What's everyone's experience?
09-26-2002, 02:23 PM
#61
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Northern, VA
Posts: 163
RE: What's everyone's experience?
38 years old and I've been hunting since I was about 5?
My father and most of my uncles were game wardens back in Oklahoma, so hunting and good ethics ran through the family. I've hunted (and harvested) everything from deer & bear to stickin frogs with a gig or noodlin for catfish in them muddy Oklahome river's.
Some of my best memories are not the animals that I've harvested or big fish that I've caught, but the time's I've spent with family and friends in the woods. I look forward to the day that I can take my two boy's out in the woods hunting or in my canoe to fish and camp along one of these beautiful rivers in Virgina.
My father and most of my uncles were game wardens back in Oklahoma, so hunting and good ethics ran through the family. I've hunted (and harvested) everything from deer & bear to stickin frogs with a gig or noodlin for catfish in them muddy Oklahome river's.
Some of my best memories are not the animals that I've harvested or big fish that I've caught, but the time's I've spent with family and friends in the woods. I look forward to the day that I can take my two boy's out in the woods hunting or in my canoe to fish and camp along one of these beautiful rivers in Virgina.
09-26-2002, 02:24 PM
#62
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Omaha Nebraska USA
Posts: 530
RE: What's everyone's experience?
I'm 36 years old and have just got back into hunting after a 9 year hiatus, more or less. I started hunting deer with a rifle when I was 12, but thaks to a very worrisome Uncle (actually my dad's uncle, whatever that makes him to me- a great uncle?) who owned the camp we hunted at, I was forced to only hunt with adult supervision throughout my teens. I had to go hunt where others hunted. I knew from reading hunting magazines that the thick cover pines near the cornfields at the base of the mountain was the place to go on the first morning in Pennsylvania. It had cover, trails, and was alongside the nighttime food plot. It was also only a ten minute walk from camp, compared to the 2 hour hike up the mountain that everyone else wanted to take. However, all the old timers swore that there would be no deer in there during the hunting season, even on the first day, prior to any hunting pressure.
Well, I grew up, joined to the Marine Corps, learned how to sit still no matter how uncomfortable I was, got out of the Marines and bought a Loggy Bayou climbing tree stand. My first year back at camp, I was able to decide on where I wanted to hunt, was criticized when I told them I was gonna hunt the pines, and 20 minutes after sunrise my 30-06 barked and I bagged my first buck, a decent six point. Next year, same result. suddenly, come the third year, all the old timers in camp that had been telling me for 10-12 years that there were no deer in the pines were talking about going to the pines also. I gave my dad the tree I used the previous two years and 30 minutes after day break, he bagged a nice 8 point, coming down the same trail my two bucks were came down. I was a little bit steamed that someone who didn't want to hunt the pines for all those years took the deer I would have had, but I was happy that my dad got it. I got one from the same tree later that day, albeit only a little spike.
That climber tree stand and my new found discipline got me a deer every year for six years until I got married and graduated college and moved away from PA. I couldn't find hunting grounds where I ended up and wasn't always able to get back to PA. Now I live in Nebraska, I own 11 acres that abutt a game management area and my woods full of deer. I just couldn't stand watching all those 8 and 10 point bucks running around in the woods in my back yard so I have tuned up the bow and am looking to experiment with scent technology this year. I figure if it doesn;t work the first week or two, I'll scratch it and hunt with the old wait and see approach. I'll let you know how it turns out. So far I have seen a eight point at 40-45 yards that I didn't want to chance a shot at and had a doe less than 10 yards from me that I passed on. Hopefully as the rut draws closer I'll see more of the big bucks that I have seen the last two years. definitely bigger than any I saw back in PA.
Well, I grew up, joined to the Marine Corps, learned how to sit still no matter how uncomfortable I was, got out of the Marines and bought a Loggy Bayou climbing tree stand. My first year back at camp, I was able to decide on where I wanted to hunt, was criticized when I told them I was gonna hunt the pines, and 20 minutes after sunrise my 30-06 barked and I bagged my first buck, a decent six point. Next year, same result. suddenly, come the third year, all the old timers in camp that had been telling me for 10-12 years that there were no deer in the pines were talking about going to the pines also. I gave my dad the tree I used the previous two years and 30 minutes after day break, he bagged a nice 8 point, coming down the same trail my two bucks were came down. I was a little bit steamed that someone who didn't want to hunt the pines for all those years took the deer I would have had, but I was happy that my dad got it. I got one from the same tree later that day, albeit only a little spike.
That climber tree stand and my new found discipline got me a deer every year for six years until I got married and graduated college and moved away from PA. I couldn't find hunting grounds where I ended up and wasn't always able to get back to PA. Now I live in Nebraska, I own 11 acres that abutt a game management area and my woods full of deer. I just couldn't stand watching all those 8 and 10 point bucks running around in the woods in my back yard so I have tuned up the bow and am looking to experiment with scent technology this year. I figure if it doesn;t work the first week or two, I'll scratch it and hunt with the old wait and see approach. I'll let you know how it turns out. So far I have seen a eight point at 40-45 yards that I didn't want to chance a shot at and had a doe less than 10 yards from me that I passed on. Hopefully as the rut draws closer I'll see more of the big bucks that I have seen the last two years. definitely bigger than any I saw back in PA.
09-26-2002, 02:38 PM
#63
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,476
RE: What's everyone's experience?
49 years old, been hunting small game for 39 years, deer for 35. I rifle, bow, and muzzle-hunt. I mostly meat-hunt b/c I love to cook and love venison. But I have seen my way to hanging just 1 on the wall. He was a bruiser of a 9 point (dressed around 215, as weighed by 3 different scales) but tasted like cedar!
