Started hunting in Japan tagging along with my dad chasing hogs. Moved to the US when I was 10 and got into bow hunting since my mom wouldn't let me get a gun. Got my license at 12 and bow hunted until I was 15 and my Grandfather gave me his Sears model shotgun. Before I got my driver's license my mom used to take me up and drop me off to hunt... on my own (that was really stupid now that I think about it lol). I think I really started to get into game once I got my driver's license and got to explore on my own. And now I'm passing it on to my two boys.
Question for ya
- Thread starter MamaBear
- Start date
Matagi said:
There was hog hunting in Japan? I spent the last 3 years over there and only heard about crow hunting. Mostly because its riddiculous to own guns there.
8
8SteelTown
Guest
This is my 4th year hunting. My buddy got me into it... actually bought me my first gun (Remington 870) for my wedding present. Been doing mostly dove, quail, cotton, and jack. This year was my first trip doing spring Turkey. Just recently purchased my first rifle: Ruger American in .308 w/ Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 BDC. Been researching everything So Cal has to offer: Deer, Ducks, Bear, Pig, and Havalina (<-- used to think that was a pig). Did alot of self teaching and hunting solo. Every trip is a learning experience. Love to hunt. Can't wait to be a more versed hunter.
My dad grew up fishing with his buddies, shooting rabbits and squirrels with this bb guns and .22s. He raised us up with the same love for fishing and shooting bb guns and .22s. I shot pigeons and sparrows in the back yard once in a while, and would have gone hunting, but my dad wasn't really into it. That, in spite of taking my brothers and I down to get our hunter safety training when I was 11 or 12. We all passed, but never went hunting!
Why my brother was 17 or so, he went dove hunting out in the IV with some friends. I think within a year or two I had also purchased my first shotgun (Mossberg 835 Ulti-Mag pump, $219 at Wal-Mart!), we all pitched in for one for my dad (same model- he still has it), and soon after that we went out to the IV to hunt doves and rabbits with my dad. I was 16 or 17 at that time.
When I was 18, my grandfather sent me a Bushnell scope, so of course, I needed to buy a rifle for it. I read some magazines (doing my research, you know), looked at ballistics charts in the Shooter's Bible at the library, looking for the one rifle that would do it all, from rabbits to moose. I settle on a Ruger M77 Mk II, in 30-06. I still have that rifle, and I'm still trying to get it to shoot well. So now that I had a deer rifle, I started putting in for deer tags. Guys from church told tales of filling 4 doe tags "behind Pine Valley", and I had the itch. Another teen had shot a doe as well, and I was pumped to try it.
The problem was that I was saving up the money to buy a car so that I could get my drivers license (all of ours were so junky that they wouldn't even let me take the test in them!). I didn't have anybody to take me, so the G13 tag I drew that year didn't even get used once. The following year, however, I had my drivers license, a tag, and I was ready to go. I didn't have a mentor though, and I must say, I'm not very good at the self-teaching thing. I hunted for a number of years before I shot my first deer in 2003- and that one was illegal. I had a D16 tag and a G13 tag, and shot what I thought was a doe, but turned out to be a spike. So I did what they said to do (in Hunter's Safety class), and turned myself in. I got a citation out of it, and a business card from the warden, asking me to report anybody that I observed poaching.
I kept trying, and in 2004 I started archery hunting. In 2005, after buying a new Mathews Switchback from Bruce over at the Bow N' Arrow Shop in Lakeside (the ONLY place you should go for your archery needs), I shot two legal bucks in one season.
Page 4
A couple years later, some friends got into waterfowl hunting, and I went with them a couple times. I quickly decided that if I were going to get into waterfowling, I needed a dog. I pondered the responsibilities and commitments of it for over a year, and finally put the money down on a litter in Texas. In May of 2009, I picked up my first dog of any kind at the airport, and what a journey that's been. It literally changed my life. And since I now had a bird dog, I needed to do more bird hunting, so now we hunt ducks, geese, quail, pheasants, doves...whatever.
A dog-training buddy of mine goes to Alberta to hunt waterfowl every year, and asked if I was interested in going. Of course, I was, and after a couple years, decided to make it happen. At that time, I also decided to get a new, semi-auto shotgun with a synthetic stock, because I was tired of trying to get the mud off of a wooden stock. So I walked into Fine Firearms in La Mesa, and met a guy named John, and when I told him I was going to Alberta, he got all excited, saying he had just returned. He also recommended the new hunting forum he had started, and encouraged me to log on.
And now you know.......
Theeeee rrrrrrrrrrrrrrest....of the story.
Why my brother was 17 or so, he went dove hunting out in the IV with some friends. I think within a year or two I had also purchased my first shotgun (Mossberg 835 Ulti-Mag pump, $219 at Wal-Mart!), we all pitched in for one for my dad (same model- he still has it), and soon after that we went out to the IV to hunt doves and rabbits with my dad. I was 16 or 17 at that time.
When I was 18, my grandfather sent me a Bushnell scope, so of course, I needed to buy a rifle for it. I read some magazines (doing my research, you know), looked at ballistics charts in the Shooter's Bible at the library, looking for the one rifle that would do it all, from rabbits to moose. I settle on a Ruger M77 Mk II, in 30-06. I still have that rifle, and I'm still trying to get it to shoot well. So now that I had a deer rifle, I started putting in for deer tags. Guys from church told tales of filling 4 doe tags "behind Pine Valley", and I had the itch. Another teen had shot a doe as well, and I was pumped to try it.
