Question for hunters under 30

Tharjoe

Tharjoe

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
52   0   0
Good afternoon,
For the past few years I have been developing a museum exhibit on the history of hunting and wildlife conservation in Alberta. I have a quick question for you all:

If you are 30(-ish) or younger and did not come from a hunting family or a hunting background, how and why did you get into hunting?

I am also looking for input on where you think hunting is headed in the next few decades.

I appreciate your thoughts on this.

Cheers,
Tharjoe

PS: Yes, I am a hunter, gun collector, and competetive shooter myself. I need more than just my own input on this!
 
I am 29 and started hunting about 5 years ago now. No hunters in my family and had one friend that hunted a handful of times each year with his father. In all honesty my main reason for getting in to it was because I wondered why he never came home with anything. In my mind it would be easy to just hike until you see a legal animal.

I got my hunting license and on the opening day of my first season we each shot our first blacktail bucks. I have been absolutely addicted ever since.

As for where its headed? I wish I knew, though I am quite nervous about the current attacks by antis and the government making emotional based decisions to end certain hunts. Ban this and ban that.

Ill continue to hunt and intend on passing that passion down to my boys as they grow up.
 
While I don’t fit your age bracket anymore I did start myself in hunting as it skipped a generation in my family, my grandfather being the last hunter and he was all but out of it by the time I came of age. Ended up running with it and now find myself as an outfitter. The reason is and was simple, and has never changed, hunting allows the most direct experience of nature and a reason to be in the deepest parts of it, of any pastime I’ve found. It’s also a natural urge for our species to hunt, and well entrenched in us through our evolution as an apex predator. Done sustainably, hunting is one of the most enjoyable and natural past times in existence. It’s a real experience in an increasingly unreal world.
 
I am 31, got my Hunting licence 2 years ago first gen hunter in my family. My grandparents had a cottage growing up just north of sturgeon falls, I spend all my summers there from a baby up until I moved to BC when I was 22. My Dad, not a hunter or a firearms enthusiasts always had me out in the woods, camping, canoe trips all the father son stuff...So I was always into the outdoors. While I lived out west I hiked and hiked and hiked, In the 5 years I lived out there I saw the most wonderful and toughest terrain, and animals. When I moved back to Ontario, It was hard for me to actually appreciate what this province had to offer...that and a combination of getting tired of store bought meat lead me to go and get my hunters ed with no push from friends or family. After I completed the course I went out and bought a Bow and tried at turkey, I saw a lot of them to and from work but that spring there was no tag filled, but I felt incredibly accomplished even without a turkey, it was a weird feeling. Since That spring two years ago I've been really successful at filling tags, my proudest was my first Bear last spring, and it just keeps the addiction going...I even Hike on Sundays (no sunday gun hunts down here) to read the land and try to figure out what the animals are doing, being outside for me is the big motivator and it makes me a better person and hunter and I hope one day I get to pass that on to someone...I still have tons to learn and always open to new things, but that is in short for the most part why I hunt.

My thoughts on the future of hunting? I think its going to be tough but I feel if there continues to be a good core group of hunters in each generation that it will last...10 years ago I didnt even consider the fact that Id label myself as a hunter but when you really break things down Hunting is the major reason why there are still game animals and conservation, and i argue that fact with people all the time. My GF is actually vegan, she eats that way because of allergies and thats what worked best for her but shes level headed, rational and supports my lifestyle and the fact that I hunt to eat and its what won her over when I first met her...If only their were more of them like her :D
 
Thank you all for your answers!
I appreciate the time you've taken to respond. I will incorporate your answers into some of the text for the exhibit.
Cheers!
Tharjoe
 
Turned 30 last fall, first time I ever went out hunting I was 21(?) and went with a few buddies who grew up hunting. Now I try to go every fall that work doesn't have me out of town. Originally wanted to go out just to hang out with the boys, but now I love just being out in nature and feeling that connection. Trying to get the fiancee into it a lot more, and also start heading out with the future father in law. A lot to learn from all his experiences.
 
I'm way past your age demographic, and due to my knees and back no longer hunt big game but I still go out for grouse in the fall.
There is something about a walk in the woods with the soft rustle of leaves underfoot on a nice fall day that connects you to nature.
Not the same as the sharp bite of wind on a mountainside or the quiet of a forest after a heavy snow but it will do.
 
I am also well above the age bracket requested, but I am a "out of the blue" hunter also.
No hunters in my family back 3 generations. Fortunately, I had a family friend who invited me
to accompany him hunting. I was 11, and had always had an serious interest in firearms, so
it was not a huge leap. I have never looked back. The connection that I feel when I am afield
is something I am not willing to give up. :) :)
Only when the physical organism lets me down, not before. Dave.
 
