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Thread: Newcomers Versus Rite of Passagers

  1. #61
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    Nov 2010
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    It's all i've ever known. My dad took me anywhere and everywhere to chase critters and fish for as far back as I can remember. My first memories duck hunting was napping in a coleman sleeping bag in the bottom of a 15' aluminum war eagle, cold as hell. At that point my arms were to small to shoulder a gun. Couldn't have been more than 4-5. I distinctly remember at that age watching big groups of widgeon decoying and remembering just how cool of a sight it was. The hook was set. I graduated from that to busting my eye open with a single shot, hammer cocked 20 gauge trying to water swat a summer duck in the decoys. Somehow I kept wanting to go back. Now at 32 I am more ate up with it now than ever. It's the end of march and I'm constantly thinking about ducks and trying to get plans together for the fall. Not sure my pops was ever as mad at them as I am but he definitely led me down the path.

    My little boy just turned 2. I believe the best is yet to come.

  2. #62
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    Dec 2004
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    Dad was a fanatical bass fisherman. Our “vacations” were going to tournaments staying in fish camps all over the SE. He would bird hunt, but that’s about it. I saltwater fished my my uncles and cousins, cause the old man didn’t want his boat or nice tackle in that shit. We moved to FL when I was in middle school and lived right on the St Johns River. I was fishing in bass tournaments way before I could drive. Fished as an observer with a lot of the old pros. Made spending money in high school catching and selling wild shiners to local guides. Went in the Army straight out of HS and never fished another tournament. I like all types of fishing except offshore. I could not give less of a shit about anything.
    My paternal grandfather was the hunter. He grew up chasing hounds all over the mountains of east TN and western NC. Build and ran a couple of hunting preserves, Tellico Junction and Clarkrange. Spent summers rambling all over those mountains with him. He lit the hunting fire in me. Small game and birds to start. Killed my first deer while visiting family up here in SC. Killed my first turkey in TN mountains with my uncle. Killed my first deer with a bow in FL when I was in 9th grade. Nothing has ever shook my up as bad before or since. I was completely self taught and could not believe it had actually happened. My two boys grew up hunting and fishing. They didn’t really have a choice. My oldest loves to fish and my youngest loves to hunt. Works well. Get to spend time with each doing what they love. I’m not sure you can cultivate it, you either love it or you don’t.
    Last edited by FLS; 03-28-2023 at 07:11 AM.

  3. #63
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    Feb 2018
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    Border of both Carolinas
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    Dad taught us how to hunt and fish in WV. A friend I made on the SCDNR forum in 2009 taught me to hunt the coastal plain of SC. I'm not a great hunter but everything I've killed is a trophy to me. The older I get, the less I hunt and fish. I'm retiring in June and planning to reverse that awful trend.

  4. #64
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    Oct 2012
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    Moncks Corner
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zephyr View Post
    There were three of us—my two little brothers and me, the only girl. Daddy had rabbit dogs and took us hunting from the time we were big enough to walk. I’ve been toted through many a briar patch. Daddy started our first hunts as shooters with squirrels. In spite of my gender, I’m the only one of us three that took to hunting, and I am still the only one who does.

    Daddy had no idea how to hunt deer as there weren’t any here in the piedmont when he grew up. So I taught myself about deer hunting by reading hunting magazines. There was a spark there—I started reading hunting magazines in the barber shop when Daddy and the boys would get their hair cut and I never stopped reading them. I learned a lot but I like to say that if you spend enough time in the woods, the deer will teach you how to hunt them, and they did.

    Turkeys aren’t so accommodating. An ex- and an old man from Edgefield schooled me on turkeys. I guess you could say I really took to turkey hunting because I finished up with two grand slams, two royal slams and one world slam. After that I retired from turkey hunting. Nowadays I exclusively deer hunt and I pursue it with great passion. My regret is that my daddy didn’t live long enough for me to teach him deer hunting. I have made sure my son knows how as well.
    Why did you retire from turkey hunting? Were those accomplishments bucket list items?

  5. #65
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    Sep 2007
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    Boone, NC
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    My dad took me deer hunting when I was younger, with a few quail hunts mixed in with his friend's dogs. We hunted a decent amount, all of it was within South Carolina. Around 2000 my dad was invited to hunt in Arkansas with some family friends on public land. Around 2001ish I was invited and that was my first duck hunting experience at the age of 13 or 14. We both got into duck hunting around that time. I always liked deer hunting, but got bored easy sitting in a stand (still do), duck hunting was my thing from around that time on. I chased ducks in the upstate until I went to college in the PeeDee, I hunted around the coast and Santee some with the annual trip to Arkansas around Christmas break. I graduated college, got a real job, hated it, got laid off, and had an opportunity to live in Argentina a little while working at dove and duck lodges. After 5 or 6 months in Argentina, I came home and began to sell hunts and other trips after that, and it kind of took off from there. I ended up buying my first place in Arkansas in 2014 that burned down in 2019, bought a golf course with Marsh Chicken and turned it into a duck hunting property and flipped it, and now I'm in hopefully my final cabin that borders a refuge (own it with a couple guys on here). Around 2015 I was looking at a moose hunt in NF and thought maybe one day I'll go on a hunt like that ... after a few minutes I asked myself why don't I just do it now? I booked that trip and that was a down hill slide into trying to personally hunt internationally at least once every year or two. I usually hunt around 100 days a year between the US and international trips. My son is 10 now, he goes but I wouldn't say he's been bitten by the bug yet. He's showed flashes of it, killed his first big game animal in 2022, but not full blown into it. I don't push him to hunt, but he tends to like going. My younger daughters are still an unknown. The middle child isn't a big fan of loud noises so guns aren't a big draw for her, but likes fishing and going on the boat, the youngest is still too young to really go anywhere besides the boat. I'm taking everyone but the youngest to Africa this summer, hopefully that gets my son's blood pumping a little bit and potentially gets my daughter interested. Regardless of whether my kids ever get really into hunting, they'll always have an open invite to go with me.

  6. #66
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    Feb 2003
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    united states of america
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    Quote Originally Posted by bbhntr48 View Post
    Why did you retire from turkey hunting? Were those accomplishments bucket list items?
    Probably got sick of being around other turkey hunters in their matching camo and palpable arrogance.

  7. #67
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    Mar 2005
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    Johnston
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    I was blessed with a wonderful Dad. Hunting was never his thing, he fished a little bit, but my earliest memories of him were that he was either working or spending time with us. He took us fishing, camping, and carted us around to countless baseball practices and games.

    My maternal Granddad was the outdoorsman in our family and from the time I could walk I followed him around like a puppy dog. His main things were quail and rabbit hunting. He had the beagles and his best friend Mr. Paul had the pointers. I idolized them both and when I got old enough they let me tag along sometimes. When I was 10 he gave me his old single shot .410 and I commenced to terrorizing the squirrel population behind his house and in the oak grove behind the neighbors barn. I did chores for him and Grandma to earn shells and I overheard him tell my Grandma one time that “That youngin is gonna extinct the damn squirrel population around here if he keeps on”. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as proud of myself as I was that day.

    I killed my first duck, a drake wood duck, when I was 12. I was with my uncle on one of his “walkabouts”, where anything and everything was fair game and we jump shot a pond in a cow pasture behind his house. (I know for a fact it wasn’t his and I’m fairly certain we didn’t have permission to be there either, but we never got caught so it all worked out) I’d been on dozens of these adventures with him and had never considered we might be trespassing, but this was the first time we’d killed a duck. When we got to the dirtroad we walked down to get back to his house, he made me hide the duck in the fencerow and told me “We’ll have to come back for him, I ain’t got no duck stamps”. It was then that a lightbulb kinda went off in my head that told me, this dude probably doesn't even have a hunting license and we're most likely trespassing

    As I got into my teens, me and a buddy terrorized the local wood duck swamps and we also got into deer and turkey hunting, neither of which Granddaddy cared or knew much about, mainly because there weren’t a whole lot of either around up until that point. Most all of that I learned on my own and with friends that were also figuring it out for themselves.

    Nowadays ducks are #1, followed by turkeys and deer. I’ve taken my boys since they were old enough to go and they’re both turning into pretty accomplished outdoorsmen themselves. My favorite hunts these days are the family duck trips out of state. I’m cherishing every one of those because with them being 16 & almost 18 years old now, those trips with just the 4 of us are probably numbered.

    This is a great thread BB, typing this out brought back a lot of good memories….
    Quote Originally Posted by Mars Bluff View Post
    Only thing we need to be wearing in this country are ass whippings & condoms. That'll clear up half our issues.

  8. #68
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    Aug 2013
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    Quote Originally Posted by FEETDOWN View Post
    but we never got caught so it all worked out
    Sig Worthy
    Houndsmen are born, not made

    Quote Originally Posted by 2thDoc View Post
    I STAND WITH DUCK CUTTER!
    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post
    I knew it wasn't real because no dogbox...

  9. #69
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    Sep 2009
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    My father was and still is a heck of an outdoorsman.. basically hunted or caught everything, and I was brought along. It grew almost into a competition, kinda the way my family is.. they nor he ever lightened up. So I had a huge desire to be better at everything, shooting, reading outdoor books, fauna, game and fish..we're both kinda calmed down, have been. I don't know if it was healthy, but I really don't care.

    Grew up with this crowd as an infant, back when they killed things.


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    Last edited by Highstrung; 03-28-2023 at 03:12 PM.

  10. #70
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  11. #71
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    Sep 2009
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    Nice, it would of been cool if we both could of made it.. 150ish or so did, decent bar bill I ran through yesterday. I don't think I got out of bed that day.

  12. #72
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    Sep 2001
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    Wateree, South Carolina
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    Covid running through the crowd so let's be glad we didn't...

  13. #73
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    Sep 2009
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    I heard the same thing.

  14. #74
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    Nov 2008
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    Scumter
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    If only everyone woulda just worn their cotton pickin masks.

    Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Delta in a nutshell: Breeding grounds + small wetlands + big blocks of grass cover + predator removal + nesting structures + enough money to do the job= plenty of ducks to keep everyone smiling!

    "For those that will fight for it...FREEDOM...has a flavor the protected shall never know."
    -L/Cpl Edwin L. "Tim" Craft

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