The problem was that I was saving up the money to buy a car so that I could get my drivers license (all of ours were so junky that they wouldn't even let me take the test in them!). I didn't have anybody to take me, so the G13 tag I drew that year didn't even get used once. The following year, however, I had my drivers license, a tag, and I was ready to go. I didn't have a mentor though, and I must say, I'm not very good at the self-teaching thing. I hunted for a number of years before I shot my first deer in 2003- and that one was illegal. I had a D16 tag and a G13 tag, and shot what I thought was a doe, but turned out to be a spike. So I did what they said to do (in Hunter's Safety class), and turned myself in. I got a citation out of it, and a business card from the warden, asking me to report anybody that I observed poaching.
I kept trying, and in 2004 I started archery hunting. In 2005, after buying a new Mathews Switchback from Bruce over at the Bow N' Arrow Shop in Lakeside (the ONLY place you should go for your archery needs), I shot two legal bucks in one season.
Page 4
A couple years later, some friends got into waterfowl hunting, and I went with them a couple times. I quickly decided that if I were going to get into waterfowling, I needed a dog. I pondered the responsibilities and commitments of it for over a year, and finally put the money down on a litter in Texas. In May of 2009, I picked up my first dog of any kind at the airport, and what a journey that's been. It literally changed my life. And since I now had a bird dog, I needed to do more bird hunting, so now we hunt ducks, geese, quail, pheasants, doves...whatever.
A dog-training buddy of mine goes to Alberta to hunt waterfowl every year, and asked if I was interested in going. Of course, I was, and after a couple years, decided to make it happen. At that time, I also decided to get a new, semi-auto shotgun with a synthetic stock, because I was tired of trying to get the mud off of a wooden stock. So I walked into Fine Firearms in La Mesa, and met a guy named John, and when I told him I was going to Alberta, he got all excited, saying he had just returned. He also recommended the new hunting forum he had started, and encouraged me to log on.
And now you know.......
Theeeee rrrrrrrrrrrrrrest....of the story.
My brother and I started shooting BB guns in our backyard w/my dad long before I can remember. My grandparents had a farm in Murrieta before it was built up, many birds lost their lives to the BB gun. We were my dads/grandpas bird dog for the dove opener many years before my bro and I took our hunter safety when we were 12&13yrs old. We got to tag along on deer hunting trips w/my dad and his buddies but never got a tag for ourselves. In Jr. High we met some friends who also were into bird hunting with their dad and when my brother or friends were old enough for a drivers license we would go dove/quail hunting by ourselves. I can remember my brother had a job as a bus boy @16yrs, we would wait till he got off work and 3-4 of us would load up in his baja bug that my grandpa gave him and go camp in the hills so we could hunt the next morning.
We used to shoot archery in the backyard when we were younger but didn't try archery hunting locally until High School but was only successful once on a doe then proceeded to get back into upland birds and waterfowl after high school. Shot my first buck with a buddy at his parents place in Idaho @19yrs old then started rifle hunting in Utah for cow elk and deer in 2000.
The last 10yrs I've bounced around from big game to upland birds and a little waterfowl. I picked up coyote hunting about 7yrs ago and seem to do that the most lately if I don't get drawn for a big game tag in Utah or LE hunt here in CA. Even started archery hunting locally again a few years ago but still have only killed does.
Hunting/fishing has always been a big part of our lives and now my boys are wanting to get into it. My bro and I and friends have learned a lot from each other over the years, still hunt with the same group from Jr high and picked up a few more over the years.
We used to shoot archery in the backyard when we were younger but didn't try archery hunting locally until High School but was only successful once on a doe then proceeded to get back into upland birds and waterfowl after high school. Shot my first buck with a buddy at his parents place in Idaho @19yrs old then started rifle hunting in Utah for cow elk and deer in 2000.
The last 10yrs I've bounced around from big game to upland birds and a little waterfowl. I picked up coyote hunting about 7yrs ago and seem to do that the most lately if I don't get drawn for a big game tag in Utah or LE hunt here in CA. Even started archery hunting locally again a few years ago but still have only killed does.
Hunting/fishing has always been a big part of our lives and now my boys are wanting to get into it. My bro and I and friends have learned a lot from each other over the years, still hunt with the same group from Jr high and picked up a few more over the years.
I started late. I was 35 when I got my hunter safety, and my first hunt was a pig hunt in Paso Robles. I've been fortunate that I've had great teachers that have taken me along and taken the time to show me what they have learned.
That was a good come back Naedean.
That was a good come back Naedean.
MH, Japan is overrun with hogs. As a matter of fact, if you can get over the ridiculous gun laws and get a hunting and gun permit you can get a big game culling permit which allows you take over 40 animals during the summer months. Right now my friends over there average 500 heads of deer and boar during the culling season. Its stupid easy to get trophy class sika deer and eurasion wild boar and because of the low hunter number (average hunter age is 65yo) you rarely run into another hunter on public hunting areas.
I wish I had gotten started when I was younger. I just got my first hunting license last year. I was able to learn on the fly and take my first pig and some dove. This year I will be trying my luck with deer and pig again. I will spend a week up in Shasta and Lassen to see if I can get lucky there and then spend the rest of the season in D16. I really dont know a damn thing about hunting just what I have read here, online, or just from what people have told me. I am trying to pick it up as quickly as I can so when my son turns 8 next year I can start taking him out. I would love nothing more than for my boy to get older and to be able to take him with me on big game hunts.