AmateurHunter44857

I was wondering what it's like to hunt with your dad? My dad hasn't really played a big part in my life, especially when it comes to hunting. I reached out to him giving him the opportunity to take me on my first deer hunt this year and he didn't seem a bit interested. What am i missing if anything? What is the feeling like to drop a deer or any other animal with your father present?

smokems

It's awesome. Me and my dad havent been too close for the past couple of years, so I told him to take a Sat afternoon and plan on me p/u around 2. I did, took him to get his license, and took him hunting. He had no clue before that about what we were gonna do. That afternoon, he killed his first deer ever. I was so proud of him. I had him in a stand by himself, and he even drug the deer almost half a mile, by himself to where I was picking him up. Not bad for a 55 year old man. We went again last weekend, didnt score but had a good time. Hopefully it will become a regular thing.

Carpmaster

My dad quit hunting when I was a teenager, due to arthritis, I miss it very much. We had a lot of fun, he taught me a lot about woodsmanship, hunting, game care etc. The best part is having someone to share the experiences with....In my case as a lot of people it was their dad but other people can be a mentor such as that!

retrieverman

I can tell you from a Dad's perspective that it is one of the greatest experiences ever to have my sons kill their first deer with me in the stand. Both my son's killed their first deer when they were 6, and even though my oldest son has lost interest in hunting, we still have the memories. My youngest son, on the other hand, absolutely LOVES hunting and has killed 5 deer this year in the two states that we hunt. He mainly hunts by himself now, but I was with him in Oklahoma when he killed his largest buck ever on Thanksgiving day.

nick_bleuer76

Im only 17, and I grew up pheasant hunting, I didnt shoot, I just walked. Finally my dad let me carry a gun. After a couple of years of just shooting and small game hunting, my dad put me in my tree stand, and I harvested my first deer. Now I started bow hunting 3 years ago, and I have fall'n in love with the outdoors. I still hunt with my father and my uncle sometimes, but now I am completely independent. The first thing I ever do after I successfully harvest an animal is call my dad in excitement. Then I clean my prize, take it home, and eat. My dad is disapointed that I do not need him anymore, but he is glad that I can do it on my own. My family has taught me a lot about hunting and life, but now I am learning my self. I can't believe how much I have learned in the last several years. I only hope my hunitng knowledge coutinues to grow.

LKNCHOPPERS

It is great and I hope you can do it sometime. The thing is you never know when you will not be able to hunt with your Dad in the future, so do it now. I still hunt with my Dad a lot. We are not youngsters anymore either. I am 43 and Dad is 65. We have been hunting together ever since I was old enough to carry a gun or shoot a bow. I did stop hunting with him for a while for a few years whenI moved. Last week I took a buck with Dad. Here is the story.

Friday morning (12-14-2007) I met my Dad for a morning hunt. One day left in our firearms season. We live about 30 minutes North of Charlotte, NC. Pops gave me a new muzzle loader for Christmas this year,gave it to me early in hopes that I would break it in on a deer before the season ended. I am primarily a bow hunter butI enjoy all types of hunting. Back to the story,I get to his house just on time and load up my muzzle loader (no primer of course), then load my pack and gun into his van. We drive to my spotabout 5 minutes away, he drops me off, we say good luck. Then he says " I want to hear that Muzzle Loader shoot this morning", I respond with "Yeah that would be nice, maybe those does will come by again".I walk down a ravine into the dark woods. The woods are starting to get brighter, as I realize I am later than I thought and I better waste no time. I get up into my stand, strap in, get my primer in, hook my pack on and begin to sit motionless.I am a couple hundred yards into the woods on the edge of a very thick area. I started to relax and look around. Within 5 minutes I see movement just off to my left, I focus in on it and it's a deer, and it's a deer with horns. The horns looked very bright coming through the woods at an angle toward me. I take one look at his rack and think that's a shooter, I'm not going towaste timechecking how many points, I just know he looks pretty good. He is getting close to my shooting lane so I cock the Muzzle loader back, he puts his head behind a tree and I get in position silently. He steps out, but it's to thick, a few more steps and he is in my shooting lane. I do a mouth grunt "maaa", he stops broadside at 20 yards and looks my way. I put the sight right on the rear edge of his shoulder and squeeze, BOOM. I am now sitting in a cloud of smoke, can't see the deer, can't tell if I hit him (although I am pretty sure I did), and I have no idea which way he ran. I am pretty nervous, I may not have a good blood trail because I am using the 150 grain load of powder at such a close range but I didn't have time to field test lower loads and the Point Of Impact. The smoke clears and the woods are silent, no deer, no movement still getting brighter out, just after 7am. I call my Dad and he just got settled in but was coming over. I told him it wasn't a doe and it was probably a 6 or 8 pointer with a descent rack. I called my girl friend and told her what happened and she wished me good luck. Pops came over about 30 minutes later. I stayed in the tree and he marked the point of impact, we could just see scuffled leaves, NO BLOOD. We thought about likely routes it could have taken where the smoke would have masked his escape. We checked slowly for signs of freshly turned over leaves and blood, but there was no blood. Pops began to walk up toward where I pointed the buckcame from.I hear him say "Here he is, oh the rack, the rack". I said "Your not kidding are you"? The buck lay just about 60 yards from where I shot him. It was a great sight. The 295 grain Powerbelt shot right through him with very little expansion. Thethe shot placement was good and he didn't go far. A light blood trail started about 2 yards from the buck. I will be experimenting with much lighter powder loads before I shoot another, I got lucky with being there just on time and finding that deer so easily.I am very happy with this Buck and the experience I got to share with my Dad. I hope everyone gets a chance to have this kind of rewarding hunt.

Allen Denton

I also can only tell you from a Dad's point of view. It is great for my son to hunt with me. This year is the first year that he has carried a gun and he killed a doe on his very first hunt. My dad never hunted and I went with my uncle but my dad was always interested and talked with me after teh hunt and was very supportive of me in my hunting.

kmunny19

try not to get too hung up on what you're missing by not having your Dad hunt with you. You're only going to read a bunch of posts about how great it is for other people who hunt with their Dad's, and it will make you feel even worse about it. Instead, try to think of the thing you and your Dad do share, and forget about trying to make hunting one of them. My Dad was never much of a hunter. He has a little interest in it, and has gone a very few times, but is not likely to ever again. He supports our hunting, and is glad to help with the hose when its cleaning time, but other than that, I knew more about hunting after one season, than he ever did. Its my thing, not our thing, and that's fine. We have lots of other thing together that are great. If you asked me if I'd trade some of the things we share, to make him a hunter, I'd say forget it. Find some common ground you already have with your Dad and concentrate on bonding with him there.

FiremanE4

I hate to hear that. My father was always there for me and I really appreciated it. Not so much then but now that I am older. I just started hunting myself but one of the first things I did was take my almost 5 year old daughter with me. On that day it wasnt about the hunt, it was about her, I had more fun watching her get excited and hear things in the woods than anything else. I try to be involved, I honestly dont ever want her on this forum with a post like yours. If you Dad isnt involved IM sorry but get past it somehow. It is your dad misssing out, it really is!!! GL man!

walker12

I hear ya, my dad has always been a fisherman, and quit deer hunting in college. He's a really successful businessman and I really admire him for his hard work ethic, but it seems like he'll never make time to hunt with me. Whether or not he thinks he is "above it", is beyond me, but I would love to hunt with him. I had to take it up with my buddies, and I will always be thankful for them showing me the way of the woods.