Hunting & Fishing What was the first thing you hunted?

J

JJRawr

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 29, 2011
107
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40
El Paso, TX
#1
I've never shot anything but pests around my grandpa's ranch. What should I start hunting to learn the sport? Something that I can prepare to eat or use as well, I don't want to be wasting anything.

Im so lost...
 
#5
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: force_multiplier</div><div class="ubbcode-body">and most people I know started on squirrel </div></div>
Yup, my buddy and I started on squirrels on his family's ranch when we were about 7 years old.We plugged a few with his dad's 10/22. His dad taught us to clean them out and his mom cooked us up some squirrel stew that night. Good times.
 
#8
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

my brothers and I learned on stray cats in our grandpa's Barns, using 10/22's and a new england single shot 12 guage........ah those were the days
 
#9
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

I learned with a sling shot, using crab apples and pea rocks, then I started digging into my dad's BB shot supply. I killed a lot of stuff I shouldn't have when i was little. I think I got the sling shot when i was 6 at a Ben Franklin store. You'd be surprised at what a crab apple will kill. Man that was a long time ago.

xdeano
 
#10
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

LOL. Umm...I was the snotty-nosed kid hunting chipmonks in the back yard with my Red Ryder @ the age of 8. Frogs, rats, and mice with a blowgun? Starlings with the Daisy 853? (did you know that 25 yards requires 4" of hold-over from a 10 yard zero? A few starlings do.) Sparrows w/ the air pistol? I don't know what came first. As soon as I could sneak the various pieces of the family arsanel out from under my parents' watchful eyes, I was happily killing all kind of local pests.

Officially tho, squirrels were my first prey. I still love hunting squirrels. Great challenge for a rifleman and decent eating as well. I was blessed to have some great mentors and killed my first squirrel, pheasant, groundhog, rabbit and deer in my first year of hunting @ the ripe old age of 12. From there, they tutored me and helped me develop my skills until I was old enough to hunt by myself. Four years later, I was on my own and had to continue my education on my own.

What part of the country are you in? I Really learned how to hunt when I started hunting red squirrels w/ my .22 rifle. They seem to never sit still and require careful movement and stalking to get in range. Rifle hunting squirrels was undoubtedly the most formative period of my hunting skill development. In my part of the world, if you find a nice big grove of evergreens, you're almost guarunteed to find an abundance of red squirrels. I don't much like eating red squirrels and don't usually, but to each his own.

If I could give one piece of advice to a novice squirrel hunter it would be...SLOW DOWN! Enjoy the outdoors; become part of the landscape and not the intruder that every critter in the grove is watching as he bumbles along. Move into a place, sit still long enough for the inhabitants to forget about you, and then move painfully slow if at all.

Many principles of hunting are more or less universally applicable...find out game is abundant in your location, do some reading and scouting to find out where they live...and then get out there and learn.

Ask a $5 question...get a $9 answer. Sorry. Hope it was informative. Good luck!

-The Kid.
 
#11
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

Started with squirrels using an air rifle from Walmart in Grandmas back yard.

I learned alot about range, shot placement and saftey glasses very quickly.

First "real" hunt was quail but It wasn't till I went after turkeys in the Spring that I truely experinced "stalking".

I've always said that birds are a great way to start because you find out if you have the stomach for it.

Step 2 should be hogs. They're an invasive species that tastes great so U really feel like you are "helping control/manage" an area.

They also tend to go down with a fight so you get a shotgun lesson on being an ethical hunter and if you can handle the emotional aspect.

Just my opinions... Good luck!
 
#16
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

Black birds were authorized thru the old man for killing with my one pump bb gun. Any other birds killed and it was my ass.
 
#20
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

I got a late start and began with squirrel at 24 years old. Moved onto rabbits and coons and then into deer and hog, may go for antelope next year. It went in that order because the opportunities came in that order.

If you're interested in big game, start there and keep ranges reasonable for your comfort level. As an inexperienced hunter, find a hunting buddy to show you the ropes. Mine is my father in law, he's been hunting his whole life, my dad and I are close, but he's never been into guns.
 
#23
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

Not sure, it would have been either the neighbor’s cat that was serial killing our chickens, red squirrels that were chewing up clothes on the clothes line or black birds that would dive bomb me and mom as we jogged down the road in the spring.
 
#24
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

The Kid makes some good points in there, I like that comment "ask a $5 question, get a $9 answer".

I worked with a guy several years ago who was a 40yr veteran tool and die maker. I learned quickly that if I asked Rick a question I should bring a pencil and pad to take notes.

My first year hunting for food was with a 22 and going for squirrels. I only shot 1 that year.

My first kills came with my pump action Daisy Model 25 BB gun and I was told to take care of the starlings that were building nests in my dad's shop. I parked myself in the house window and he helped me figure out where the BB's were landing. I took out 7 in a 2 day period.

My grandfather heard about those exploits and employed me in the same capacity but with a rifled pellet gun. He offered me "I'll supply pellets and 25 cents for each dead starling. Nothing else gets shot. $1 fine for every bird that isn't a starling."
 
#25
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

Prairie dogs with my grandfather's browning lever action 22lr & 4x scope, the occasional jackrabbit & when I was FINALLY old enough, Mule Deer little buck IIRC .243 win.
 
#26
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

caught my neighbors cat when i was 10. Box. String. Tuna.

First thing really hunting... White tail.
then i fell in love and it went into all kinds of exotics, then i got into pigs, coyotes, prairie dogs, nutrea, dove, duck, pheasant.

Find your niche, hunt it for a while, change it up. Every animal is a new hunt. Enjoy it.
 
#33
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

Where I'm from, we have a ton of porcupines and badgers. That seems to be the most common first hunt / kill. As for a bigger game, it's a toss between antelope and deer.
 
#36
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

Rabbits with dad when I was about 10. I used a single shot 4-10 that was his first gun. We have reblued it since and she is looking a lot better. Cant wait to take my boys out with that little thing one day!
 
#37
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

groundhogs with a 22 for my grandfatherat age 9. At age 10 i got a 22mag for my birthday .my love of long range grew with my new gun. now its deer ,turkey, squirrel.but the yotes are my favorite to shoot
.
 
#40
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

holy sheet, only 2 correct answers ,lmao. mizzura mudflaps fer the winn! rest of yall are soundin a bit retentive and by that i do mean full on meat gazer. no offense.
 
#43
Re: What was the first thing you hunted?

A lot depends on where you are. If you are in Texas for example and want something with good eating, I'd suggest starting out hog hunting. A good small sized one will give you some nice hams and sausage etc.
 
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