Hunting traditions broken?

[Gdbyrd]

I was reading another thread in the rifle forum and someone was talking about how his Grandfather had hunted, but didn't take his dad hunting..so the chains were broken and he was left in the dark on the sport, only to find it by himself again as an adult.

How often does this happen? My wifes father had the exact same thing. His dad was an avid hunter in MI. They own 10+ acres out in the middle of nowhere that he regularly harvests game on. But for some reason he never got his son involved in it. As such his sons and daughters do not hunt. Hell, my wife when I met her thought guns were the DEVIL!

I don't understand the situations behind it. As a kid, some of my most fond family memories come from a hunting blind or a camp. To me it's a really sad situation.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

It happens a lot and not just with hunting. However with hunting, you have to understand that back in grand-dad's day, hunting was more of a necessity for more people than it is today. I'm nearly 50 and my dad grew up in the country and being pulled from school to pick cotton. He hunted as a child but that all came to an end when the family moved to the city, as so many did with the Depression and then WWII and post WWII period of prosperity.

Nowadays, fewer people own rural property (at least by % of the overall population that has grown significantly). Hunting for most isn't a matter of stepping out the door and walking out to the north 40 or south 400. For many city folks, if they do have a place to hunt, there is considerable investment in time, distance, and expense.

Then there is the aspect that not all kids want to go hunting. Maybe your FIL showed no interest in it and so wasn't taken along.

It isn't really a big mystery. Not all fathers who liked to tinker with cars in the garage or under a shade tree passed on their mechanical skills to their sons for various reasons either.

 

[Pacsd]

My Pa never hunted a day in his life fo some unknown reason. However, my uncle (his brother) and his sons did. They are the ones that got me started at a young age. All I did was ask Pa if he thought the uncle would take me. The rest is history. Sadly some of the generations do not get introduced and maybe part of that is due to the electronic age we are in with texting, video games, orgainized youth activities, etc and the dwiling of rural type folks.

 

[juk]

My dad and his dad hunted just about anything with wings. I didn't grow up hunting. I was introduced to it through my friends. My dad was never in a position to teach me. We didn't have the land, connections, or equipment. I got my first chance to go with a buddy when I was 18. I borrowed a Rem 700 in 30-06, some camo coveralls, and some boots. Shot my first deer and have been hooked ever since. A few months later, I picked up a Ruger M77 in 308 for deer hunting. About 4 years ago, another buddy introduced me to duck hunting. Last year I was on the lake or in the swamp every day I could be there. I am hooked on waterfowl.

I do find it interesting how things come around full circle. I was left out of the loop as a child, but ended up being a hunter anyway. It's almost like it is just part of our nature...something we are driven to do.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I don't understand the situations behind it. As a kid, some of my most fond family memories come from a hunting blind or a camp. To me it's a really sad situation.

Well some personalities just don't get into the chase. Some folks don't know how to pass on the "good times" so hunting is seen by the youngster as a chore.

Me, I like the woods, period. summertime, huntin' time, wintertime. I feel safer with trees around me than buildings and people (in large numbers). My dad couldn't be there all the time due to work, so he arranged for me to do Scouting, and other stuff, so I got mentored, and perhaps that's the key.

LD

 

[DAP90]

My father, grandfathers, all my uncles and my in-laws all grew up hunting. I did not.

They all grew up on farms. I did not.

 

[Rembrandt]

......How often does this happen?......I don't understand the situations behind it......To me it's a really sad situation.

Attended my 40th high school reunion last year, as most do we start talking about our kids and grand kids. What shocked me was how many of my classmates have no contact with their kids and families, or have had for years. We live in a society where dysfunctional families out number normal families who do things together. Add to that the urbanization where food comes with a bar code attached....it's easy to understand why those traditions don't make it to the next generation.

 

[ralphie98]

It was almost lost with me... I just wasn't interested when I was younger. Dad tried a few times but I just wasn't into the idea of deer hunting (the only hunting he does). I got involved with some friends doing some varmint and goose hunting and that flipped the switch for me. Luckily there was an opening in deer camp for me and I've been hooked since.

