Who Introduced you?

[Josh Brugmans]

Who introduced everyone to the wonderful sport that thousands of people share today?

For me it was my Grandfather, we mosty hunted Deer, but I quickly fixed his mind on Waterfowl.

Oh yeah I went on my first hunting trip when i was 5 yrs old. My mom took me back to one of our corn fields that my Grandpa was hunting.

[Scott Moates]

I started out squirrel hunting with my dad when I was about 3 or 4. Started duck hunting at age 11 and became addicted after the first time.

[kyfowler]

My dad first introduced me to squirrel hunting around 8 or 9 then deer hunting at about 10. My uncle got me started on waterfowl and bird hunting at 10 and now I am hooked for life.

[Rusty Hallock]

I started duck hunting with my dad 27 years ago.

[Stephen Pitt]

I was born into the sport of hunting, with my dad, Pat Pitt, teaching me how to hunt, shoot, and most importantly the rules and safety of firearms. I went on my first dove hunt at the age of 4 and my first duck hunt later the same year. I killed my first duck when 8, and have not missed an opening day since then or any opportunity to go.

[Ryan Vande Griend]

Went on my first duck and goose hunting trips when I was 3 years old. My dad got me into it. Im afraid im here for life too :-P.

A funny story was when I was 4 years old my dad took me duck hunting which we had to wake up at 530 for. Well we stayed till around 1230 and then on our way home we found a field of geese. Well we got permission so we went home, got our goose stuff and then went out for an afternoon hunt. The funny thing was that it was a disked field and I could barley walk, but they made me carry decoys out stumbling over clods of dirt. Yes, I was crying, but hey thats what makes you a better hunter later on right?

[Wayne Radcliffe]

My Father and Grandfather were hunting buddies so they both actually introduced me to this great sport.

[Christian Curtis]

I started hunting at 5 years old...My Grandpa and dad hunted together most every day of quail season and squirrel hunted quite a bit as well. When I first started I carried a bb gun and thought that I was killing everything. I didn't get to go duck hunting until I was 9 when my father picked it up for some unknown reason...am I ever glad he did!

[TheGreatWhiteHunter]

Being born with liberal californian parents, my cousins were actually the first to get me out hunting. Went on a grouse hunt in the sierras with em once and couldnt stop the itch afterward.

[Jeff-Widgnwhacker-Wallis]

A lifetime friend of my older brother and I introduced him to Archery Elk hunting in Northern Arizona :D

[iawaterfowler88]

I went on my first pheasant hunt when I was 6, just walking along. My dad could never leave me at home because if he did he would get about 15 phone calls asking how they are doing. Heck even through the past 4 years of high school, on days that he went hunting and I went to school I used the teachers phone to call my dad "about a doctors appointment" or something like that and I would call him too see how they were doing, what they were seeing, ect. or I would just go to the "bathroom" and call from my cell :-)

I started carrying a gun to the field at 10 and in the duck blind at 11 (single shot 20 gauge that I couldn't hit anything with lol). My first duck hunt was around the age of 5, I still remember my dad killed 3 greenwingers and a widgeon with his old A-5, the gun I took my first ducks with at the age 12.

[Brittany Sorensen]

I have been hunting ever since I can remember. My dad would take me deer hunting when I was just a little tyke in those funky backpacks that carry kids. I got my hunter safety card when I was five and started hunting rabbits and squirrels just a few months later. I started waterfowl hunting when I was ten (my Dad and I both got into it at the same time). We both got hooked, and I have been a waterfowl hunting nut ever since. I got a license for big-game when I was legally old-enough and shot my first elk (a 5x5 bull) when I was 13. My Grandpa also was the one to mostly take me out target shooting, help me sight in my rifle, and show me how to re-load.

[beretta man]

I went on my first pheasant hunt when I was 6, just walking along. My dad could never leave me at home because if he did he would get about 15 phone calls asking how they are doing. Heck even through the past 4 years of high school, on days that he went hunting and I went to school I used the teachers phone to call my dad "about a doctors appointment" or something like that and I would call him too see how they were doing, what they were seeing, ect. or I would just go to the "bathroom" and call from my cell :-)

I started carrying a gun to the field at 10 and in the duck blind at 11 (single shot 20 gauge that I couldn't hit anything with lol). My first duck hunt was around the age of 5, I still remember my dad killed 3 greenwingers and a widgeon with his old A-5, the gun I took my first ducks with at the age 12.

You stated it well. Just about the same way for me too.

[BoonMan]

It was my father, I was four years old on a cold November deer hunt. We were hunting farmland. When a doe walked out of some bush and then ran across in front of my father and I. He said wait and the buck will be coming out next, sure enough the buck trotted out of the same big bush. Came across in front of us just like the doe, but he spotted us and put things in high gear my Dad flattened him out with once shot through the boiler room (he uses that term when he makes a good shot). The deer folded up and cartwheeled through the snow making it very hard to keep track of him. Finally he laid there not moving in a pile of snow. That was my frist day of hunting from there it was deer,moose, antelope,geese,ducks,grouse and pheasant. I no longer hunt big game and only hunt upland and waterfowl, I enjoy having my dogs with me they complete a day in the field, without a dog the field is lonely.

