Dad let me tag along on deer and elk hunts the first time when I was 6. I had a new single shot 22 but didn't carry it deer hunting. We did family drives a lot back then. I stayed right with my dad. Dad gave me an old bolt action 30-30 on my eleventh birthday.

Dad let me tag along around 6-7, shot my first at 12 because that was WI law at the time. My older boy shot his first at 8, and my youngest, 7, wants to shoot one this year, and i'll probably let him try. I have mixed emotions about it. Some of the boys friends have some super prime ground, and dad is a hunting nut, so along comes Johnny and he don't even know what end the bullet comes out of, but he can shoot a deer. My boys know hunter safety, gun safety, trapping, survival skills and when their goof ball friend gets a deer and they don't, it makes them feel inferior to some dingbat kid that can pull a trigger. And lately our deer ground isn't producing like it used to so we have to work our (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman)es of to get a shot, and with little kids there are a lot of varibles to overcome, and I dont mean getting cold and keeping them entertained, my boys are over all that already. But they are not as fast finding them in a scope, and they need shooting sticks, and so on. Like I said i have mixed emotions. I'm starting to enjoy trapping more over deer hunting especially with them, we can bring home a trophy everyday, instead of once in a blue moon.

I started at 15 and got my first one at 16.

Dan

I was 27 hunted for 4 years before I saw a deer got one on my 6 year of hunting. The season open here in 1967 I got my first deer in 1973. I probably have more deer on my farms now than was in the whole county back then. One of my farms was within a half mile of the first release site and was where I got my first deer.

I was 12 years old when I started. We had a farm pond that had some muskrats and I caught 6 the first year of trapping.

Started going with my dad when I was 9 or 10. First hunt was at 11 for squirrel and I got 2 pine squirrels with the .22. Had to wait until I was 12 to deer hunt and I shot a decent 6 point at 1pm on the first day with my grandpa's .222.

16,
I was alone shortly after getting my drivers license. I killed a 5x5 buck that would be lucky to make 130” but at the time I thought I killed a giant.

8, shot a mule deer buck at 9, whitetail at 11, also 2 mulie bucks with one shot at 11 (1 was about 20 yards behind the buck I was aiming at)

I started when I was 13. Killed a spike buck when I was 14 in 1967.

Moosetrot

12 years old got a 4 point first day with the old man's 222 at 150 yards. Remember it like it was yesterday.

Started as a young teen myself. No deer within 60 miles of my hometown in my youth. My son shot a buck at 10 and my grandson got a doe at 8. No minimum age in N.C. Proud grandpa.

Have to add that my son started hunting with us around 10, albeit without a gun because it would have been illegal then. He sat in the stands, walked along, etc. and he learned an awful lot about hunting without being able to shoot and I think that developed him into the fine hunter he is now. He nailed a nice 9 point on opening day of his first legal year at 12 years old. I had already killed two doe that had come up on my side of our side-by-side ladder stands. When he got his buck we were completely filled up by 8:30 in the morning and packed up to head home.

I looked at him and said "Dan, it's not always like this!"

Moosetrot

When I first started hunting and trapping there were no deer in our area, or almost no deer. I saw my first deer when I was 12 years old, had one rin across in front of me as I was driving a tractor from one farm to another. I was so excited to tell my Dad what I saw. When I did I was told "There ain't any deer around here."
I started hunting deer, bow hunting, when I was 17 and killed my first one 5 years later.
Since then the deer population has exploded. I can't tell you how many I have killed since, but it is several.

Started at 10 killed my first deer at 11, with a Win. 94 30-30. I've saw more deer out the living room window in the last 1/2 hour than I did the first 2 years of deer hunting.

I started deer hunting at 10 or 11. To see a deer and you was the talk at school. Actually killed a deer at 11 or 12 and the pastor at church even recognized me, lol. Deer numbers have sure changed since then. One property they want 100 does taken and another property we’re shooting for 30-50.

Sorry!! I did not read the OPs first post. I thought the thread was about trapping! My Bad!