doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Demographics-where you grew up, when, etc.

I'm right at home among the older timers here, but glad to see a youngster like Storms on the board. Born 1952 in Waconia, MN. to a family with hunting history. Lived there through high school, and home my whole life has been within 100 miles.

Maternal grandfather was a waterfowler, paternal grandfather a prairie grouse hunter before the pheasants arrived. My pump gun carrying dad and uncles pooled their funds to lease some pheasant hunting land in the Soil Bank days, but the Soil Bank and most of the birds were gone by the time I was big enough to really participate. Most vivid memories are riding with a lovable but untrained setter in the back of a station wagon, tagging along with a BB gun, and lunch break cold-cut sandwiches laden with butter that melted in a wash down of thermos-hot coffee.

After marriage in 1975 I came back to the pheasants, bought a field-bred springer (registered name Gunflint Charlie) in 1983 and my first double gun (20 ga. Citori Sporter) the same year. Started hunting ruffed grouse soon after, and for the past 25 years have been chasing birds over a pair of spaniels just about every weekend from late Sept. through Dec. Those hot blooded dogs get my blood up too!

We bought several acres in the southern Black Hills 10 years ago that will be retirement home in a few more years. Spring Merriam's are in my future!

Fun to read everyone's story!

Jay

Guess I fit right in with the old timers as well, being born in 1947 in Auburn, NY. It was a small town of about 25K people and you could be in the country to hunt very quickly.

Father was primarily a duck, goose and pheasant hunter and sometimes deer. My father could only afford a Model 12 Winchester (his only shotgun) while my uncle with whom he hunted had several auto Brownings which he always anally kept polished. I remember one day out hunting when my father discarded a little bit of the coffee from his cup and it hit the buttstock of my uncle's Browning by mistake. It got within fractions of a fistfight between the two of them.

I always loved guns, both owning and shooting them, but while I liked hunting, the early morning hours, the rain, and the snow more often resulted in either my not getting out of bed at 5 AM or if I did, and saw the cold rain, turning right back around and going back to bed.

As a result of not getting a lot of shotgun experience in, and since my father didn't do any clays, I never became a good wingshot, although I do well with rifle and handgun, both shooting them and hunting with them.

I am now trying to learn to shoot some clays now at 61 from my youngest brother (46), who is the avid sportsman my father was. I'm just an old dog trying to learn some final new tricks.

Lucky to be born (1943) and raised on a big farm in Eastern England, so got lots of driven pheasant and partridge shooting in my teens and early twenties. Just like the "Shooting Party" without the twits.
Immigrated to Canada in 1978, worked as an agronomist, switched to Food Safety Auditing and consulting, and now run my own business, Ceres Quality Systems out of my office in my farmhouse by a National Park in Manitoba. Nice place to live and work.
Hunt less and less as I have killed enough game in my time, shoot a few ducks, two deer for the winter food supply, am coaching 3 youngsters for Sporting Clays, we travel as a team lots of enjoyment seeing their shooting improve every time we go to a shoot.
Lots of fun,
Mike

I was born in Johnstown,PA,in 1960.At that time(pre-golf)hunting and shooting were the primary activities in our area.I grew up next to my grandparents farm.My gram gave me my uncles old Red Ryder BB gun when I was about 7 or 8 .It seems like I shot it a million times,later got a Nylon 66 and shot it even more.We hunted deer, turkey, rabbits,and pheasant.I discovered grouse and doubleguns about fifteen years ago.I've learned alot in fifteen years from experience,books, and from the knowledge shared on this forum,Thanks.
Dave

Born in '48 and was raised in Northeastern Massachusetts. We had a few small acres in a semi-rural farming community and as a boy of eight or nine I would watch pheasant hunters march down our corn rows in the early mornings from our upstairs hall window. I was hooked at that point but didn't know it. There were no stocked pheasants in our area in those days and I regarded them as gamebirds from my earliest memories.

I was never allowed to have a BB gun. Dad said "A BB gun doesn't earn the respect of a true firearm and there are more accidents with a BB gun. You will not have a substitute of a firearm to learn a substitute for gun safety." I was given a .22 Remington bolt action with a weaver scope for Christmas when I was eleven. On my twelfth birthday I was given a Stevens 20 ga. single shot and practiced with it until I received a 12 ga. Parker Trojan on permanent loan when I was thirteen. That Trojan hurt me bad but I stuck with it.

