What Age You Started Hunting?

[greatwhitehunter 47]

i was 10, i had my baikal .410 underlever for christmas and i went out with it straight away and i shot my first rabbit on the lamp an hour or so later, as soon as i grabbed the bunny i new i was hooked, that second has formed an obsession!

[Dean o Riordan 0]

i was 18 when i got my frist gun it,s a12g under and over baikal then i got a 22rim rifle anschutz 3 year ago.. now iam geting a 17 hmr cz i shoot my first magpiy two days later with my first gun and was hooked.

[Guest reload]

Not a clue, started when i was a nipper taken to hunt meets, fishing, shooting, lamping and occasionally ferreting with my old man and his mates. Had sporting dog in the family for generations, actually the whole family are still dog mad.

[Bosun11 537]

My dad brought home a Grew when I was about 5-6 and she went everywhere with me, summers where always good, off to the caravan, with open land an bunnies everywhere.

Every Sunday my dad would take me to work with him, he worked on Sefton Meadows land fill site (tip!) and drove the 'Compactor' and other heavy plant. Now, going with him was good, coz sitting in that cab, pushing tons of rubbish over.....great fun!

 

But what I loved more than anything were the 'Ratters'. Blokes would come from all over the country to rat the place, cars and vans tipping out huge amounts of terriers and lurchers of all shapes and sizes, I was facinated, so, didn't take long for me to ask the old man would he let me follow them and watch......He knew some of the different blokes who had ratted there for years so, he asked and no problem.

Hooked........wasn't long before the Grew was coming with me on Sundays an boy was she good on rats.....was well proud, "don't tell your mother or never again", I was told by my dad!

 

Now Sefton tip runs right along side the hallowed turf of Altcar Estate and some of the ratting boys would take some of them large lurchers an disappear for a bit? Got asked if I wanted to follow one day and that was the first time my Grew ran a hare.......never forget her coming back, eyes bulging like they where going to pop, sides heaving and staggering, thought she was gonna keel over......was told to get her fitter......I did but it took months till she nailed one. Ended up a good dog on 'em over one field, two fields worth of a course an that was it, back to ratting!!

I lived for Sundays!!

 

Would anyone on here have ever ratted Sefton Tip in the 70's?

 

Cheers

[gaz 284]

I dunno what age as i was born and raised in a small country village where 95% of the men were miners and at least halve of these men had whippets,lurcher, ferrets and terriers,also most of them liked their fishing too,i think being stuck down a hole in the ground made them appreciate the countryside and gave them a love of being out in the open spaces and fresh air,so i was always surrounded by hunting folk with dogs and ferrets ect including my uncles and grandfather.I can tell you there was some characters about in they days,some of the stories i used to sit and listen to would have made a cracking book although like today some were hard to believe i suppose i had my first ferret when i was about five or six,then i remember a j/r terrier type folowing shortly afterwords which was a wee fecker,i think its motto in life was eat it !! fight it !! and shag it !! but the rest they say is history

[jonesy 111]

Just left school and i went out with two mates with air rifle and lamp and i thought it was shite,but luckily i gave it another go with a different mate and his two lurchers after that it was ferreting lamping and just mooching about we never really got much but it was brilliant,later on in life i discovered what terriers were meant to do and never looked back.

[highlander 0]

I started fishing when I was 6 and joined a youth club fishing team we fished every second weekend all year, mostly rainbow and brown trout fishing but we had the odd sea fishing trip.

 

I also joined a sea fishing club when I was about 10 then I used to fish the shore and boat compititions.

 

There was a few of us used to go camping during the school holidays to get away for all the drugs and fighting, we lived off the land and out the sea/river/loch or whatever was close enough to poach a few of the lads had lurchers/ferrets/air rifles/nets. The only thing we bought was drink.

 

All these things kind of came together and I managed to get my own ferrets and I could always borrow a dog to go off poaching but now Im on the other side of the fence so a few changes since those days miss the thrill of the challange.

 

Regards highlander.

Edited September 10, 2007 by highlander

[Aled 510]

Dad had been taught to fish by his Father, and he introduced me to fishing at 6years old. I caught a suicidal rainbow trout of 13ozs just before my 8th birthday i was hooked. Around the same time we had a black lab, Dad and I used to go rough shooting Dad loved the walk but was not a great lover of shooting. Shooting came with an air rifle in my teens, Mum was really not happy and stopped me having a 410, however as soon as i was old enough i got myself a shotgun cert and cheap baikal. Fishing, especially for sea trout is my first love, but i do love rough shooting, and air rifle hunting. I'm on my last few games of rugby (only 12 to play for the 2nd xv this year ) then i'll hang up my gumshield and start spending winter Saturdays out with the gun and dog. Have been ferreting, and followed beagles and footpacks. My son is 1 years old tomorrow and i'm looking forward to giving him an opportunity to take part in fieldsports (if he wishes!).