[Rick Frisch]

Hunting for me started with my dad and pheasants. We did some duck hunting, but that was just to kill time until pheasant season opened up at 9 am.

I still remember the days when you shot a Canada goose it was something to talk about. My how times have changed.

Thanks,

[Richard Shamla]

I still remember begging my dad to go hunting on opener when he went with his friends. Then I would wait for him to return so I could see the ducks they had got. I can honestly say some of the hunts I've been on with my dad are the best memories of us spending time together. I laugh because when I started hunting he pushed me around and did all the work. Know the table have turned and I push him around in the boat and do the work. Since I started hunting my dad and I have hunted together on every opener. It's tradition I would to pass on to my kids some day.

[CGGooseSlayer]

I started duck hunting with my dad when i was about 8 years old, but started shooting a gun at nine here in Illinois.

[Kevin Carter]

My dad introduced me to the sport. When I was 6, he took me for the first time and we hunted in some flooded timber in the White River Refuge in southeast arkansas. It was 17 degrees outside and we had to break a sheet of ice that was about two inches thick. The first flight of the morning came fluttering in the hole about 6:45 and I picked a greenhead out with my youth model 20ga. and pulled the trigger, bringing him to a splash right in front of the boat. I've been hooked ever since and haven't missed an opening day in the past 13 years.

This is me and my dad with my first greenhead
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7285/img08304fo.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Josh Carda]

Deffinatly my dad but then it was his dad that introduced him and so on. As for hunting i started when i was 4 going turkey hunting with my dad then i started going to opening weekend of pheasant every year up until now which i still go and can actually shoot a gun. Goose hunting my granpa probably did because my dad like it but that first time i went i was deffintley hooked even tho we didnt kill a thing.
:cool:

[Jeremy Kriese]

I first started going hunting with my uncle and dad when i was about 5. I can still remember my first duck hunt sitting out in the marsh freezing. It must have frozen into my blood cause i have been addicted ever since.

[Barry Schindle]

Think I was done for the day I was born, my mother went into labor so my father dropped her off at the hospital and the nurse told him it would be a few hours before anything happened.....so what did he do??? He headed out and went duck hunting for a couple hours and shot a couple Bluebills and made it back in time to the hospital...lucky for him. I spent every weekend growing up from the age of 3 in the blind, shot my first duck with a 20ga when I was 7 on the water, first one in the air when I was 8 and my first goose when I was 10 I think......I am grateful for the USFWS when they dropped the duck limit/season to 3/30 in the mid 80's and my father said the heck with ducks and bought a field goose spread.....everyone was amazed when you came home with your limit of geese, it was a whooping 1 birds a day back then....how times have changed.

[Wingman]

I have my Father to thank for this passion. I feel very lucky because he stopped hunting for 18 years but started again in 1978 which worked out well form me especially since my older sisters could have cared less if they went hunting with dad or not. He spent the better part of his youth hunting waterfowl, upland birds, and deer all over Eastern Washington. But as he put it “life happened” and he felt the obligation to devote his time and effort into providing for his family.

Now I’m a father too and I feel the weight of the huge shoes I have to fill. I had a great roll model who spent more “quality” time with me than any boy/young man could have every wished for. I can only hope that I will be able to do half as good of a job with my own children.

Cheers!

[HeatherReddemann]

My father. He would bring me out and let me sit in the blind with him when I was a young girl. I thought it was pretty neat. Been hooked every since.

[brhudson]

My dad and grandfather. My dad pretty much only hunted deer, and he was not a "fanatical" hunter. He did take me at a young age a few times, 5-6 yr old. Unfortunately, the regular firearms season in upstate NY was pretty cold, so I wasn't out long.

My grandfather on most everything else - small game, pheasants, etc. He was not waterfowling by the time I was old enough, though.

Waterfowling and turkey I did on my own, and I got advice with both of them. Growing up, there were not many turkeys until I started college. It took me 4 years to figure it out and connect on one, and then I went from there! The waterfowling was more of an off-hand opportunity when a co-worker asked me to shoot some geese off his pond.

I introduced my oldest son Brett to huntng with a short turkey hunt in spring of '05 (he was not yet 5) and on an early Indiana duck hunt last fall. He loves it, and I recommend these game over deer for a child any day. It is warmer during those seasons.

