What did you first hunt?
- Thread starter Edgar Shiggins
- Start date
blasted_saber
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- A blue part of Ontario
Ruffed grouse.
If you go to a place theyre unpressured, they are undoubtedly the easiest thing to hunt. A long stick could get the job done. If you live in southern ON, they are pressured. Get north of North Bay and its a wildly different story.
If you go to a place theyre unpressured, they are undoubtedly the easiest thing to hunt. A long stick could get the job done. If you live in southern ON, they are pressured. Get north of North Bay and its a wildly different story.
My dad grew up in the dirty 30's and taught me that method as a kid, using bailing twine. Approach the hole from downwind, put the noose just down the hole a little bit and watch for the head. Swing the gopher overhead and smash it into the ground, then cut off the tail for a 5 cent bounty.
Whitetails when I was about 12 or so. I had always wanted to try hunting but dad had gotten out of it years back when he was a young guy. We got involved with a few of his co-workers and started hunting with loaned gear and getting "gifts" of meat from other hunts. Sausage and jerky, so good! Been hunting on and off ever since, mostly deer and bears. Tasty creatures! With a few moose and elk in there as well.
First "official" hunt was for rabbits, using my dad's Ithaca 37 12-gauge, which still lives in my gunsafe today, 50+ years later.
But, before that, there were House Sparrows and Starlings, taken with BB guns, pellet guns, slingshots...
And even before that, there were flies, spiders, and even dangerous game...wasps and bumblebees...taken with one of those old lever action toy guns that shot a cork attached to a string. The cork itself was useless, but by cutting it and the string off, then jamming the muzzle into damp dirt and getting a nice plug stuck into the end, we produced excellent tight killing patterns all the way out to 3 or even 4 feet!
But, before that, there were House Sparrows and Starlings, taken with BB guns, pellet guns, slingshots...
And even before that, there were flies, spiders, and even dangerous game...wasps and bumblebees...taken with one of those old lever action toy guns that shot a cork attached to a string. The cork itself was useless, but by cutting it and the string off, then jamming the muzzle into damp dirt and getting a nice plug stuck into the end, we produced excellent tight killing patterns all the way out to 3 or even 4 feet!
Well, my first kill was a pigeon with a 22LR and which my mother prepared for me and which I ate for dinner ....
And my second kill was a hedgehog and which I thought was a rat in the dusk. I felt really really bad about that one for a very very long time (I don't think I was 10 years old).
But I learned my lesson ... and to absolutely positively identify my target before pulling the trigger.
The easiest to hunt in Canada? Go grouse hunting .... have a walk in the woods ... a great way to get started with hunting and to enjoy the nature out there.
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Mule deer at 5 with my Dad on horseback in the coast mtns BC . RJ
Rabbits were the beast of choice when I was 14 and hunting with my best bud on his parents' farm. I fondly remember those hunts. We still frequently keep in touch but he hasn't hunted since. I try to entice him to come out with me again for all sorts of small and big game, now on my farm but life seems to get in his the way. That said at our age the opportunities are quickly disappearing and he really should tell life to get of the way.
Got my first pellet gun, Slavia 618, when I was 9 years old. Started shooting sparrows in the back yard, then gophers, partridge and bush rabbits. Then a year later got my first .22 Cooey Model 39, then a 12 gauge, then a centerfire and the rest is history.
