re: What are your earliest memories of hunting/fishing?

When I was 6 or 7, I would go squirrel hunting by myself with my single shot .410 behind our house.

There was a stump behind our house (we had 5 acres then), that I would go sit on and still hunt squirrels because I hadn't learned how to stalk yet. It always felt like I was deep in the woods, when in reality I was maybe 100 yards from the house.

It took almost all season for a squirrel to finally come hopping along and sit still enough for me to get a good shot. That little .410 didn't shoot very far and I wasn't a very good shot. But that day a squirrel hopped up on a stump about 20' away and I blasted him.

My Dad still has the picture of me holding that squirrel with a huge grin hanging in his closet. My fist kill on my own. Big moment in a little boys life.