# Do you remember?



## bootneck (Feb 20, 2011)

Do you remember your first ever kill? Ill share mine..

I remember mine well, i was about 9 and had a homemade nateral with barnett bands on, i think i was using half inch steel, well i wanted some fur and meat for a couple of projects (I was into survival) so i thought i would go and shoot some.

I took my caterpult and barbour jacket (big pockets) and went out to the woods looking for anything furry that moved, I'd taken several shots at rabbits and squirrels but none connected until a curious little squirrel came winding it's way down a tree about 2 meters from where i was sitting,while i was thinking up my next plan of attack.

Well what an opertunity! I drew back, and in a total zen moment released whacking him in the head, he fell backwards and wasnt dead, Ill spare you the details but imagine a shocked 9 year old trying to kill something as tough as a squirrel.

After taking a bite to the leg and hand i eventually finished it off, pleased as punch. Getting home i eat the meat (including testicles) and edible inards, fleshed and pegged out the skin then got to thinking about my catty, how i was going to ensure clean kills from then on.

I started lifting weights and getting up enough strenght to draw heavy bands and convinced my mum to let me melt lead down (using my finger to make a hole in moist sand and pouring the lead in), i eventually got to using theratube black cut to 5.5 inchs fork to pouch, using 50 cal lead, big chunks of scap steel and stones until i was about 20 - took a break for a couple of years then found the joy's of square's drawn to near butterfly, so easy to pull and plenty of power too.

Anyway I went off on a bit of a tangent but there's my first kill, something forever engrained in my mind and i can still remember the feeling coming home having fead myself for free.

Would anyone care to share there first time coming home with there first free meal?

All the best
Andy


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## jakrabit (Sep 1, 2011)

With my slingshot, my first kill was a 4 foot rattlesnake, 20 yards away. I was with my dad as we were driving down a dirt road (grew up in Central Texas, cattle country). it was dusk, and the snakes come out onto the dirt roads to warm.

What i thought was a stick, was in fact a rattler. My dad didn't put the 22s (we used to carry 1 with rifle rounds and 1 with rat shot)in the truck before we left. all we had was my slingshot.

Dad jumped out of the truck and threw a bunch of rocks at it, causing it to coil up. while he was keeping it from escaping to the brush, i picked 3 good rocks from the ground (as round and smooth as one could find in a hurry). I loaded and drew. The rattlers head and rattle were right next to each other. First shot took the rattle of (real bummer, it flew off into the brush, we never recovered it). Second shot was right between the eyes. it started writhing and flipping around.

we waited there for 30 minutes. watching it and making sure it wasn't just stunned. when we felt it was relatively safe (note: dead rattlers are just as dangerous as live ones) we grabbed a rake from the truck and pinned it behind the head - no movement. while i held the rake on it, my dad carefully walked up and cut it's head off. We took it home, cleaned the hide, and cured it in anti-freeze for a month. still have the hide, and it's still pliable... haven't decided what to do with it (it's been 20 some odd years).

using weaker bands, i've convinced the squirrels to leave my yard alone. My wife thought i was barbaric, plinking them in the butt whenever i saw them. Now... they will leave the neighbors yard and walk down the street and into the next neighbors yard without setting foot in mine.

neat little trick i learned to avoid a yard full of marbles and shot: http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?V=1&Sec=11&Sub=46&PID=4192

i don't know where my wife found it here in the states, but makes for great, completely degradable (well, when it's not snowing here in Minnesota) ammo.


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## JoshM (Apr 24, 2010)

I remember mine, when I was 10, just 4 years ago x] , I had my slingshot that my dad and I crafted from a tree in our yard. I was always shooting at doves (which were quite plentiful) however, I could not pull the bands back hard enough to injure the animal. One day I saw three doves in the yard. I decided to take a shot, I found a nice round stone and fired , the three birds started flapping and took off, However, in the next millisecond, my dissapointment soon turned to pure adrenaline and joy when I saw one bird fall to the ground - headless. I rushed over to the bird, and hoisted it up by the tail feathers, after 20mins of searching I found the head, clean cut from the neck, 20 yards away in the middle of the street ! After this, I took my prize inside and showed my dad, who was almost as excited as me, he then taught me how to gut, clean and cook the bird (fried with scotch bonnet peppers) I still cook them that way every time, but none seem to taste as good as that first one did.

-Josh


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## Xidoo (Aug 14, 2010)

My first kill??Mmmm, that took years ago, when I was eleven years old. I used to take down dragonflies, lizards and water snakes in front of my house with my slingshot. I wanted to take down a bird, especially an inca dove.

I have seen my friends shot down birds and I wanted to make my own kill. It was not easy, I did not know how to aproach a preym or pursue it. I used to make a buch o noise like a rock band and made my movements very obvious for the birds to identify them. My aiming was very lousy and my radio of action with the slingshot, was very limited. Yeah, I was fried.

I used to shoot with slingshots made out of polimer. They had the tendency to break very easy and the bands that I used to shoot with, where solid rounds and too short. Since I did not have the money to get a decent slingshot, my slingshots, where dangerous to me and not confortable to shoot either, but I just loved them. Now, I would not try them again for nothing in this world.

One day, as I was walking to a friend's house, I saw a buch of little birds on the ground. I took my slingshot and made a very lousy shot. It was so bad, that the stone hit the ground very far from the birds and they flew away. Well, I never got a bird before so, I thought that I had just missed for the million time + again, but I was wrong... The rock bounced from the ground at a high angle and hit one bird in midair. The bird was the same color as the ground so, I really did no apreciate the impact. It was only, when I approached the place where the birds had been that I noticed the little creature on the ground. Finally, I had shot down a bird.

I must state, that I do not like to shoot down all kind of birds. I only take down feral pegeons, inca doves, and pest birds. Native birds are left alone, they already have a very hard time with natural predators and cometitors, besides I enjoy watching them. Saludos







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