Years since your first big game hunt

[royden]

Dec 18, 2009 3:18:01 GMT -5 BT said:

How long ago did you start the shop?
By the way....never really hear you mentioning it.

yeah I know Bt ... It's kinda weird, almost like coming out of the closet or something.

Ok, some ears are gonna perk up ;D

4 yrs ago I started an archery shop here in Eureka - small town of about 800, maybe 1500 people within a 30 mile radius. I started it not because of my knowledge, but out of exaspiration with 3 of the 4 nearest archery shops 70 miles away in Kalispell (30,000 people roughly) - one guy down there knows his stuff and kinda of taught the others but now he has retired. So, I figured I could at least get some tools, work on mine, learn and try. There is soooooooooo much I have yet to learn . At this point, in all honesty my shop has plataued ... gonna take more $ and time to open up an indoor range full scale shop full time. I work 40-60 hrs per week at my day job and with a family of four don't have the time to commit until the wife is ready to work again. So that is why I don't mention it much ... I prefer the recognition as a plain joe and don't want to be thought of as knowing more than i do - and I am not ready to deal with internet sales of any volume. My philosophy ... quality, not quantity and let the business grow slow with time.

trust me guys - the simple stuff I can handle just fine, but BT knows way more . AND the quality of archers here is far and above the average - I see the average every day two weeks before season opener.

[lockmaster]

53 years!

My first deer...a button buck with a Marlin 30-30 in 1956.

Second deer, and 8 point with a 303 British in 1958!

It's been MANY trips to the woods for me and MANY hours spent there!!!

[nkybuck]

I took my first deer in 1986 with a 8mm mauser I bowhunted those early seasons unsuccessfully due to lack of knowledge and deer.In 1993 I took my first deer with a bow and was one of the first among my peers to do this. Haven't picked up a gun in a bout 5or 6 years and don't plan on doing so anytime soon. I guess that makes 23 of my 35 years chasing deer and I hope to get at least another 35 .

[omegabuck]

Lets see here, the first Deer I shot was with a Ruger 25-06 (that I still have) and that was back in .... 1995 .... or so? It was a Doe, and we walked it off to a total of 460 (ish) yards. The sad thing is the Doe was in a bunch of about 7-8 all together, when that one hit the ground they all ran to a firebreak ... which is where the old man was sleeping in a tree (until I shot) waiting with an old Winchester 30-30 ... 6 shots later he had 2 total Deer hanging.

I was out of hunting ... animals anyway for a long while. Military in war you don't hunt animals ... well you're not supposed to anyway. LOL ... My old man bought me a bow in 2007, but I've not been able to use it until this year.

I've got 1 Squirrel to my kill board, but nothing else.

[SPIKER]

27 years ago I shot my first deer, a doe with the same .243 that I have today.

Crazy...

[oldfarmsblueman]

First deer hunt in 1963 in in Claryville NY.Had a 1903 A3
Springfield 30-06 I made into a sporter.My Dad got it
new in the cosmalien from the NRA for $13.25 .Had a
doe run up to me that first morning.I held the gun on her
not knowing if it was a buck or doe.NY bucks only.I was
shaking alot by the time she looked up and I saw it was
a doe.

[ghost]

Started bow hunting in 1957.

First kill was with a 30-06 in 1969.

First bow kill in 1996.

Ghost

[royden]

Do you still have the 03-a3 OFB?

That is all I have for a rifle other than a few .22's. At 12 my dad got it for me and we reloaded and went gopher hunting with iron sights - a 150 grn lead bullet kind of throws the gophers out across the field Over the years i put a scope and a synthetic stock on mine and every couple of years I end up carring it around the woods for a day or two...

[Doegirl]

I believe I was about 14 when the rifle coach took me and his son out deer hunting. I was standing right inside a corn field edge in the AM. I heard "PFFFFTT!", turned around and there was a doe like 6-7ft from me. And she had me pegged. She stomped her foot, spit at me (I felt it), bobbing her head head back and forth. I couldn't get my recurve up, of course, I was too afraid to try. Eventually, she grow disinterested with the little biped in the cornstalks, and slowly walked down the edge. I tried to raise my bow up a few times, but that doe would whip her head straight back at me as if to say "yeah right, don't think so" ;D That was 1989.
I shot my first whitetail in 1996 with a shotgun. My first bowkill was in 2002. My first antlered buck, this year...

[royden]

;D that's funny doegirl - you were hooked at the git go huh?