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Thread: How did you become a hunter?

  1. #11
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    Now isn't that a great story! Thanks.
    " We are more than our gender, skin color, class, sexuality or age; we are unlimited potential, and can not be defined by one label." quote A. Bartlett


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  3. #12
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    Some very interesting stories! We all come from different backgrounds but yet we’ve a common appreciation for hunting.

  4. #13
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    I don't even remember how old I was when I started walking the bush with my dad. I do remember him once handing me his 12ga when we got back to the car and told me that he was going to throw his favourite hat in the air and I was to shoot at it. he never figured I would hit it. Well I was pretty much knock across the road on my butt and he picked up his hat that looked like a screen. started caring a shotgun when I was around 12. Got a 410 side by side for graduating grade 9 and still have it, that was over 55 years ago.

  5. #14
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    Came to Canada with no hunting history and no Family members engaged in hunting.
    Back home hunting is different,more organized,more "controlled".You need to be in a club,hunting given area under the Club's jurisdiction, less game(especially big game)and You need to pay for the meat to Your club, for the big game meat(roe deer and wild boar).

    Came here,met a guy(who happend to came from the same place as i was from)who had some family tradition of hunting.
    We both loved outdoors, we decided,on his advise, to take the Courses,after few years of being here.
    We were both in the army back home,...so the guns were not novelty for us.

    Being licenced,i bought an used shotgun and a used rifle,plus some cheap work clothing.Thinking-if i do not like this,i will have no financial losses reselling the stuff..
    That was many years ago.
    If my wife would do a hunting inventory on me

    Stared hunting small game(that was hunting mostly at home anyway-so we thought ,that is the hunting here too)then slowly migrated to deer ,then moose,bear....
    Quit small game hunting after realizing-while chasing rabbits,my eyes are on deer trails,rubs,scrapes...........
    Bought and read maybe 40 hunting or wild game related books,bought countless DVDs and CD-s, Internet, watched many Youtube video also.

    Learned ocassionally some from a live person too.Way back ,we attended few courses of 1-2 hrs from an accomplished archery hunter from this area. Learned some from my local buddy,bit from some good guys from Out West too.
    Learned from the good people on Huntontario Forum also

    I think me being curious and open minded,with willingness to learn and adapt made all the difference.
    Last edited by gbk; April 13th, 2021 at 06:44 PM.

  6. #15
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    Opening day in 1954 with Grandpa,Dad and two uncles at 0 dark30 and this five year old is wound tighter than a $2 watch sitting in the middle of the canoe listening to the paddles whoosh through the water heading out to our blinds that we spent the previous day re-building with cedar boughs in the bullrushes. Two years later,I shot my first duck with Mom's CIL 20ga single shot,a big drake Black that I can still remember like it was yesterday.
    Society needs to stop bending to the will of the delusional.

  7. #16
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    No hunters, fishers or even campers on either side of my family for at least 3 generations back - I was the first and only one until 3 out of 4 of my kids plus a nephew took it up. Actually kinda strange as we are farmers on both sides and i grew up on a farm. Chickens on my dad's side and market garden on my mom's side.

    My earliest memory in life goes back to when i was 3 years old and we were at the fall fair and they had this cheesy fishing game with magnets on a piece of string on a stick. Well parents let me play and after the game was over i threw a tantrum because i wanted to keep the fishing rod. Didn't give a rip about the prize but had to have that rod. Pestered my parents none stop after that for a fishing rod and the following summer they caved and bought me a cheap 4 foot glass rod with an equally cheap spincast reel on it.

    That started the journey but until i was a teen it was only fishing. I was fortunate as we had a creek and pond on the farm that were okay for chub and sunfish. By age 8 i was riding my bike all over the township and knew every farmer that had a pond or creek. Most of them were pretty nice and let the immigrant kid fish. Different world for sure when parents let their kid go knocking on doors by themself at age 8.