Tight Lines All.

Aled

[J Darcy 5,871]

I started fly fishing when i was 8 and it took me until i was 10 to catch my first trout!! a tiny wild brownie, fin perfect, on a cinnamon and gold..... saw my first fox being worked with the terriers when i was a young un, about 8 or 9 i guess, maybe younger, i remember my father handling it and how calm this vixen was in his hands. He then let it go, running across a snow covered wood. A most amazing sight. Had shit lurchers for years, but that didnt stop me.....coem to think of it.....i still have shit lurchers...lol...

[shaun v 3]

i started with my brothers ferreting as soon as i could walk, because my mother made them take me which ended up with me been bashed up by them for walking to slow . i then got my first fishing rod for xmas which was a woolworths special first fish that i caught on maggot was a perch,

then i started with bird nesting which at the time was still legal i think . then moved onto snaring bunnys around 10 yrs old just going around the industrial estates where i live, also at the same time i was exercising whippets for a guy and ran them on sunday mornings.

then went to secondary school and pubity then found what the birds and bees are :kiss: .

around 13yrs found myself serving time at her majesty's pleasure .

then got back into the dogs around 18yrs to keep myself out of bother and never looked back , went from using snacks to collie x's and now onto the saluki x's

[ferret15 0]

I'm one of the lucky few born on a farm i have been ratting since i could walk the dogs would take themselves to the barn i would follow i learned to herd cattle at the age of five and my collie went every where with me i didn't drink pasteurized milk until i was at school. ferreting has always been there we ate rabbit ever Sunday with the occasional brace of pheasant for a change. started following the local hunt on horse back at 7 on my welsh cob x Arab still have my first hunting jacket somewhere shooting followed at about 11 along with driving the tractors and my uncles hilux (only in reverse first as he said as a female it was important i could reverse lol) something i thank him for as i can reverse better than a lot of the men i know. he also taught me about the woodland (hes a tree surgeon) how to ride a motorbikes i got my first lurcher at 12 a was the runt of the litter and so given to me was never going to be the best dog in the world but we had so much fun in the fields and surrounding woodland !!

 

i owe a lot to my mum and my uncle and granddad for the sacrifices they made for me as a child the only way i can repay them is to pass on what they taught me to my son.

[Aled 510]

Thats a great story, i love seeing kids catching fish, especially their first.

There's a stretch of water on my home river which is free for local kids and pensioners. This stretch is prime sea trout and salmon water. Some of the kids have landed some huge fish there, causing a lot of jealousy amongst local anglers ( ) something i find very amusing. Good on em kids i say!

Tight Lines

Aled

[Guest SJM]

I was about 4 years old, I basically ran wild as a kid, I would stay out all day playing on the fields next to the farm or hiding in the barns rather than have to go indoors, if I got hungry I would eat anything that looked edible, berries off the bushes, even grass, leaves etc :sick: The long hours unsupervised and alone led to me inventing things to do and the favorite one became stalking my mums chickens then chasing and killing them From there I progressed on to trying to capture and kill wild animals by any means possible, but it wasnt until I was about 10 or 11 that I got really proficient at it as we moved to an area that was teeming with rabbits and I was able to get the dog out every night after school and really go to town on them My parents always disapproved of what I did, so it was done secretively and alone, none of my school mates or friends shared my passion for hunting, perhaps thats why I have always enjoyed poaching, in fact revelled in it, as hunting has always been a clandestine sort of hobby that I have got a kick out of knowing Im not really supposed to be doing it

[Guest Frank]

I was about 4 years old, I basically ran wild as a kid, I would stay out all day playing on the fields next to the farm or hiding in the barns rather than have to go indoors, if I got hungry I would eat anything that looked edible, berries off the bushes, even grass, leaves etc :sick: The long hours unsupervised and alone led to me inventing things to do and the favorite one became stalking my mums chickens then chasing and killing them From there I progressed on to trying to capture and kill wild animals by any means possible, but it wasnt until I was about 10 or 11 that I got really proficient at it as we moved to an area that was teeming with rabbits and I was able to get the dog out every night after school and really go to town on them My parents always disapproved of what I did, so it was done secretively and alone, none of my school mates or friends shared my passion for hunting, perhaps thats why I have always enjoyed poaching, in fact revelled in it, as hunting has always been a clandestine sort of hobby that I have got a kick out of knowing Im not really supposed to be doing it

 

, Have you ever read this book below SJM?

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/03491017...838#reader-link

 

It sounds a bit like your self.

Good fecking read by the way.

 

Frank.

[Guest SJM]

no I havent read it but I read the reviews on that link and it sounds like my cup of tea I notice the main character is called Frank