Earliest hunting memory

[Ken The Kanuck]

She who must be obeyed and I just got back from a Hawaiian cruise where I forgot my phone in the parking lot of the airport. So I was out of touch for a couple of weeks. When I got back I found out that a cousin had passed away in Mexico from a health problem. I was named after that cousin's Dad ( these are not blood relatives but very close friends of my folks and we always considered ourselves blood back then). Anyhow in about 57 or 58 I ( I would of been 5 or 6) remember my uncle taking me and my cousin duck hunting on a creek back of our properties. The thing I remember most is the smell of the shell once it was shot, paper shells back then of course. Me and my cousin would scramble to get those shells so we could put it to our noses. Never forgot that smell.

[jon_norstog]

My earliest was frm when I was maybe 2 1/2 or 3. We were living outside Huron SD and my dad was working for SD fish and game. They were doing a study on pheasants and dad was assigned to hunt pheasants all around the district 'cause he had got a degree in wildlife management. He couldn't afford a bird dog so he took me along as a retriever. I can still smell those warm birds, I'd put my face right into their breast feathers as I carried them back. He had to label and send in the heads, or some part of the birds, we would eat the rest. I thought ALL birds had birdshot in them, got confused when mom would buy a chicken and cook it. She haqd to reassure me the chicken was OK to eat.

jn

[Allen]

I was never a hunter but did shoot some when I was young. I was in our woods with my Dad's 311 Stevens 410 double barrel and came up on what I thought was a good find. A nice big dove sitting in a bush just asking for it. I blasted him and out fell a big 'ol Mockingbird. That's the only one I ever killed since they were "good birds". Killed hundreds of Blue Jays though that destroyed our pecan crops.

Ironically, years later I would become friends with a guy who's aunt was Harper Lee who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. Guess she killed one too.

As per Ken's post, I liked the odor too. Next to where I live now was a field perhaps 1000-2000 acres of farmland. In the fall the farmers that owned the property would have massive dove shoots. I would go out afterwards and gather the shells. The fresh ones had the odor, the rest didn't. What amazed me most was all the colors they came in. These were the old cardboard shells in red, green, blue, yellow and even purple.

[bruce]

Earliest? Deer season 1983 outside of Dublin, Ga. Had set my stand up a few weeks earlier. Went in that morning and found the chain cut and the stand gone. Oh well. Took my rifle and started still hunting. About three hours later, had turned around and was easing through a little swamp on my way out to the highway. Looked ahead and saw a four point buck head down eating. I shot him, then carried him out and put him on my poncho in the hatchback. Drove over to a church members home. He had a good setup for skinning/dressing deer. Since I was completely ignorant of how to process the buck, he kindly showed me what to do. My wife and I really enjoyed the meat! My wife had never cooked wild game meat of any sort. However, she really really did a great job with that deer. Next one I shot we had made into sausage. Just outstanding! Sincerely. bruce.