In those days it was not unusual to flush flocks of pheasants numbering as many as twenty birds but they're gone now to urban sprawl and all that comes with it. But back then I hunted Pheasants, rabbits, puddle ducks, woodcock and the occasional ruffed grouse right out of my back door. I was so lucky to have had a childhood like this.

These days I hunt Vermont almost exclusively for grouse, woodcock, deer and turkey. I got back into Parker guns about ten years ago after selling my Red Label 20 ga. so that I could buy my first Parker since '63. I'm having more shooting and hunting fun now than ever before and it has everything to do with the friedns I've made on the internet forums both here and on the PGCA forum.

We are all very fortunate to have grown up at the time we did, especially us "old-timers" who can remember such good ol' days with wild birds in plentiful numbers.

Dean

Born 1940 in a converted garage on the doorstep of a Pittsburgh steel mill but moved out a few miles to the edge of the country where the woods were my playground and teacher. Followed my Dad and uncles hunting after they returned from WW II. Moved to Idaho in 1950 which was a hunter's paradise - pheasants, waterfowl, deer, antelope and elk, bear and almost no one to hunt them. Took all of the species by age 13 and even spent several weeks out of school working for a wilderness outfitter at age 14. Moved back to the outskirts in W. Pa and continued hunting until I entered West Point and 27 years in the Army. Hunted on several continents and really was taught to shoot shotgun by some legends of the sport while stationed on Okinawa of all places. Settled in Arizona in 1981 and have enjoyed the open space and especially the elk and quail available here. This fall I am looking forward to following my Brittany for quail and a bull elk hunt with my flintlock again plus a junior anterless elk hunt with my grandson.

Born in 39 in Adams, Wi. Father was City Engineer, Mother a School Teacher. Father hunted and fished, got my 1st rifle at age 8, a Rem. 510 .22rf, still have it. Have hunted and fished since I can remember thanks to Dad.Only year I didn't hunt was the year the Army had me in Korea. Liked the outdoors so much and wanted to protect it became a Conservation Warden. Retired in 88 so I could persue my love of hunting and fishing.

I was born and raised in East Texas in 1959. There were some quail when I was young but have since all but gone. My father died when I was six and hunted squirrels only. There were not deer to speak of either. I moved to South Texas to play guitar in a band. There I shot skeet and a lot of doves. Moved to Arizona for a Law Enforcement job for few years and hunted doves and still shot a little skeet. Moved to Charleston, SC to teach firearms for about 10 years and hardly shot shotgun at all. About four years ago I moved to South Eastern New Mexico and started shooting skeet seroiusly. I hunt a lot of quail in the good years. Lots of dove and a few Pheasant trips. I have draathar puppy that I hope turns out this year although it will probably only see planted birds due to the drought we are having.

I am totally jaded regarding handguns and only shoot them for qualification. I have sold all but one of my rifles, a .22. I always hated double triggers but loved SXS. I had one as a youth that would cut your index finger every time you pulled the back one. I have since went to longer stocks and even had some Spanish guns made for me. I am planning my third. I love them but I still shoot a k-80 at skeet and an SKB at sporting and the rare round of trap. I have as of yet no descendants that hunt.

Born in 1945 in Jamestown N. Y. No one in the family hunted but I had my first 22 by the age of 12. Never looked back. In the 50s Chautauqua County was a great place for a kid to grow up. Ended up in Ohio to attend college and a sweet young thing with great legs smiled at me and I never got back out of N. E. Ohio. (We will be married 39 years this July) Graduated in 68, Vietnam, and back to Ohio. My only claim to fame is that the Markethunter bought me lunch once. Best Regards, Jack

Born in 1953 and raised in a small town called New Knoxville, Ohio. I have lived my whole life, within 1 mile of where I was born.

Dad always had guns, but they were off limit to us to even look at. I heard he had hunted some as a kid, but I don't ever remember him hunting. He still has guns, but if they are shot, it is me doing the shooting. I got my first 22, a 39A Marlin, in '67, still have the gun. I did not hunt at all until I was about 25. I picked up a bow and have been a avid bowhunter ever since. Bought a Rem. 870 in 1980 and though it was a excellent gun, just never really had the attraction for me. Got into muzzleloaders about the same time as archery. That has held a strong interest for me ever since and lead me into SxS's. In around 2001, I bought my first "modern" SxS. An "A" grade Baker. I off course still have it and several other Bakers.

Hunting here in the farmland of Ohio,was already down hill when I started. Deer hunting was growing though. Rabbits are something you seldom see, but squirrels are common and great 22 or small bore muzzleloader fun. I an not a waterfowler, so all my bird hunting is doves and I look forward to it every year.