...and how and what made them buck the curve and decide to become hunters.

I was born and raised in the big city, and it's a bit fascinating to me to learn of those like me ever took to hunting. I don't know about numbers, but I'd guess that better than 90% of hunters were introduced to hunting and the outdoors by family. Makes sense. But I want to know about those that *didn't* have such fortune.

For me, it was simply a matter of an itch I always wanted to scratch; I just liked the ideas and experiences associated with hunting. It also seemed to me to be a natural progression, if you will, as I have always been a fisherman.

I suspect this might be a slow topic, as we big city boys who made it a mission to become hunters, defied the odds and actually succeeded and are now simply nuts on hunting I would think are few are far between. But maybe I'm not as unique as I suspect in that respect.

Anyway, any thoughts and/or experiences appreciated. Surprise me!

Wow!!!! A kindrid spirit!!!!

Born in Orange County California....I had two parents that thought the outdoors meant the patio in our back yard. When I was 30 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer...took care of that, and decided that I was finally going to learn how to hunt and make sure that my daughters had the opportunity to grow up with the sport.

This is one tough sport to learn when your older...not so much in the sense of getting good at it...its just a lifestyle that presupposes familiarity of its practicioners. Fortunately I was able to beg our local sporting goods store for some degree of direction, and was pointed towards guided pig hunting at Tejon Ranch (a local game ranch here in southern California.)

Where do you hunt Gari?

Born in DC and raised in the MD suburbs. Had a park with a creek behind the house. Read Feild and Stream and had my first "backyard safari" at about eight with a green bough, some twine and homemade arrows.

My dad is as city as they come but when my next youngest brother or I expressed an intrest in fishing or surfing...finaly hunting he would find a way to introduce us to the sport. He provided the first fishing rod, surfboard,shotgun after that we were on our own.

My next youngest brother and I introduced our other, six years younger brother to the same sports. I gave him his first shotgun, rifle...He just returned the .243 I gave him about 15 years ago so that I can give it to my son.

It wasn't til college that I really did any great amount of hunting. We duck hunted mostly since deer season coincided - still does- with football season. After college I began to hunt deer a whole lot more.

My kids won't have to wait so long or go it alone either.

JPK

i think it is bread into us. my ancestors did it for hundreds of years so it is the call of the wild for me. there is no rational explanation except for when you talk to a fellow hunter.

Born in Dublin, raised in the suburbs.

My dad's family were very poor (rural Ireland in the 40's) and hunted and fished for dinner most days. After that he was never into hunting at all.
Myself, I was vegetarian for 10 years but very gradually got into guns (after I shop lifted a 1986 Guns and Ammo annual).

In Ireland, access to guns was so limited that I ended up hunting just so I could by a .22 lr and a 12 gauge. Once I came to the States and got Permanent Residency, I was amazed at how many guns were available. Became very good friends with a gun store owner, who brought me duck hunting, and the hook was set. Now, about 75% of my friends I know just thru hunting with them!

To this day, my family cannot understand why I love to hunt so much. They ask me "How can you shoot a pig?". I tell them that if I had a full auto, I would have qualms in gunning down an entire herd!!

P.

I grew up in the country so I can't comment directly, but what an interesting topic, and a very important one to the future of hunting.

Think about how the fraction of our population that lives in cities is increasing, along with immigrants from places that don't allow hunting. My son grew up in the suburbs and he's grown now. He likes to hunt occasionally, but it's a "take it or leave it" thing with him, not a real passion. While our right to bear arms may be protected by the second ammendment, our privelige to hunt depends on public opinion - scary?

My Dad grew up on Long Island, and was a sailor at the Coast Guard Academy, so we always had sailboats. Try as I might, I never got to do any real fishing. We lived in Rhode Island and along the Cheasapeake for many years.

I talk about fishing at this point because there were NO guns or anything of the sort. (Long Island Liberal)

I had the urge, but not the guidance or opportunity. I was not even allowed to shoot a BB gun.

I went sneaking around to ride a motorcycles, shoot friend's BB guns and the like. Dad's idea of fishing was to plunk a rod over the side wherever he decided there wasn't enough wind and he wanted to take a nap.

About 10 years ago I had just gotten divoced and had too much money left over and too much time on my hands and I bought my first handgun. From there the floodgates opend. I got into collecting military firearms, them aquired a sporterized version of a mauser, bought some actions and so on. In talking about guns with friends I was lucky enough to have some friends with the knwledge and places to hunt - and were willing to show me the ropes.

That is what it is all about. It can be intimidating at first. Anyone can go to walmart and buy a gun, but then what do you do? I always had a fear of wasting my time. Time is precious. And a few bad experiences at first can ruin someone on the sport.

