How old were you...

10 or however old 5th graders are.

8 years old was when I first carried my own gun while hunting and got my first rabbit that same year. My first deer came when I was 14 I think. I was walking with dad through the woods since I was a toddler though.

I took a bull elk in 5th or 6th grade off a small point where I convinced my dad we needed to sit for the morning. A perfect neck shot dropped it in its tracks. I don't know if I fully understood the act of taking a life then, or if I do now or ever will. I do know that the taking of the life is not what the hunt is about for me. As for a kid, I can't say exactly when is best. I took a doe a year or two before that bull and I can still remember how proud and happy I was of that and how content I felt when my entire family sat down to a dinner of fresh venison from me. I also remember my only whitetail buck which was a year before the bull and the pure ecstasy I felt when I caught a glimpse of those antlers. At that point I had no idea what antlers were supposed to look like and visualized all bucks pretty much the same in my head. To me that tiny little eight point might as well have been the Milo Hanson buck and that's how it should be. Don't pressure your kid to pass a deer up, just make sure he takes a good shot and has a fun hunt. To me as a kid antlers were antlers and I didn't know there was such thing as passing up a deer. I was completely asleep sitting against an oak at the top of a Kentucky hollow just 15 seconds before I shot that buck. Hearing my dad whisper "Tanner, buck, buck. There's a buck" gave me an insane adrenaline rush that I don't know if I'll ever top. After the shot I tackled my dad to the ground and gave him the biggest bear hug I could muster and started dancing and rolling all over the ground.
Basically, just make it fun and realize it means just as much to the kid as it does to you and he or she doesn't know or care about Boone and Crockett

I was about 7-8 back in the 1950's and my dad took me along rabbit and pheasant hunting. I shot all the setting ones with a Win 1890 pump 22LR. 22's were cheaper to shoot than 12 ga. Damn those were the days.
I was 24 when I took my 1st deer in CO at 425 yds. measured with a 243 Win in 1968.
Took my 1st Ohio deer in 1972 and they put it in the newspaper as there was only like 5900 deer taken that year in Ohio. Then the harvest numbers just started to sky rocket to present day numbers.

I guess "real kill" excludes bb guns? So my first kill was done with a 20g single shot I got for my 9th birthday. It was a grey squirrel. I remember the exact spot. Theres a housing development there now. My dad was as proud as I was. I can still remember the smell of that paper shot gun shell.

I was 8 with my old browning micromitus 3 for my first deer. I was so nervous even after waiting a couple minutes from the time my dad and I heard the deer crash that as I was climbing down I missed the 3rd to last step on the latter stand and tumbled down the rest of the way haha, I was 6 for my first squirrel with my dad.

13-14 rabbit hunting with a gun instead of a fiberglass stick bow and cedar shaft field tips lol....

No bird was safe in my hood with my red rider BB gun.

cotty16 said:

No bird was safe in my hood with my red rider BB gun.

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Ha! Same here. My mothers bird feeders had BB holes all through them.

I was 37 and most of you shared my first kill, a big fat archery doe. That was in 2010. Since then, the flood gates have opened.

I was 5 or so when dad started me out on squirrels. I then moved on to rabbit and pheasant. I was 10 when I shot my first deer, a fork horn with a Winchester 20ga at 10yds. The rest is history.

Birds with the BB gun out of the equation. . . .I was 18 or 19. Self taught squirrel hunter. Not good. It flopped around and I shot it again with the 12g. No meat left to eat. After that fall I hung it up for a good long while.

Kids? Depends on the kid and their maturity level. Just my 2 cents and I learned it reading TOO.

I don't even know. I have hunted all my life and don't remember "the first proper kill". I was a young kid.

Pretty cool reading everyone's experiences. Me and Ron both pretty much cut our teeth on barn sparrows hunting around our barn yard and red winged blackbirds around our pond with our very first Daisy BB gun our parents bought us around 12-13 I reckon. I'll never forget my first grey squirrel a few years later in the hollow behind our house with dad's Stevens 22/410 over under. Awesome memories!!!!

giles said:

I agree it's been some good reading! I also was one of those guys with the BB gun shooting any bird that dared to come through the yard. I was also highly encouraged to take out any color phase ditch tigers. Those took at least 20 pumps to do any damage, lol.

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I didn't think of the BB gun experiences. Barn birds and my younger brother's lower leg as he would never stay home. He passed away 5 years ago and oh how I would like to tell him I'm sorry.

I was deadly with the BB gun. My dad raised rabbits and onetime I shot his prized breeding buck right between the eyes and the damn thing dropped over dead and never moved. That was the only lie I've ever told and just to save a ass beating. LOL

6, it was raining and bout 9am... I was watching cartoons and spotted a robin in my yard. No robins/sparrows were allowed in my yard.


First LEGAL hunting kill was 12. I shot a gray squirrel with a 20ga single shot barrel. I walked up to it and it was still kicking, I ran back to my dad and said it was still kicking and he looked around and gave me a large stick. I didn't know what he wanted me to do... I just stared at him and he said you gotta finish him off, one hard whack behind the ears.