doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How many hunting seasons for you?

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.