What did you first hunt?

English sparrows, and mice with a BB gun. My first game bird was stalked and shot with that same weak & worn out BB gun when I was nine - a Wilson's snipe, headshot at three yards. Cooked him up right after. Next game birds were ducks, poached with a .22 a couple years later and before I knew better. First big game was a whitetail at 15 yrs of age.
 
I never thought of pest control [gophers, crows, magpies, starlings, etc] as "hunting", but I was shooting
those vermin 7 or 8 years before I went hunting deer. :)
 
Grouse/hare, caribou, moose…. Successfully! I went after bisons a few times but never connected!
 
Jack rabbits with a 22 lr...Cooey model 60 with a Weaver 2x.
No internet then folks, spent more than a few afternoons trailing them in the snowy prairie. Grew up on the South boundary of CFB Suffield...pretty sparse there.
Good memories though.
 
First game I hunted were ducks and rabbits. My dad purchased me a Stevens 44-40 single shot, whereas I shot 410 shotgun shells out of it. A kid became a fairly good marksman with a single shot, when you were told to use the shots sparingly because of the cost. I was 8 years old when I started hunting with a firearm. Rabbits were a hoot, we had beagles and hounds and many times we returned home with at least 50 rabbits..............good old days!
https://imgur.com/a/IC0H1wt
 
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My first hunt was grouse, and it was a spectacular failure!

I went to go out with my brother, an experienced hunter. He took me to an area of crownland known for grouse. We both had remington 870s, but his was 20g, mine was 12.

We hunted those woods all day long! 8 hours, walked over 14km, and only had a few missed shots to show for it.

We were trudging back to the truck, he was about 15' ahead of me, when we saw this big dumb grouse just standing there in the middle of the trail about 30' ahead.

My brother, on lead, quickly aimed and fired.

Now, maybe if i'd trusted his years of military training a bit more, i never would have thought that he missed.

And maybe if i'd had more hunting experience, i would have known that the grouse could keep flying for a bit even after being hit.

But i had neither of those, so when that grouse took off in a burst of wings, i thought it was yet another one getting away!

It flew right at my brother and he had to duck to miss getting it in the face!

Now it was coming straight at me, and i thought "i'm not letting this bird get away!!"

He got within a few feet of me and then turned to go towards the woods.

Reports from observers say i didn't even raise my shot gun, but shot from the hip "say hello to my little friend" style.

That bird was about 6' in front of me when i released the 12g!

I could vaguely hear the anguished cry of my brother, one of those slow motion "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" s, but it was too late and my eye's widened as that bird literally exploded right in front of me, a plume of feathers shooting straight up like the mushroom cloud of an atom bomb.

As i stood there in disbelief, my brother came over, fished through the bushes, and gingerly with two fingers picked up the remains - one claw, a long strangley spinal cord, and about half a beak.
Solemnly he said "we shall never speak of this again"

We've been telling the story ever since.
 
Canadian geese were my first no decoys an old burlap sack and a fresh cut corn field first shot killed 2 that was it I was addicted
 
I first hunted gophers with snare wire , waiting by the hole till they pop up , you learn patience there, then sparrows and gophers with pellet gun, then 22, then rabbits , then beavers, skunks, , then trapping beavers and muskrats, mink, then deer, coyotes, moose bear, elk ,
 
Grouse. A great start for young and new hunters.

I started turkey hunting for the first time after I had already been hunting for a couple decades. We didn't have wild turkeys up north. Took me a few seasons to get it all figured out, but now I fill my 2 tags each year. Many mistakes were made and a lot was learned on the journey.
 
First hunt that required a license? Whitetail deer, 4x4 buck, 12 yrs old, 270 winchester. 75ish yards, standing offhand. Shot it in the guts, had to track it for 2 miles. I was loving life! Dad and Grandpa, not so much....

First animal taken? Would have been about 5-6 yrs old, wintertime. Sparrow with my new xmas present bb gun... Took a lot of shots before I finally connected, but boy was I ever proud! Life was never the same for the birds and gophers around the grandparents farm after that. Then I discovered that magical sound of glass breaking, and relieved a bunch of old vehicles on the farm of their windows... lost the bb gun (and some hide) for a year over that episode. Lesson learned, lol
 
Hunting gophers (Richardson Ground Squirrels ) with the venerable single shot 22 with open sights. Kept a sample of all the ammo I tried in old pop bottles i found. Funny thing now is I could buy ammo at the local coop as a 13 yr old kid back then. Had a blast. Now its a job hence my signature
 
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