what the first time or best memory you have of when you first started out as a kid??

[ruby jet 184]

i was sitting telling my boys about the old (days) and my first memorys of when it was all a case of just pulling my frog wellies on and jumping in the car with my dad and grandad to go out with the dogs for a walk as thay used to call it walking around fields at silly o clock in the morning or at night legs like jelly but the excitement took over all that as soon as my dad let out a hiss and the dogs were away doing there job weather it was rabbit fox or hare thay were hanging on every word i was saying i told them that its was never xbox when i was a kid it was all about the dogs and working them oh and the famous get in there boy your the smallest bugger them stingers used to hurt and the bramble scratches when u got in the bath on a sunday night felt like u had nearly cut your leg off some of the best days and night a boy could ever have seen some things that most of the kids nowdays will only ever see or read about in books like the grace of a lurcher in full flight after a hare like thay were stuck togeather with elastic band or the fox hounds in full cry (my dad used to ride with quarn hunt) but my best memory was the day that my dad told me this is your dog son train him feed him and when the times wright we will slip him his was a whippet 9 wks old and full of him self well the day he turned 11 months old after all the time and tears training him that a 12 year old boy has it was time to get him going he ran well but never did pick his first bunny up till he was about 12 1/2 months old and after that day we never looked back and the seed was set as ive never been with out a lurcher ever scince so i was just wondering how it all started with you all???

[KittleRox 2,147]

My dad showed me how to catch birds using the old basket and peg on a string method when I was about 5 years old,I started reading books on trapping,Johny Wisemans SAS handbook of survival etc,Then when I was about 14 me and my cousin got a doberman pup each and when they got older we used to course the hares with them local,we never managed to catch any ,thats when I decided to get a lurcher and have had them ever since.

Still cannae catch anything though

 

atb

[kevin from bristol 95]

days out hedging and then fishing with all my family then sitting down next to a fire and cooking up pheasents ,rabbits fish etc.. and having my olders telling us storys from old ,i do the same with mine now but not often enough they were great times when we new all the good areas were ever we were stopping at the time ,also when i first started hunting with a catty hard work when your that young but the best feeling in the world when you get something to cook up like becoming a little man haha

[Hollie 21]

My dad had one of those little seats that attached to the cross bar on his bike, i used to go out with him at dawn, i don't vividly remember any of the courses but the memory of being with my dad, in the fresh air, beautiful sky, lurcher trotting beside us will never leave me, nor will the excitement of seeing a good hare dog in full flight behind a hare, i do remember riding home along a track, hare swinging from each handlebar, dad hiding them in the hedge to collect later, my mum has a photo of me, i was about 2, squatting beside my dad with just my wellies, knickers and a vest on while he was gutting a hare in the garden, even now the smell of rabbits being gutted whisks me straight back to my childhood

 

 

[DogMagic 461]

I remember as a kid my first ever trip ferreting. I was with my dad and a mate of his, jimmy. We found a bury and jimmy netted it up then said to me "go and have a look about boy, see if theres any more holes anywhere. We dont want to miss any". So off i wandered and found a hole under a tree about 100 yards away so i calls him over saying "theres a hole here jim". Il never forget his words: "they wont tunnel that far ya dinlow, what do you think they are? JCBs?"! Lol!

[terrierjohn 49]

i remember my first ever ferret ..i borrowed it from my uncles mate and that day it bolted one and dragged one out then went back down never to be seen again

i waited for about 4 hours on it and being young didnt want to go back and say i lost your ferret

but when i did he laughed and said "f**k it .. i was going to tell you to keep it" that pissed me off even more lol

 

i had my oldest boy out one day when he was 5 and he set a double pegged net over a hole and sat beside it watching its every movement then when a rabbit hit that net he dived right on it

he also had this wee fat stick he had carried with him all day and he said to me can i kill it dad so i said yes

didnt realise he meant with the stick though lol and he thumped it on the head a couple of times before i saw him and took it off him

the rabbit was dead but i then told him thats not the way to kill a rabbit and showed him on the next one

but thinking back on it the stick thing was quite funny

[scothunter 12,609]

slipped my old mans greyhounds on a deer when i was a kid,got a belt around the lug for it lol.then there was a guy stayed over the road from me.always in combat gear and skulking away at all hours of the morning with a lurcher.got talking to him and he showed me his collection of stuffed animals.started taking me with him,showed me snaring setting gins (yea yea i know its been illegal since the 50s).bought a lurcher and used to go out mooching with him.then as i got a bit older he took me foe pheasants and roe aswell the occasional salmon trip.that was me hooked basically.always had ferts since as far as i can remember.that poacher is now a keeper on the isle of harris.funny how things turn out.he was the biggest poacher i have ever met.when he keepered down dunfries way used to get invited down for a few days ferreting.he also made a fortune out of fox pelts.mind you by the time he was finished there was hardly a fox around for miles.lol