My brother is another story. He has no real intrest in hunting, but got an invite from a client that has a 25000 acre hunting preserve. Yeah, I am not making that up. It streaches from allabama into mississippi. His first time out with a borrowed gun he has never shot, dropped off at the stand in a golf cart, bags a monster 10 pointer. This is the biggest buck taken at the camp in a while. So now he really has no more intrest in hunting.

Go figure, three seasons n the woods with 8-10 trips per year, and I have bagged a few, with trophy yet. I am thrilled, and can't wait to go back out. I ust love to be in the woods.

I grew up in a non-hunting family and didn't know any hunters either. My progression started with liking to shoot, then after getting out of school and having some disposable income joining a shooting club. The club organized a trip to Gunsite for handgun training, and it was a life-changing event. Over the course of several classes and becoming an adjunct instructor there, I was naturally exposed to Jeff Cooper's stories of his African hunts, and a friend I made at Gunsite was a hunter and invited me to join him on his annual whitetail hunt. I've been hunting with him since 1995 and have been thrice to Africa since 1997. There's a certain quiet thrill about hunting that I've never experienced in other pursuits.

I'm still fairly young (25) and grew up in a city. My Dad, however, grew up on a farm and had done plenty of fishing and huning before I was even born. Afterwards, he was mostly a stay-at-home family man, but I opened up a Canadian Tire catalog once right around my 12th birthday to check out new hockey sticks and saw guns! Wow! Cool! I'd love to shoot one! Sure enough, that Christmas saw a new air rifle under the tree with my name on it. Dad was almost waiting for that day. He took me out shooting and plinking and it was a lot of fun, Dad had a lot to teach me about firearms safety and hunting and conservation. I absorbed it, it was great! We started going on fishing trips as well, and we started meeting up with his friends at gun ranges and they'd get me shooting a .22LR, then hand me a .243, then a 6.5 Swede, and then a .308 to get me usd to recoil. Dad picked up a mint new in box Model 70 for next to nothing in .30-06, and the feeling of controlling all of the power was intoxicating, the responsibility was addctive. I needed more. We hunted, we fished, we sampled al manners of wild game and listed off species we would like to hunt. I have piles of magazines and have been able to start showing him a few tricks I picked up, and I look forward to passing this knowledge on to the next generation of my family, including my children and my nephews and niece. Even bagging nothing is still worth the outdoors experience. I love it.

Thank God I fed my very-soon-to-be-wife deer, elk, and moose so far and she seems to like it, so it's wonderful having support from her as well.

Very interesting, I was born in mexico city, and my father has very little interest in hunting, he is a golfer (a good one mind you, representing mexico in several amateur world championships) so I never really got to go hunting when I was little, I got a pellet gun when I was 8 years old from one of my uncles and proceded to go "hunting" every weekend with the caretaker of our weekend house when we would go to it. I swear he used to hate me because I would wake him up at 7 am every saturday and sunday to go shoot birds.
Afterwards when I moved to San Antonio when I was 15 I pestered my dad untill he let me take shooting classess and therefore got into competitive skeet through which I met a lot of people who took me hunting a few times. After that when we moved back to mexico my father bought me and my brothers a 1/12th interest in a duck club. I finally moved back to the us for college and now hunt at least 4 days a week. My father still does not understand it. Him not hunting makes it kind of tough for me to take hunting trips, but he supports it fully and I get to take at least 1 or 2 trips a year (cannada this year) and he has already agreed to pay for a safari eather 2006 or 2007

Generous guy, your Dad! Good for you to be involved.

Steven30127, sorry about the much delayed response, and thanks for your and every other input. I'm out of Boston, and hunt MA, NH, ME and VT locally, and have traveled a bit to hunt, with much, much more to come!

I am heartened to hear that despite the odds, we overcame them and followed our desires and needs, and strive to keep on despite our slight 'handicap'.

Eric C., interesting and somewhat similar story. Being both hunters and Asian, you and I are real double oddballs, eh?

Cheers,

KG

Raised in the city I had the advantage of spending summers in the mountains.One thing I remember is that the newspaper we got had a regular column by Robert Ruark !That certainly helped. Here the average hunter is in his early 50s I guess there are too many distractions for kids like the internet and video games.

Born and raised on Long Island. No hunters in the family. Spent my youth doing lots of fishing on the sound and atlantic. had a fishing buddy take my duck hunting on great south bay and had a blast. Went to college on maryland eastern shore and it was all over after that. Read every book and magazine on hunting I could I have not looked back. Hunt as much as possible in Maryland and have ton a few trips out west and to Africa.