[Aaron Hitchins]

I was immersed by Dad, and now the tables are turning as the former Deer and occasional Waterfowl hunter, actually asked me to teach him to call today!!! We work off of each other now as I try and interest him in the calling sports... Ducks, Geese and Turkeys, and he hunts for flavour, Deer, Moose, Grouse and Turkeys. Both of us love it all, and its just great to have such a strong partnership with somebody

Aaron

[Eric Strand]

My dad and one of my best friends from middle school introduced me to hunting when I was 15. My first hunting experience was chasing roosters in millet and corn fields. Turkey hunting in the spring caught my attention but it was waterfowling that really got the blood pumping. I look back on the early days and thank god I was introduced to the world of bird hunting.

[chad belding]

My father intorduced me to big game hunting when I was around 7 years old and my passion grew from there. I was taken on my first waterfowl hunt by mu Uncle and Dad in 1992 and then I really got after in starting in 1998. I love the times when I get to look over and see the smile on my father's face after a group of mallards just did it right.

Good Hunting!

Chad Belding
Avery Outdoors

[Scott Turpen]

It's cool to see so many were introduced by there fathers. I can't think of a better way. WE need to remember those who don't have that oppurtunity and offer a chance to them.

Mt Dad took me on squirrel hunts and I went on my first duck hunt when I was 8 although I didn't shoot I was hooked. I killed my first duck when I was 10 and my first goose when I was 16. Man I really appreciatte what he did for me although he said he didn't think I'd take it as far as I have.:o

[Thráinn E. Skúlason]

My dad 35 years ago.

[Mark Brendemuehl]

My father hunted and fished for everything EXCEPT ducks. It was my Great uncle that got me out duck hunting with his sons when I was a little kid. I just thought it was neat to hang around with the older guys, and at the time he had a pair of labs that were unbelievable to watch. I was hooked.
Mark

[goosesmacker]

My grandfathers, my father and my brother. Started 39 years ago.

When I first saw the title to this thread. I was thinking for a moment- “Who introduce me to Avery” That would be Cupka.

[johnksully]

My dad introduced me to hunting when I was about 8. I went duck hunting when I was 14 with some friends and I cannot get enough of it.

[Andrew O'Neill]

My Dad introduced me to hunting before I could walk, and I started shooting at age 12.

[David Ortley]

If not for an old master caller named Tom O'toole taking my dad and I out to Swan Lake in Southern Minnesota in the early 70's I never would have gotten bit. I took many years off as I got settled after college and grad school and then introduced my own sons to the outdoors and the great sport of waterfowl hunting. My youngest was born on opening day and delivered by a doctor that we had to detour from the blind to the hospital.

I have now had the pleasure of hosting my dad, buying his shells, taking him in my boat, and getting him on more birds than he has seen in a lifetime.Watching him and my sons is as good as it gets!!

[Katies Dad]

My grandfather,He was a guide on Reelfoot for several years. If you have the book "The Golden age of waterfowling " his picture is in it. To this day when I hunt Reelfoot it is like going home!

[Daryl Neal]

I remember tagging along with my grandfather on some quail hunts when I was around 7 years old...I can still see the dogs working. After he passed away my hunting time was very limited, due to the fact that no one else hunted in my family. When I got older I went on a dove hunt with a good friend and that got me interested in hunting once again.

[Travis Mueller]

I can remember sitting atop my father's shoulders as he walked out to a blind on the mississippi. Smart no, but there was no other way I was getting to that blind, and man I wanted to go!!!

[Michael Weiss]

The ducks and the geese, it was a trap, complements of mother nature! I love her for it 'till this day!!

Also, I was born on a full moon, in November, during a snow storm from the north....coincidence.....I think not! So that's my excuse....

[Derek Rambo]

My dad and uncle. Deer & dove hunting in Texas...pheasant & quail in Iowa. I think I started going at 7-8 yrs old. Started waterfowl hunting on my own around 92'. Seriously by 94'!!
Travis....could you imagine sitting on his shoulders now? He would be yelling...."What!" Ha Ha What a trip that was!

[walleye killer]

Dad introduced me to everything.... hunting, fishing, trapping. I remember checking traps with him when I was like 2:) I agree with Aaron though, It is fun teaching them things. we both started turkey hunting 2 years ago so I am a lot better caller than he is:D

[Craig Boyd]

My dad started taking me dove hunting when I was about 6. Then we started to get into deer hunting and I was introduced to duck hunting around that time. I was in love from then on! :)

[Kyle Boyd]

My Dad introduced me when i was 3!

[roe doe]

same my dad started taking me when i was a kid

[John Traiforos]

My father. He was much more of an Upland game bird hunter. I remember walking windrows, etc with him as a kid chasing partridge, grouse, and pheasants but staring high above up in the sky as migrating waterfowl were flying south all day long day after day after day. Magical...

[Quickshot]

started taking me duck hunting in 1947, when I was five. We stayed in an old log cabin on the family farm on the the banks of the Platte river in Nebraska. The log cabin is still there and today, my brother and I own the river ground, but Dad is doing his duck hunting elsewhere. I sure do miss those days. Now my grandson hunts with me.
Frank