I'm going to try to get my daughter into it when she's older and any other children that come after but if she doesn't get into it then there isn't much you can do about that. As far as I know, only one niece of mine is into hunting. My one nephew likes to go to hang out with his dad but we don't think he'll ever actually hunt himself (he is 16). After the older generation stops hunting or dies off its gonna be awful lonely at deer camp.

 

[Gdbyrd]

I can understand the change in times, as well as economical strain(where I hunt it's expensive as I have to lease land, it's 2-3 hrs away, with a lot of rules...).

But hell, as a kid I saw it as a chore sometimes. And I'm sure back then I thought ***, why should I have to drive 3 hours each way, only to be out in the middle of nowhere away form my playstation, girlfriend, no electricity, no shower, etc.

Sometimes kids do not know what's best for them. When my dad made me "help" him with fixing broken plumbing, or repair an old truck or whatever..I'm sure I was in the way more than anything. But now I find myself doing those same repairs here around the house and if it wasn't for him making me do all those things I'd be up sh-t creek without a paddle, or calling someone else in to fix it and getting charged an arm and a leg.

I guess I should be more thankful my parents made me do things and got me involved in everything they were doing.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Remember that what some consider to be "traditions," others consider to be chores, inconveniences, and often something they don't want to repeat.

As I mentioned, my father grew up with being pulled out of school to help pick cotton. His family had been share croppers for at least a couple of generations prior to his family. I am certainly glad I am not part of that "tradition."

When looking back, sometimes things look much more romantic than maybe they truly were back in the day. I never learned to wring a chicken's neck, help birth a calf or foal, shoe mules, raise and slop pigs, bathe in the family metal wash tub on Saturday night (before going into town to a picture show), hitch up a wagon, or do homework by candle light on a slate board. I know absolutely nothing about turning out pigs to the bottoms and whistling or calling them up in the evening time. I never learned how to hop on a moving freight train to catch a ride into town. Another traditional greatfully broken is that I never had to go cut a switch from a "willer" so that my father could beat me with it for some sort of infraction, but all of these things were part of my father's life when he was growing up.

 

[35 Whelen]

Funny how things happen that way. I'm a semi-professional musician, yet no one, anywhere in my family, had any musical influence on me. Likewise, none of my four kids have shown any serious interest in music even though I've taught them as much as they wanted to learn. I've taken all the kids hunting and every one of them have killed deer. But at this point none of them, as adults, seem interested in pursuing a lifetime of hunting.

My father, who has always been an avid hunter and a gun nut, had ZERO hunters in his family other than a grandfather who would occassionally shoot something for the pot. But my father had a massive influence on me and I've taken hunting and firearms to a level far above what he ever did. You just never know.....

35W

 

[okiewita40]

My grandfather taught me everything I know about hunting, fishing and trapping. My dad was a electrical lineman and always told me. I have to work outside so I am not going to spend my free time outside. So if it had not been for my grandfather I would be strictly a city guy.

My grandfather never hunted deer. He would hunt small game and birds though. It has only been since 2009 that I took an interest in deer hunting. So here I am at 44 learning to deer hunt. My daughter is 22 and just now taking an interest in learning to shoot and hunt. My son who is 19 shows no interest in hunting but does like to shoot. Sometimes it just skips a generation if people do not want or show an interest in it. I will be teaching my grand-daughter as soon as she gets old enough to start following me through the woods.

 

[VT Deer Hunter]

No one on my dads side of the family hunted, except my grandpa did turkey shoots. And my moms side is all outdoorsmen and women. My aunt and uncle hunt so did my great grandfather on my moms side.

 

[788Ham]

I've followed my Pop through the woods hunting since I was about 7, then hunted with him after I was old enough. Pop's father had hunted all his life, so it was just a natural thing for him, from the time he could follow also, Grandpa even let him carry an old 25-20 when he was 8 years old. As a family, my 2 other brothers and I, hunted every season we could, even had a few years we all got an antelope and a deer, now thats putting some meat away! Trying to put all of meat in one freezer, like putting 10 lbs. in a 2 lb. sack. My brothers don't hunt anymore, and after Pop passed on almost 5 years ago, I haven't had much gumption to go much anymore either. Its sad really, we had some of the best times a Pop and his kids could ever have.

