Discovering Bow hunting later in life

[Buckhunter]

I have been hunting my whole life, some years more than others. However I'm turning 20 in a few months, and i have decided to take my hunting much more seriously and this upcoming year will be my first year all on my own doing everything on my own. This year will also be the first year i bow hunt. All of my years of hunting have been with family and have been mainly with a rifle. This year as i said is my first year all on my own and I've decided that i want to bow hunt only. I love challenges and when i set a goal for myself, i usually do everything i possibly can to achieve it. Ive set some lofty goals for next season and i plan on accomplishing every one of them.
20 years is young, and I'm blessed to have found this site as a young man starting my own path in hunting.

[Lastcast#1]

Humbling is right. When you are just beginning there are so many "first time" experiences. I have basically combined the advice given by my mentor, along with the education I am receiving here ,and using it as a template so to speak to begin this journey. It certainly has helped me progress at a faster rate. But until you see it happen in the woods, its hard to wrap your mind around. It is extremely rewarding to have an encounter in the woods while hunting or while scouting for that matter, which allows you to confirm what you have been learning . Wrong or right, you can always take something away from it.
Example-My buddy would tell me the old does are incredibly smart. Wait until you have one walk straight up to the base of your tree looking up at you and bust ya. I only hunted the same spot twice the entire season. Hunted an entire day in the early season.Had three does come by in the am and mill around for a while. Came to full draw on the biggest one twice, practicing. I could of shot her but just let the day play out. Left my setup over night. I felt I could get out clean and return for a quick am hunt before moving to a new spot for the next evening.
Well the next morning the same three does walk in from behind in single file . Only difference was the oldest one is leading and walking with a purpose , looking up at the tree from 40 yards away. She walks right to the base of my tree. No way could I turn on her at any point during or before the staring contest ensued. I eventully just gave in. The jig was up, I moved and pow off they go. I was thinking you bleepin bleep bleep! Funny, eye opening, and most importantly, a lesson. Fast forward to the last day of season. Set up in a large pine maybe 150 - 200 yards from a known bedding area. An area I had scouted the previous winter. Certainly wasnt hunting a buck bed or any particlar buck, but I knew they used the area . I use milk weed. I took note of where my scent stream was headed. 3 inches of snow on the ground with my access footprints leading directly downwind from my tree. I noted where that spot was. Last light 2 bucks start to make thier way towards me. I am thinkin, alright man its going to happen. A fork horn and a 6 pt. I hunt out a saddle, had to rotate 90 degrees. No big deal, I slowly turn into postion. Bucks are 30-40 yards out and walking single file. It appears they will come by inside of 10 yards. All I have to do is draw and shoot! Well the fork horn is leading the 6 point, maybe 6 or 7 yards of separation. Fork steps into shooting lane. They had no idea I was there. I decide to let the fork continue on. Just before the 6pt steps into the same opening, I come to full draw. He steps in, and phhhhhhshhh! The fork which had continued on DOWNWIND of me hit my trail, blows and off they go! Again, a lesson was learned. I had prepared for this very occurance, I just forgot about the fork! Awesome experience. Yet another lesson.One of many that I received last year.

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[Lockdown]

I have been hunting my whole life, some years more than others. However I'm turning 20 in a few months, and i have decided to take my hunting much more seriously and this upcoming year will be my first year all on my own doing everything on my own. [glow=red]This year will also be the first year i bow hunt.[/glow] All of my years of hunting have been with family and have been mainly with a rifle. This year as i said is my first year all on my own and I've decided that i want to bow hunt only. I love challenges and when i set a goal for myself, i usually do everything i possibly can to achieve it. Ive set some lofty goals for next season and i plan on accomplishing every one of them.
20 years is young, and I'm blessed to have found this site as a young man starting my own path in hunting.

You're going to get the archery bug bad! (It's pretty fun to have)

I didn't have a choice but be a deer hunter. I've got a picture of me at 4 or 5 months old sitting in a hang on stand in my parents front yard. You can see my Dad's hand and arm reaching around the back side of the tree holding on to me. I remember getting my first bow for Christmas... I must have been five. Been shooting ever since.

When I was around 8, Dad sat me on a limb a couple feet below one of his stands (tethered to the tree with a rope around my waist ) and a yearling buck came by and he shot it with his bow. I remember hearing the aluminum arrow slide on his arrow rest above me and... THWACK! It was awesome.

I shot my first deer with a gun when I was 12. I didn't bowhunt that year because wasn't strong enough to pull the 40 pound minimum. The next year I went hunting pulling 38 pounds but came home empty handed. Shot a doe with my bow the next year. I was an avid waterfowler all through my teens and kept deer hunting too, but in my early 20's I started hitting the woods hard.

[Lastcast#1]

I definitely see some recurring themes that the new guys and grizzled veterans on here have in common. Love of the outdoors, enjoying the process , respect for all things natural, and the willingness to do the work required to be successful. I think the future is bright for all of us "new beasts" in the making. Thankyou to the seasoned veterans for sharing thier beginings as well! This site is incredible.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Bubbles]

I guess technically I started when I was 30, I'm now 33. My first season wasn't much of one though, only got out on one 3 day trip during which no deer were spotted. No mentor, just learning all by myself which is why I'm sucking up as much from this forum as i can, and podcasts. I've always been into the outdoors. Fished a lot as a kid, but nobody in my fam was as into it as me so I was stuck finding a lot of my spots. And as a result didn't have a whole lot of success. I was always jealous of the kids whose dads fished because they always caught some nice ones.
Been getting back into the out of doors since I was 26. Through getting into survival,camping and wild edibles, which led to building self bows, which led to me wanting to harvest a deer with my own tackle. I kind of wish I had started like a normal person with a compound and slowly moved to trad after I had mountains of deer under my belt. :) I have had some decent success with turkey hunting though, but I'm using a crossbow for that.

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[Archerperu]

Well my wife got a job as a professor in wi, so we had to move from Peru, 6 years ago. I remember going to bass pro and feel like a kid in a world of toys. I could spend hours there without buying just looking around. Then I decided to start fishing and my wife told me: just get a cheap rod and a few lures in case you don't like it! Haha. Now I have 6 poles and boxes of gear and lures. Everybody told me I should start with live bait, is easier, but I didn't want to, I wanted a big bass caught in a lure.
After 6 months of going to the same spot without catching anything I finally got a female bass so big that I was scared when I felt the bite.

I knew then I was hooked for life.
Last year i meet a guy that was always talking about his hunts, and I thought it might be a new skill adventure I wanted lo be part of.

Since then I have being getting clothes, equipment, I just finish my online Hunter certification and only waiting on the field day in March!!

I got a PSE bow and I even built a small basement shooting range of 15 yards. I read the beast almost every hour and hopefully I will learn how to deal being in the woods, how to do it in public land, how to set a stand, how to shoot a deer, how to gut a deer.

I am so excited and proud saying that moving to the states and become a citizen was the best could happens to me in the last 10 years. After my daughter birth of course.

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[csoult]

I began young.... 15 I think. Then came college and I gave it up, my daughter was born and I basically gave up all of my hobbies. After she got to the age where she was somewhat self sufficient I picked it back up again when I was 34. At this point I was hunting like I had always hunted. I was seeing does and small bucks here and there then I decided to get serious and learn. That didn't happen until last year and that's why I'm here at 37 and I would say truthfully that I have just begun to really bow hunt.