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How long you've been deer hunting

iowavf

iowavf

Active Member
Other thread got me wondering how long some have been hunting? I've been deer hunting for 47 years and have seen a lot of changes. Remember waiting for the envelope in the mail to see if you got a tag and what it was for. Went from seeing low deer numbers to high deer numbers, then back to moderate deer numbers. Still have the my old Mossberg with the 18 1/2" smooth barrel I've had for 40 of those years, but haven't carried it for the last 7 or 8 years because I like having my 45 Encore ML instead. Hunted when you would have frostbite within an hour, to wearing T shirts a couple times and kinda like the mailmen, hunted in rain, sleet, snow, and ice.
 
22 years actually carrying a weapon. Shot my first one on my first hunt when I was 6. Dad started taking me to the bow stand when I was 4. Lots of changes. All of our stands used to be homemade out of wood or heavy steel now they're all lightweight and can keep mobile.
 
A fiend in high school got me started in '91. I had never picked up a compound bow before so he let me shoot his old Darton. I was pretty good so he invited me to 3D shoot in Anamosa. I beat him. He was a little hacked off, but he invited me to hunt opening with him on some premium ground just outside city limits in Cedar Rapids down by the river. He said he "had a place I could sit" and we'd just go after school. So, we get to the acerage and he walks me in and points to a big oak tree and says "you can sit under that tree. Lotta deer come through there. I'll be in my stand 200 yds that way." What??!! Well, I parked my butt in the dirt for a couple hours staring at the antique Darton. Just around sunset a 2 1/2 genetically messed up 9 ptr comes walking up the trail. From a sitting position, butt on the ground, I managed a 27 yd kill on my first time out. Been hooked ever since. Oh, and my buddy struck out the entire season. Think he had it coming. ......so bout 25 years
 
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I started with shotgun and Saturday will be my 20th year. Still remember my first doe and buck like it was yesterday. I've only been bowhunting for 6 years. I hunted all the creek critters for as long as I can remember but didn't get to deer hunt until I was 12.
 
Well Pa took me out for the first time when I was 12, I started with Remington 870 20 gauge, and I still love that gun. Remember the first doe and buck I have ever killed like it just happened. Then I turned 16 and started bow hunting, With my grandpa s old bow that's about 30 years old. And that was it, it's been an addiction ever since. I've been hunting for 9 years now. Bow for 5 years.(mostly self taught cause my father doesn't bow hunt) Killed my first mature buck this year 150 inch 8 point. I come from a long line of hunters, through many generations. As far as number of deer harvested.....I really don't know......to many to count.
 
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Been at it with a firearm of some description since I was 16 (53 seasons). Have been slinging arrows for the last 36 years, the last 10 with a crossbow thanks to a pinched nerve in my neck. I too remember hoping that I drew a license at all, and then hoping it was an "any sex" rather than "buck only" to increase chance of filling a tag. Hope to keep going for at least a few more... ;)
 
My first deer hunt was 1975. I went with a school friend's family as Dad wasn't a deer hunter. Dad wasn't much of a hunter at all, barely pheasant hunting because it "wasn't like the good ol' days when a guy could limit out by walking 100 yards of fence row". o_O

I added bow hunting in 1983.
 
JNRBRONC said:
barely pheasant hunting because it "wasn't like the good ol' days when a guy could limit out by walking 100 yards of fence row". o_O
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Ha Ha, yep, I loved listening to my grandad talk about the "old days". It is amazing just how big the deer were back then....and the pheasants? The trick was trying to shoot them BEFORE they flew right into your game bag!
 
Wapsi Tree said:
Ha Ha, yep, I loved listening to my grandad talk about the "old days". It is amazing just how big the deer were back then....and the pheasants? The trick was trying to shoot them BEFORE they flew right into your game bag!
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Ha, my uncle tells us every deer season "I remember chasing the same 3 does all week because they were the only deer in the area".
 
I started hunting late muzzy with my dad and brother when I was 13. That was in 98. So this would be my 19th year deer hunting and 11th year bow hunting. I started bow hunting the year I got married (I was 20) and really wish I had started sooner. My first deer with the muzzy was a button buck that was hauling butt past me at about 20 yards. I put my scope in front of him and as soon as I saw him I pulled the trigger. Smoked him in the hind quarter. He went about 70 yards and fell over, still alive but unable to move. Being the tender hearted guy I was (and still am...kinda) I broke a big branch off a downed tree and smacked him on the head. To my recollection, he was already dead by the time I smacked him but I went for it anyway. Not sure why I didn't just reload and shoot him, but hey that wouldn't have been as good of a story!
 
25 years ! man times rolls , still remember the early years ...Still have same drive I had when I was 15 years old..
 
18 years for me actually carrying a weapon, 21 years including years not carrying a gun. I still get just as excited as I did when I was just following alongside my dad when I was 8.
 
Started hunting with my father when I was 12 in 1967 and hunted with a 410 single shot with a slug. The last 28 years have been strictly archery hunting so that means I've been hunting for 49 years already! I can still visualize just about every hunt I've been on since I was 12 as though they just happened. Too bad I can't remember much else, guess the memory bank archive is full of hunting adventures :D
 
Not from a hunting family whatsoeaver. 22 years for me. I was out getting the cows for milking one afternoon in late November, saw I couple bucks chasing some doe's on a hillside at 50 yds, steady snow falling.....I was hooked. Had dad take me to fleet farm and bought the only left handed bow they had, a Fred Bear. Hunted the rest of that season and can't give it up. I remember shooting a scrap with a barrowed Hawken .50 call with a round ball at 80-100 yards. Pure luck I spined him. My little brother and I drug him all the way home in the snow, a mile or more. Was damn proud to hang it in the yard.
 
14 years with a gun and 11 with a bow for me.

I went to the stand with him starting at age 5 and have spent every fall since in a tree. I'm 23 now and shot my first deer when I was nine with my dad's muzzleloader during shotgun season and him by my side. The first deer I shot with my bow was when I was 12 and a doe and button walked right in and I smoked the doe at 12 yards.
 
31 years for me. Have only used bow. Like most here I still get as excited today when I climb in the stand or hear foot steps in the leaves as I did in year one. I remember if I saw a deer, any deer, every other time in stand it was a great year. Every year, on the last day of season, I pray nothing will prevent me from hunting the next year.
 
30 years for me with a gun, did not start with a bow till like 98, because I was to busy every weekend chasing Pheasants and Quail with the GSP's. Love watching and hunting with great dogs, but as the bird population dropped and my last Shorthair passed, I switched to sitting in a stand with a bow.
 
22 years for me. Started shotgun hunting when I was 10. Didn't start bow hunting until I was 19 and I wish I started doing it a lot earlier. Lot's of good memories and ALOT of changes in those years. Now, having a little boy on the way andhaving a young daughter at home that loves to watch hunting and when we go to Scheels or Cabela's, she HAS to go look at the deer, I hope to be able to pass on the family tradition of hunting to her. Although, I have mostly given up shotgun hunting for early or late muzzy, she will probably learn things a little bit different than I did.
 
Started bowhunting when I was 15, so 45 years now. Shot my first deer when 16. I bow hunted exclusively until the late 80's. I think our first muzzleloading season here was around 88 and have been chasing them with traditional ml's ever since. Don't bow hunt much for deer anymore, found using a flintlock to be more rewarding. I do get an occasional rifle tag to hunt with my son more.
 
Hunted deer with gun 49 yrs. A little longer with bow. Have carried the muzzleloader for several yrs. Never quit.
 
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