Well past your age demographic but am a self taught hunter. Always had the interest as a kid. Bought all the magazines and read books on hunting constantly as a boy. Starting hunting in earnest when I moved to BC at age 24. Never looked back. My kids all fish and enjoy the outdoors. My son has a passing interest in hunting but would rather fish. I guess my main point is even though not exposed to it as a kid the desire was always there. The anti factor was not in play in the 70's, some people hunted some did not was the general sentiment. Times have changed.
 
27 here, started hunting 3 years ago. Do not come from a hunting family but a heavy fishing family (the old adage that all hunters are fisherman but not all fisherman are hunters) we were the latter.

My dads buddies had gone to a hunt camp 2 years prior and asked him to come, so he went, said it was a blast so i got my license and i went with them the next year. immediately hooked on hunting although i didn't see a deer the whole week. I quickly found out that i don't like the hunt camp / deer drive / shooting running deer stuff and like to do things myself. I now mostly participate in archery season before the gun season as it is much quieter in the woods and killed my first archery deer this year. i also small game hunt solo.

Not that i've tried real hard but don't know anyone around my age that is into hunting as much as i am. most people i know are more about the camp / social aspect of the hunt who do 2 hour sits in the am / pm.

Very scared for the future of hunting considering all the changes i've read about in the past 30 years... General game animal declines (Moose, grouse, woodcock, caribou, turkey are doing well though). general hatred towards firearms, and hunting as a whole. Governments and business increasingly giving into public pressure based on emotion and not science. The re-occurring trend is not confidence inspiring.
 
Buddy in university brought me out for small game and I was hooked. More small game that you could count, a few deer, black bears and a grizzly under my belt now. Hoping to get after Caribou shortly. I also really enjoy cooking with wild game, farm raised I can't be bothered to do anything interesting, with wild game I actually put time in to try new recipes and see how creative I can get.

I hunt because it takes me to places I would never otherwise step foot in, to make good meals and to experience things that others won't.
 
lologd said:
Started hunting last year at 27. Was surprised by the amount of people in my entourage who hunted and I didn't know about it.
Click to expand...

This is the “new” reality of hunting and shooting. Especially the 30-50 types like me are often pretty low key about our hobbies because of the completely divorced from reality attitudes that are promulgated as doctrinal truth by the media and there mislead followers.
 
Im a bit different. Hunting as been in my family. My grandfather ran a hunting lodge and my great grandfather was a market hunter. His territory was that which is mostly B zone in rondeau today. My father hunted ducks and rabbits and i grew up doing that. My neighbor had beagles for chasing bunnies so i got one. I had a lab for ducks as well growing up. We had guns in our house but they were for hunting. Rarely sid we ever shoot for the fun of it. I became more active at the local gun club and met an amazing man that got me into shooting skeet. He handed me a holland and holland royal and taught me the game. From there i spread into all types of shooting not just using my guns to hunt. Now i hunt everything ontario has to offer except moose and elk. I expanded into other forms of hunting on my own
 
Well, I'm 46, but I'll tell you my experience in ON anyway. My grandpa used to hunt but it was back in my country.
I tried to get into hunting about 4 years ago.
A bunch of hunters at work and club insisted that I should get my hunting license.

Well, guess what, those a-holes were just interested in getting license numbers higher or whatever.
When I got my license they all had the same answer when I tried to join them: ..."Sorry, but we already have too many people in our group"....

I got an invite for partridge or some other bird in a farm where you pay to enter, but I am only interested in deer or moose or anything you can hunt with a rifle. I even said I'm not interested in the meat in the beginning, just wanted to learn, but didn't make a difference, so I gave up. My license expires in December and I probably won't renew.
 
Seeing how pathetic and reliant the average city man is, opened my eyes it might not last for ever. Better to have the skills and not nees them.
 
I'm 33 now, but I started hunting solo about 6 years ago. I got my PAL 8 years ago, did it by myself, as I couldn't get anybody to commit to doing the course with me. I grew up on a farm, so my dad had a .22, but we were never allowed to shoot it (an old Winchester Cooey 600 that's now in my safe). My dad had apparently hunted duck a few times in his early 20s, but never since I was alive. I guess it was a combination of things that got me into hunting, the free range meat is a bonus, but I think the real treat is getting out and "becoming one with nature". Sounds kind of hippy-ish, but I can't think of a better way to say it. When I talk to non hunters, and tell them that I got skunked last weekend, they respond with something like "that sucks", or "what a waste of time", I just smile and think to myself "I lived last weekend, while you were lying on the couch".
 
Starting out on your own is difficult but not impossible. That's basically what I did. The absolute first thing to learn is that big game hunting is 90% location. People are loathe to give up that little detail; because that knowledge and access is hard earned, finite and perishable. That's the second thing to learn. There's more, but without #1 the rest doesn't matter much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom