I Grew Up Lucky

[No_Regerts]

I feel lucky to have grown up on some property in a (what used to be) rural area. Once I got a pellet gun, I would walk the property line and forested areas and would get the random rabbit or would nail a raccoon that was trying to get into the animal feed or garbage. We had a big grain bin for chicken feed and mice would get into it. Talk about a challenging target with a BB gun!

I feel bad because I've met people who missed out on that and had to play catch-up as they became adults and developed an interest in the outdoors and hunting. When I was in college, a guy that I had several classes with always wanted to hear about scouting trips, fishing trips, or hunts. I asked if he had ever gone and he hadn't. So I took him along and you could tell he was into it. He's a total city slicker type from Seattle. He had the drive, just didn't know where to start.

I feel fortunate to have the ability to explore and learn to hunt and fish through years of trial and error, all from my back door.

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[edslhead]

If it wasn't for hunting and fishing as a kid ,I don't think I would be here today

 

[CountryGent]

Ditto that. I too grew up in a very remote rural area. There were no others for miles around; just lots of forest, dunes, lakes, streams, and the ocean a few miles away. Though we were monetarily poor, we were rich in love and a steadfast spirit. We looked after one another, hunted, fished, planted, took care of the animals (e.g., chickens, goats, and at one point a horse), and worked very hard. Everyone had their duties and they did them. (How my parents raised six kids and took care of an ailing grandmother, without going completely loco is still a mystery though.)

Cheers friends.

 

[No_Regerts]

I laugh sometimes because I feel like I dump so much more money into hunting and fishing and I'm not sure I have any more fun. I'm a lot more successful fishing? But hunting wise, I feel like I did better with more basic tools.

Within 30 minutes on a bike, I could throw spinners or fish dry flies for trout (small but fiesty) in a smaller glacial river. Within 2 minutes, I could fish a small lake for panfish and bass with the same spinners and flies. I almost never used live bait. When my Dad was home, we'd fish in the sound for rockfish (all gone ) and flounder with the occasional salmon.

I had three rods. A five weight fly rod, a light action spinning rod, and a broomstick of a bottom fishing rig. I caught lots of fish. Now, I keep 10 rods in the boat with different lures so I dont ever have to re-tie. Not sure I have any more fun, just a lot more efficient and I do catch bigger fish on average.

I've got niche hunting rifles to fit every game in any particular hunting rifle. I only had one hunting rifle from the age of 18 to 24 and I think I killed more stuff with that than anything.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Same here! We had a tractor, a Jeep and trailer, chain saws, and sharp knives and were expected to use them to do our chores! Once the chores were done, it was Hunting, Fishing, Swimming, and we were not allowed in the house except to eat, sleep, or do indoor chores! We played in the dirt and grass, we got muddy, and bloody, but we were happier then any one else and we never knew any different!

 

[etrain16]

I grew up in the outdoors to some extent. Hiking and camping were common as a kid. We did some fishing, but my family weren't hunters, so I never got that experience, unfortunately. We did grow up learning to shoot BB guns and .22's, so we at least knew how to shoot and how to do it safely. My dad liked to expose us to a variety of different outdoor activities, so he taught things like riding motorcycles as well as downhill and cross-country skiing.

It's good to have those experiences, but if you didn't get them growing up, you can get them as an adult if someone is willing to teach you.

 

[Cogs]

Mule deer, dove, quail and a couple ringnecks on our 880 acre ranch East of Klamath (even had Antelope when we moved in in 1962. Always wished I could have raised my family the way I was raised... in the country.

Dad started each of us on 22's and moved up from there.

Jack rabbits, groundhogs, coyotes and feathers provided great moving targets.

Driving trucks, tractors and motorcycles at 9 yrs old.

Bass, crapie, bluegill, perch and catfish were the menu in the Lost River, about a half hour bike ride away. We brought back live ones and populated a natural spring we had on the ranch.

One brother and I skipped school one day, as we did quite often, snuck back to the house, got our shotguns and disappeared into the woods. Round about noon, we got hungry and found a porcupine up a juniper tree. Head shot brought him down. Started a camp fire, found some large flat rocks, skinned it and cooked it! No forks or plates, only our pocket knives. Crazy but I think it was pretty good!

Yeah, thanks for the memories, @No_Regerts ! Good times!

 

[Kruel J]

I remember riding my bike with my Montgomery Ward .22 slung on my back down to the True Value. I'd grab a box of ammo and a licorice stick and ride out to the fields to shoot critters or cans. Many times the local police would drive past me and just wave without even slowing down.

Those were the days.

 

[Hawaiian]

My son grew up lucky. We lived in the country in Hawaii. Did not hunt, but we fished at the beach.
We had a stream that ran through the back of our property. My son and the neighbor kids would sit in it to cool off. Catch crawdads, turtles, small fish. Play with them and then let them go to catch another day. Kids tamed a wild duck, Daisy, who would hang out with them at the stream cuz they fed her. They picked lychee, guava, bananas and other fruit on our property to eat while they played.
Had a grassy hill that I put tarps on to make a water slide that ended in a mud puddle. The kids loved it.
Would build a small camp fire in the yard for the kids at night to roast marshmallows while I told them ghost stories.
City kids don't get to play like this. That is a shame.

 

[No_Regerts]

My son grew up lucky. We lived in the country in Hawaii. Did not hunt, but we fished at the beach.
We had a stream that ran through the back of our property. My son and the neighbor kids would sit in it to cool off. Catch crawdads, turtles, small fish. Play with them and then let them go to catch another day. Kids tamed a wild duck, Daisy, who would hang out with them at the stream cuz they fed her. They picked lychee, guava, bananas and other fruit on our property to eat while they played.
Had a grassy hill that I put tarps on to make a water slide that ended in a mud puddle. The kids loved it.
City kids don't get to play like this. That is a shame.

This summer, my wife (a Portland girl) asked me where a good pool was to take our daughter swimming (we now live near where I grew up). I told her there was 50-something lakes in the county. She looked at me like I was joking.

 

[No_Regerts]

Life is actually pretty damn good. I had good parents who did a lot with what they had. I went to a school where teachers encouraged you to think for yourself. I had fun in school and was able to get out of college debt-free. I have a job I don't always love, but I feel privileged to have it and serve my community. I have a great family and live comfortably with the ability to pursue my hobbies and travel a little.

Ain't that better to think about than the news?

 

[Kruel J]

Life is actually pretty damn good. I had good parents who did a lot with what they had. I went to a school where teachers encouraged you to think for yourself. I had fun in school and was able to get out of college debt-free. I have a job I don't always love, but I feel privileged to have it and serve my community. I have a great family and live comfortably with the ability to pursue my hobbies and travel a little.

Ain't that better to think about than the news?

Yes, yes it is.

 

[slimmer13]

Until 7th grade I grew up on acreage backed up to thousands of acres of DNR land. You could safely shoot in every direction. When we moved to a 40 acre farm in alfalfa land, it was like the city to me.

Then when I got old enough to move out, I moved to the city to be in the middle of everything, go to bars etc. After a few years and a couple kids, that got old and I moved back to a rural area. Only have 10 acres but I have a 100 yd range and quad trails for the kids. Lots of moose, deer, turkeys etc.

That way of growing up is fading.

 

[No_Regerts]

Until 7th grade I grew up on acreage backed up to thousands of acres of DNR land. You could safely shoot in every direction. When we moved to a 40 acre farm in alfalfa land, it was like the city to me.

Then when I got old enough to move out, I moved to the city to be in the middle of everything, go to bars etc. After a few years and a couple kids, that got old and I moved back to a rural area. Only have 10 acres but I have a 100 yd range and quad trails for the kids. Lots of moose, deer, turkeys etc.

That way of growing up is fading.

I loved living in E. WA. I was able to hunt and fish enough to cut my meat expenditure by half, easy. Probably have more mercury in me than a 1000 thermometers.

 

[KKG]

I grew up as a GO Brat and we went to Germany when is was 10 Once a month we went to the Rod and Gun Club. After shooting a round of MoSquito Trap and winning a Turkey for the Family Dinner, my Dad told my Mom "Well, he's putting food on the table, so I guess it's time."

I had been eyeing a Winchester Model 67A Boys Rifle that was hanging on the wall of the Club House with the other Firearms For Sale. It went home with us after a box of Long Rifles had been put though it.

As they say, the rest is History.

 

[CountryGent]

Funny reelection from that era, one of the earliest "alright, let's do this, Leeroy Jenkins!" moments. One weekend so long ago, a seven year old CG and his five year old sister were acutely aware of our family's food situation and I said to my hermana "lets go catch some fish." And catch we did. Brought them back from the lake, mother was surprised, but fried them up, and tossed and egg on them for the whole family. As the family ate, my father remarked how it was good the two older boys helped, my mother corrected who caught them, concern crossed his face and he said something like "you two are not supposed to be down by the water without a big people, but good job on the fish."

In that same era, my ethnically Irish mother taught us about Leprechauns (among other myths from her family's homeland) and how they had a big pot of gold. Being little, I naturally took it literally. One time whilst walking through the forest with the mother and sister we spied a rainbow and my mother remarked that at the end of said was a diminutive creature with the aforementioned treasure. Being that my family was very poor, I tore off as fast as a toddler could. The woman and little girl yelled at me to stop. No way; my thinking? That little, sneaky MFer was going down and my family wouldn't have to worry about money any more. Alas, when I got there, no two-foot tall fellow, nor a pot of gold. My mother and sister finally caught up. Haha.

 

[BrandonOR]

Picked up my first gun last year, got my first rabbit earlier this year. 33 years old, always had an interest in shooting and hunting just never had anyone to help. So I read up and practiced shooting and did it. I put a lot miles this year scouting and got access to about 11,000 acres of land.

Really pumped to try different meats of animals and recipes. Really want a turkey but this spring it didn't happen even with access to land.

Squirrels, doves and quail are in my mind for tomorrow morning.

Wish me luck

 

[Flymph]

I spent my time in school in a big city, and my summers canoeing a lake and wondering streams catching all sorts of fish in NorthEastern Washington. Spent the weekends in the gorge and on the coast doing the same. I guess I was lucky in that I experienced both growing up.

 

[tac]

My early life was so different to ALL of yours that I might well have been born on a different planet.

Thankfully, I was gifted with a phenomenal imagination that kept me going through my childhood, adolescence, early and now late adulthood.

Come to think of it, it's still working right now.