean so much more to some than to others.

Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce on some things.......... and wonder about their importance.

SRH

I have an old friend that I have hunted and fished with for more than a half century. I don't know who I'll pass him on to.
He was raised in circumstances that many would be considered to be privileged. His family owned a couple of thousand acres of prime property including duck fields that could be planted and flooded seasonally. He grew up having the best duck hunting in the area. The property was sold. He has more than the memories of that era. He has his grandfather's doubles which were passed on to his dad and now him which he hunts with today. They will eventually be his son's. In my estimation, that is treasure money can't buy. Gil

Same with most of my family....That's because to them they were just a tool.
With that sAid....

I got some old worn out cAmi'flagged drawers that upon farting spew fragments in all directions.

I've developed quite the sentimental attachment to them.

Should I build a shrine or pass them down to some homeless'jOe living under an over pass ?

I guess so, guys.....but they are just ‘things’. When I was younger I was more sentimental than I am now about materialistic ‘things’. I think of my ancestors with fondness, but their ‘things’ just don’t strike the chord they once did. It’s probably just me and the fact that I’m confused. No worries.....I’m glad you guys cherish those things, just for me, it’s different. Also, I sort of agree with jOe, my ancestors looked at guns as only tools. In my case, my taste in guns is far different than those before me. Their tools just don’t do much for me, I guess.

Thanks for the reply, buzz. No problem in feeling the way you do. I just wanted to try to understand.

Objects trigger memories for me that otherwise may not surface. That gold watch, for example. When Grandaddy was 14, in 1906, he walked to Stoney Bluff Landing on the Savannah River, near here, and caught a steamboat to Augusta. When he disembarked it he walked down to Broad Street and went to a jeweler, where he bought that watch and had his initials engraved upon the lid. Returning home on the steamboat he tried to sleep, but said all he could hear all night was the ticking of that watch. I still remember the twinkle in his eye retelling that.

I wish I had his 1897 pumpgun. He said he got rid of it because he wore it out shooting ducks, doves and quail. A younger hunting friend of his, after his passing, once related to me that Grandaddy once killed 13 birds on the rise with that gun, out of a single covey. He said the dog pointed, but Grandaddy saw the covey well ahead of the dog and shot into them on the ground, then as the rest got up he shot until empty. He killed 7 on the ground and 1 with each of the remaining shells in the gun, for a total of 13. They were meat hunting, and there were bountiful birds, so I don't belittle him for doing that. But, I'd sure like to have the old gun that did it. It might be worn out and unsafe, but it'd never go to a gun buy-back.

Anyway, have a fine day, brother. SRH

Stan- I am on the same page as you, I guess. I have some of the guns and pocket watches that belonged to the now long-gone male members of the family. The guns are worn with careful usage, blueing, stock finish- but are still functioning yet today.

But we should, perhaps, recall, that America went through the worst economic era from 1929 until we became "The Arsenal of Democracy" and to rural families, a shotgun meant meat on the table, and perhaps also an arm to defend their families against some of the desperadoes roaming the country back then- So, to some, that old M97 or Stevens double was a tool, like a hammer or a drill- no more, no less.

I like the M97, but way prefer the M12, as I don't much care for exposed hammer guns, especially in the cold weather we get up "Nawth"--RWTF

Count me in the Sentimental group. I have several items which belonged to various ancestors. Several of them would have some monetary value but others virtually none. They will be passed on to family, but none sold, By Me.

One item of no monetary value hangs proudly in my house. It was given to me several years back by my Mother's youngest brother. It is two 1"x3" boards a bit over 2 feet long. Near one end a hole was drilled & a heavy wire runs through making a hinge. the other end is tapered & rounded to make a handhold. It now has a shiny greasy looking appearance. Anyone know what it was for?

My Uncle told me my Grandfather had made it but when my Mother was growing up using it was one of her jobs. As I said moneywise, valueless, but worth a bunch to me.

I seem to be getting more sentimental as I grow older. Probably dementia...Geo

I have chalked up 70. Jim

A homemade press for squeezing lard oil out of fatback?

SRH

Stan;
Sounds as if you have been around a few Country Hog Killings. I sort of figured if anyone here knew what it was it would be you.

As best as I recall I saw one of these around 2002 in a little museum in Huntsville AL (Rocket City) only theirs was joined with an actual hinge rather than Wire. When my "PaPa" built this one he probably didn't have a hinge handy & the wire worked well enough he just never bothered to Upgrade it.

Been a long time since I have been in on a Hog Killing, but I would still like a good mess of that old time Kraklin Bread. We still buy some cracklins along at the store & make some, but it just doesn't have the same taste as that we made ourselves. Probably has a bunch of Preservatives added in to resist spoiling.

I still remember that Souse Meat, AKA Head Cheese, AAH the memories.

Hacker Martin used one to get his cutting oil for boring and rifling m/l barrels........ put it in a vise. Deceased friend of mine had one of his barrels and watched him bore and rifle it, and saw him squeeze some out with it.

What do I win?

SRH

63 years for me. Killed my first deer with a cut down M 1873 45-70 Springfield that I father had found in an abandoned chicken house. we had a heck of a time finding ammo for it at the time.
The rest of the time I hunted birds and rabbits with My Savage .22/410

Stan;
If'n I had a Hog to kill I'd send you a big bait of Hand Slung Chittlins, BUT, I ain't had a hog to kill in about 30 years so we're both outta luck. There are you know three classes of chitlins, depending on how much of a connoisseur one is. There's Kettle Boiled, Creek Washed & then the cream of the crop is Hand Slung.

I've been hunting for 58 years. I started hunting squirrels with a 410 single shot. I don't remember my first squirrel, but I remember my brother's. He is 4 years my junior, and he snuck my shotgun and two shells out of the house at 9 years old and went hunting. When he cocked the gun, he had to fire it because he didn't have the strength to uncock it. He waited with a cocked gun for the squirrels to sit still and brought two home. We padlocked the gun after that.

Better get to the sale section gun dealer bOy....got a tire kicker on isle 1.