    As soon as i had an allowance for chores i saved it all for subscriptions to outdoor magazines and gear (all purchased from CT). I supplemented my allowance with birthday and Christmas money and by picking empties from the ditches and the beach. The local golf course also used to let me dive all the ponds to retrieve lost balls which i than earned 25% on when they were resold at the clubhouse. Can you imagine what the insurers and lawyers would say now if a 10 year old kid was diving ponds on a golf course with the blessing of the owners.

    The outdoor magazines sparked my interest in canoeing, kayaking and hunting and by age 16 i had my gun license and a canoe bought for $25 at a yard sale (it needed some work) and was going out solo on hunting/fishing trips with all gear paid for by allowance, empties, golf balls and a part time job at a factory in town as a cleaner. I am 100% self taught through trial and error and magazine articles. Killed my first buck when i was 16, a 5 point spike. I think it took about 2 hours to stop shaking. Field dressing technique was a little rough on that first one (knicked the stomach with my knife) but all those magazine subscriptions paid off.

    When i entered university i quickly discovered the map and air photo archives section in the geography library. Took some extra courses on air photogrammetry and quickly learned how to do 3D interpretation using stereo pairs - the antique version of google earth except better because it's 3D. Spent most of my spare time in that library and planned all my trips that way. A frequent complaint from my girlfriend at that time was that i spent more time there than with her - she was right.

    Been blessed and lucky as i have filled at least one deer tag every season since and that was 39 years ago. Mostly focused on deer and small game at first but slowly expanded my horizons to include anything legal.

    Best part is i now get to do it with 3 of my kids. My youngest son was able to get his first deer at 13 beating me by 3 years. All my kids took their first bear before i even considered trying bear hunting. They also usually out fish the old man as well but every once in a while i can still surprise them.
    Last edited by Species8472; April 13th, 2021 at 10:41 PM.
    They say a man turns old when sorrow and regret take the place of hope and dreams

  8. #17
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    Good reads, keep ‘em coming!

  9. #18
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    No hunters in my family, but spent alot of time in a boat with my dad and grandfather growing up.. Loved getting out on the water. Started dating the girl who became my wife after university and her dad and brother was into hunting. A couple of skeet sessions, and I went and got my license. Mostly self taught, as the FIL wasnt necessarily the most ethical hunter. Lots of empty handed returns in the early days whether for ducks, geese or deer. Went and got my turkey license and spent a bit of time bugging the Quaker Boy Rep at the Sportsman show, walking away with a trifecta call, and got a turkey on my first sit! Have done very well with the turkeys over the years, but still having trouble with consistent harvests of deer and birds.
    Joined my local chapter of DU and have ended up learning alot from that bunch of misfits! lol
    My son is 14 now and is taking up hunting, and my younger one is interested once he gets older too.

  10. #19
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    I started when I was 17yrs old working for the MNR in Ignace (I was there for two summers in a row '85 & '86). Part of my job description was scraping road kill off Hwy 599 and some instances the animals were not dead yet (reminds me of the Monty Python "Not dead yet" scene). Anyway part of my training was a crash course - PAL and Hunting Safety Course. Some of the dispatched animals were taken by people on a call list we had in the office. I got to meet several of them and they took me fishing and shooting at the quarry on weekends.

    Back in Hamilton after graduating from school I had started shooting skeet and sporting clays. One day at the HGC I mentioned I would like to try my hand at turkey hunting and my buddy said come on over - I have 100 acres and have never been back there........it's yours. Since then he purchased the 100 acre farm beside him and the 125 acre farm across the street. In my late 20's I wanted to start hunting because of my love of the outdoors so I started hunting turkey then migrated to waterfowl, deer, and then bow. I successfully converted my fishing group of friends to over to hunting - the last guy participated in his first turkey hunt last spring.

    We enjoy shooting, fishing and hunting as way of unplugging and unwinding. The definition of success is relative........one of the guys (the land owner) hunts but has shot maybe one doe and 2 turkeys in the 20 years I have known him. He enjoys getting our with friends and could care less if he pulls the trigger or not. This year I am trying to get one of the guys on a turkey this year - if I can do that I will be successful.

  11. #20
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    I grew up with hunting, got the first duck I shot at on the wing when I was 12 with my dads 1100. I think the gun was taller than me. Had my hunting license before my driver's.

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