Edited February 10, 2011 by scothunter

[artic 595]

I remember sitting on the step that leads into our kitchen. There, a man in his donkey jacket, boots, dustbin liners and knife to hand. Yes my father, just returned from a nights outing. "Dad what's in the bags?" I ask, still rubbing my eyes and yawning. My dad turns around suddenly! "Oh just a little shopping for you all, go back to bed it's too early for you to be up" "Ok dad", and in doing so I slowly pushed the door to its lock, but not all the way. I wanted to see what was in those bags!

 

I felt the cold when I got up, but that seemed to of disappeared in the excitment. My dad rolls a cigarette, reaches for his zippo lighter, and flicks it on his leg making it come alive and lights his roll up. Mmm, the smell was gorgeous, I'm not too sure what he was smoking, but to this day it reminds me of the sweet smell of cherrys. My dad whistles "PIP PIP!" and in come our two dogs. They were filthy and wet! One was really hairy and tall, and the other was real smooth with bat like ears, much shorter and looked very boney. My dad has the towels to hand and starts to rub down both dogs. My father always spoke to them in a gentle tone, and always praised them no matter how naughty they were. He placed his roll up on his tobacco tin after taking the end off in the ashtray. Both dogs are now all dry and happy tails swaying to and fro. Off they went to their kennels. My father never had his dogs inside, I think it was more to do with my mother being too house proud!

 

What's in those bags? Now's my chance to have a look, NOOOOO, he's coming back. Quickly I make 2 large jumps and hide behind the same door. My father comes in and looks towards me. Has he seen me, no I don't think he has. My father looks into the biggest of the bags, slowly puts his hand in, then stops! He takes his hand back out and reaches for his roll up. Again he lights it. Its that quiet I can hear the tobacco crackling away as he takes a long drag. My dad leans back on the Aga and exhales the smoke towards the ceiling. I can hear our cockerel waking and the hens talking away ready to begin their daily routine of laying. I use to love collecting eggs for dad, and picking the hens up and stroking them. I wouldn't go near Houdini, not after he spured me a goodun to my thigh. Infact it was my father later on in the years that got me hooked on poultry!

 

My dad goes to the fridge and takes out some boiled egg. He begins to crumble it down with a teaspoon. He then walks over to some small cages and begins to spoon a little of this egg in each plastic feeder to these small wonderful birds that could sing all day and where very loud. I can remember on some days with no wind, I could be out in the fields playing and could hear my dads birds in full throat as clear as can be. Back he comes into the kitchen, and puts the rest of the egg back into the fridge.

 

My father looks into the bags, I can hear him muttering, "Not bad, hmm, you were a bugger" Both hands are now deep into this bag, I can't wait to see what it is. I can see the excitement in my fathers face too. Slowly he bends his knees and gently starts to take out what was in this bag. "GET BACK TO BED!" shouts my mother from behind me. In the shock of it, I slammed the kitchen door shut! I bolted passed my mother, twisting and turning and missing her outstretched hand as it came towards my bottom! Up the stairs and dived into my bed with the covers thrown right over me!

 

Dammit, what was in those bags!

 

 

[Catcher 1 639]

Watching my dad trying to brake a gooses neck in the kitchen for the Xmas dinner.Think the goose beat him.

[terrierjohn 49]

artic did he ever tell you what it was?

[scalesntails 118]

artic did he ever tell you what it was?

 

 

TELL US!!!!!

[Paid 935]

Getting my first ferret, and taking it out on waste lands around south london, we could spend all day out and not catch, our best days were always when we caught one :-)

The most we ever caught, was 2 lol. What a day that was, 1 each lol

Lost that ferret in that big storm in the 80s, when a tree took out his hutch.

Edited February 10, 2011 by Paid

[Rake aboot 4,935]

My auld man wasn`t into fieldsports or owt, but when I was about 11 or so he got a Mk1 BSA Meteor,(still got it under me bed)

Used to take me down the Heugh to shoot at cans! Hooked, , got my own rifle at 14 and have never stopped,

Never really had anyone older to show me how,, kinda had to find it out for mesell!. Had the ferrets for 23 years now and can`t see me without them,

Started my lads out young, The auldest is Cody on here, a lurcher maniac that one, the youngest has not taken to it as much,, likes to hear about it all but doesn`t get out.

[HAMMERDAN 25]

Some great reads lads,

[Guest traceyg]

bugger what a good idea for a competition would have been a good one . if i get time i will do a post later