Do you remember the first wood pigeon or first rabbit you ever shot ?

[lakeside1000]

First Pigeon, I was 15, it was the winter of 63,I was air rifle mad but on this day had taken my long bow and a hand full of arrows, we were walking a stream bed under some big willows when my friend pointed out a big fat pigeon half asleep in the tree, I slipped an arrow onto the bow and took aim, the arrow narrowly missed the branch he was sitting on and went in through his chest and out the back of his head, he almost landed on top of me, I took it home and mum cooked it up for my tea, very nice too,

 

First rabbit, I think I was 14, always had a catapult and a pocket full of ball bearings, dad was an engineer in the RAF and used to bring me boxes of them, My shooting buddy and I were up a tree swinging about like monkeys when I spotted a big rabbit at the other end of the grass field, dropped to the ground and followed a thick hedge all the way down to his position, on my knees I worked my way up to a place where I could see through a small gap in the bushes, his head popped up out of the grass about 10 yards out, I pulled back as far as I could on the catapult got him in the fork of the milbro and let go, I didnt see the strike or hear it, thought I'd missed but I clambered through the hedge and stood up, he lay where he had been sitting with blood coming out of his ear, stone dead, what a prize, almost ran all the way home , mum was pleased as punch, rabbit stew for dinner, those were the days.

 

I still get a thrill when I have a good day but with shotguns and high powered air rifles the kill seems more mundane , something that happens every time I go out, so specific memories are not so common,

[ditchman]

First pigeon was when i was about nine or ten...i was sitting waiting for them under a elm tree, i had been given a webley and scott Mk 3....

 

First rabbit was with the webley and scott i still have ..i was 14 and had worked all autumn picking apples to by it from Partridges in Hadleigh suffolk i could afford the "delux model" (chequeing) so had the plain version £13-14s-3d...inc purchase tax

 

 

this is the very same gun....had it re-blued 5 years ago

[birdsallpl]

The first pigeon I shot was with a 12 bore hammer cooey in about 1967. I had been told by an old gun how to ring a pigeon but in my haste and my first attempt I decapitated it. I still plucked it and my mother cooked it for me. No breast only for me in them days. I ate the lot. Interestingly on my first trip to the Wash marshes soon after, I loaned the Cooey to a mate (I had a double by then) he managed to get mud up the spout and split about 4inches of barrel. We were shooting the evening flight and in the half light he never realised what he had done until I noticed it and pointed in out him. A very lucky lad.

[Kes]

My first rabbit was with an old 12 bore, walking round a farm with Dad - I could hardly lift it - stalking a field and there it was. I took aim by lifting it and then pulling the trigger - worked and I have been hooked ever since. First pigeon was a sitting shot with a 'garden gun' we used to shoot them in the trees at my old school with the heads permission - wouldnt get that these days.

[m greeny]

Remember my first rabbit i was 10 or 11 and was the bag man for my dad and he said to me here is the gun (12 bore) and said go try stalk that rabbit and shoot it so i was stalking this rabbit that just sat there and i got close enough and bang shot it but i was that nieve i never realised it had myxy till my dad told me

[strangford wildfowler]

Yeah I was 14 and was smashing clays on the skeet ground. One morning dad came in and woke me I thought there was something wrong and he said come on we'll go shooting we got to a big field of uncut rape and there was birds everywhere and I was missing the left rigt and centre but then came my moment after a few wise words from dad I slowed the swing down and bang went the 12 bore auto feathers everywhere and so I went to collect my price gez it took some findin eventually after about half an hour of looking I found him and not ten minutes leter I got my second.

 

Best moments was back down the farmyard speaking to the farmer who asked could we clear out the grain barn of pigeons and crows so in went dad into the barn clapping and holwerin and out flew two crows bang bang and down went the two crows I had got myself a double on my first time out in the field what a feeling I got.

 

I love this sport

[Mentalmac]

Wow, lovely stories guys!

Not so romantic nowadays I doubt.

My first rabbit I learnt to shoot after buying a cheapish springer and joining a club and when I could shoot ok I watched youtube and watched rabbit stalking and then found this site and went and shot a rabbit on a permission I got from being a pest controller.

 

I then watched youtube again to learn to gut and skin it and then put on a film on how to cook it!

 

But I do remember it like it was yesterday though, I tried 3 times to pull the trigger but each time my heart was beating too fast that I could hear it and couldn't keep the gun still. Once it was shot and dead I was a bit overcome with all emotions at once - I was now initiated and addicted to this hobby.

 

 

 

That's why I'm keen to teach my kids and already do with my step daughter who's 10. She has shot her first pigeon and rabbit and can skin and gut them too.

[NickB65]

My first pigeon must have been with either the Sharps Innova .177. Bedroom shot, one cocky little beggar that woke me every morning at 5am..... My first legal Pheasant was taken at the end of a hedgerow with the beaters driving the birds through the hedge and I was a stop gun. A large cock bird flew low toward me and he was too low for a safe shot so I let him go over and took him from behind (ooh err) and he dropped in the middle of a huge puddle of watery cow excrement. I picked him up and presented him to the keeper with the words... "My first cock...." and a rather cheeky smile..... he in turn put it to one side and presented it to me at the end of the shoot..... slightly smellier with the words "Your cock young man...."

 

Happy days......

[ditchman]

digressing slightly....many years ago we were beating on a large estate in norfolk and with the beaters was a quite well known titled lady who prefered the company of the pickers and beaters than the guns......my mate tom H...was a gentelman and in answer to the lady in question when she complained about fogetting her gloves and her hands were cold ...offered her a freshly shot cock pheasant so she could keep her fingers warm......which she duly took and replied quick as a flash

 

"its been a heck of a long while since i had a nice warm cock in may hands" !....well we all fell about laughing.....some of these old girls are really game and a lot of fun .......

[JDog]

I shot my first pigeons in the hard winter of 1962/63. They were feeding on sprouts which were the only things protruding above the snow. The pigeons were very thin indeed and I would not shoot those in a similar condition today.

[fenboy]

The first rabbit I shot was with a HW35 air rifle it was along a disused railway line and me and a friend crawled in range along the top of the embankment so i was shooting well downhill , we flipped a coin to see who had a shot at it , and I won.

 

After some training from my granfather the first live target I shot was a hen pheasant with my very first shot at one with his 20 gauge I was 12 at the time.