 

[*NOVA*]

Mending the Broken Chain

Small world - don't mean to sound self-centered but I think the OP is talking about me.

Yeah, times have changed, but we have something our grandparents did not have - its this big GLOBAL information network where you can search for just about anything and get the answers you are looking for.

This internet also leads to networking - I've already met a few folks in person because of gun forums - we did a shoot and greet at a local range just recently.

I've got a squirrel gun can shoot 1" groups at 25 yards. My son went with me to the range and thank God he's as good a shot as I am so we had that Savage Model 64 zeroed in no problem with a Nikon Prostaff Rimfire 4x scope.

We have a darn good reason to learn to hunt - survival skills. Today we have grocery stores, but my wife and son understand quite clearly that all of that could be gone tomorrow. Heck, we could be driving through the country and get stranded in the middle of nowhere and be in the same situation, it dont take no Apocalypse to see that hunting is not only fun, but necessary to learn.

Sooner or later Goober and I will be in the woods- some place legal to shoot with the proper license. We might be green, but we aint dumb, we will figure it out. But if there's ANY one reading this thread looking forward to tree rat season in Virginia, please PM me if we may join you - I don't care how far I have to drive.

 

[Kernel]

I’ve known a number of older gentlemen, they’d all be in their 70’s and 80’s today, that never past hunting on to their kids, even though they hunted everything that walked or flew nearly everyday while younger. Bad memories from the Depression. It was a time when people didn’t have the luxury of “hobbies”. Hunting was something they did, and they were freed of the “drudgery” when times got better.

 

[nmlongbow]

My grandfather on my moms side hunted and fished a lot but I never met him as he died just before I was born. My dad and his dad never hunted but despite that I've always had an interest in hunting and shooting.

My dad took me dove hunting a few times on day hunts and it was fun but I always wanted to go for big game with a rifle. He had zero expereince hunting big game so he never wanted to try it but finally decided to take me out after I pestered him enough.
He didn't like the idea of shooting a deer with a rifle and having to camp in the cold so he talked me into bowhunting near the house.

We managed to get a couple of bows at the local shop, bought licenses and went for it.
I was about 13 then and remember that time as one of the most exciting in my life.
We did a lot of walking around and saw a few deer but never got a shot.
We went out again the following year with no success but still had fun.

I think the main reason he wanted to bowhunt was because he didn't think we would get anything and didn't know what to do with the deer if we did get one. He was really doing it for me and probably didn't have much fun.

I got into sports in HS the next few years and didn't think about hunting too much but still played around with the bow occasionally.

Soon after HS my friends and I started hunting together and spent a lot of years together bowhunting deer, elk and turkey plus birds with a shotgun.
I'm 45 now and most of my friends don't hunt anymore but I'm obsessed with bowhunting more than ever. Most years I hunt solo with a backpack for as long as posssible. The ground feels a little harder than it used to but I still prefer it to a cabin or fancy RV.

My son is 6 and daughter is 9 and both show some interest in shooting and hunting but neither is ready to carry a weapon or go with me on an extended trip. I hope they like it as much as I do but I'm not going to push them.

 

[Twmaster]

When I was a kid we would gather at my Paternal Grandparents house for Thanksgiving.

That night the men would round up their gear and head off to Pennsylvania to go deer hunting. This was the routine year after year. My father, grandfather and uncles would all be in on it. Although I later find out my dad really did not like hunting. He would leave his Savage 99 unloaded and just go to be with the clan.

As I grew older I was never asked if I wanted to go hunting. Not once.

Now here as I am close to 50 years old I want to hunt. I'd have loved to hunt with the menfolk.

I feel as though I've missed out on opportunities for life lessons and further bonding with my family. I terribly miss my grandfather and a couple of my uncles.

Hopefully some of the friends I am making here in OK will allow me to accompany them on a hunt someday.