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Beginings.....

I am a litte of both groups i guess.. my dad and brothers taught me alot about hunting in general. My oldest brother is one of the best trackers I have ever seen and he taught me alot about how to pattern a deer and so forth. But none of them really bow hunted and until I started the practice of letting the smaller bucks walk on our land in TN they were all of the "if its brown its down" group. After the first 140 + inch 4 year old I killed they started seeing how it might be adventageous to let them 110 inch 2 year olds get a pass once in a while. Now my brother and me are the only ones left of our generation and we both try to pass as much on to the younger ones as they will listen too.
 
Im in group b and glad to say that my dad taught me everything he knew and as i was growing up we had the if its brown its down by legal means but now me and dad share what we learn together as we keep goin and practicing qdm and my mom goes now and my wife and daughter is starting to get with it so its turning into a big family thing and im not sure y some hunters r so passionate about the sport and having respect and y others could careless...but im like right tackle i got my small 6 pointer right beside my biggest buck and look at em everyday :)
 
i started out on my own after somebody fed me some. the only way to get more was to shoot one. it was 3 years before i even saw a deer. trial and lots of errors and i finally learned how to hunt plus the population has grown tremendously.
i started the boys on small game when i thought they were ready and they graduated to deer at 10 for the juvy hunts.
 
I guess I fall into group A. My grandfather and uncle hunted but never deer. I got into that on my own and I amost started looking for "better" deer after my first year of hunting. My wife's uncles used to have a deer camp set up every year in Ms. and they shot anything that moved. Although I did the first couple of years as well I left that hunting group and went on my own looking for something different. There weren't near as many deer as we have now but I still killed a bunch of deer. It became too easy. Gradually it was enough for me to have been able to have killed a deer without actually killing it. In that process I began seeing things in the deer world that I had never seen before. The more I saw the more I learned and the more I appreciated the deer that I did kill. Now it's nothing for me to see in excess of 100 deer a season without ever lifting my rifle. I consider that a coup de grace in itself. Outside of taking a few does for freezer meat I now wait on the buck I want.
 
bowriter said:
Why should ther be any "stacking up"? Why should killing anything be predicated by how the person learned to do it. The truth is, 95% of all deer killed are the result of luck more than anything else.

I grew up dog hunting deer. You sat down and if a dog ran a legal deer by, you shot it.
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100% agree Bowriter. I was raised the same way along with still hunting in TN from time to time, usually on Sundays back then.
 
Mr.Bro said:
I think most will go from an A to a B over time.
For the hunters that start out a B. Thats great.
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I agree with Mr.Bro. That is what happened with me.

A friend introduced me to hunting... "here is a Muzzleloader, here is my climber, go as high as your comfortable, must have 3" antler to be legal, I'll be back about 11am." That was my lesson. :) I remember climbing about 8 feet up and being scared that chunk of cobbled together metal was gonna break off that tree at any second. :D.

What did happen, 4 does walked by. That was enough to have me hooked for the last 9 years. Thanks Tom, my blood started bubbling just writing this.

For the remainder of that season, Deer Magazines became my teacher! Yep, didn't kill a deer... and learned about 100% of those Mag writers were idiot$. (sorry bowriter)

After that first season was over, I started reading the TWRA Hunting Regulations and discovered bow season was almost 3 months long. Bought me a $25 Thrifty Nickel bow the next week. Then, I found TnDeer.com

TnDeer became my teacher/mentor. I learned almost everything I know from the guys on this board. One even told me about his favorite Hunting spot on a WMA. (thanks Bobby)

Another TnDeer regular gave me some advice that made good sense to me. He said, "I suggest you shoot the first 10 legal deer that present you an ethical shot." He said during that time I would have a ton of fun & learn many lessons. He was 100% right.

Opening morning, I let a group of 6 does walk right under my tree. This was early opening morning, I thought to myself.. "It's early, I'll wait on a buck." YEP, just like those magazine writers, I am an Idiot too! :( I was 6 weeks before I saw another deer in the woods... a very long six weeks. If I told you I have second guessed that opening morning decision 10,000 x's, I would be under-estimating.

Fast forward that 6 weeks, @ the WMA in Bobby's spot, and I killed not one, but two does, slicing through their lungs with stick and string! I added a buck later that year, again with three razor blades on the end of a 400 gr stick.

I continued to study, quickly receiving my PhD from TnDeer. I arrowed 6 deer my 2nd full season. Then, I was humbled by a long and hard third year, drawing blood three times only to loose them all... yet learning much more about the gives and takes of bow hunting deer.

I loved killing those first 10 deer and just as I was told, I earned a massive deer education. Now, starting my 9th year, I realize how little I really understand about deer hunting, but I love every minute I get to be in the woods.

I now enjoy watching deer within range and trying to learn how mature deer behave. I killled my first 3 1/2 yr old last year and look forward to shooting more deer with massive muscle, big horns and no spots! :) I have been exactly as Mr.Bro described.


All three of my daughters have deer hunted. I have mentored a young green fellow in yue bow woods. I got to sit beside my 13 yr old daughter last year as she arrowed a fat doe... and wa
 
Regardless How someone begins, It appears that it doesn't really matter how someone started, it's the progression of the Hunter himself. Like you go from novice to taking that first fork horn and then You may go from any Deer to that mature deer. Great answers.
 
One thing that makes me pass smaller bucks is the fact that I am getting old and lazy. Every time a deer hits the dirt, you have a chore on your hands. And sometimes I don't like doing the chores.
 
Group A for me. No one in my family hunted or even had a rifle or shotgun. I didn't start hunting until I was almost 30. My wife's family had a hand in getting me started hunting, as many of them were hunters--or had hunted at one time. There's no rhyme or reason to my hunting--if I feel like shooting (and then gutting and dragging) the first deer that walks by, I will. Sometimes I wait.
 
I'm a hybrid of your groups.

I was taken deer hunting as soon as I was legal, except there was little in the way of teaching. I was just another body to drive deer. After a few years of this and never killing a deer, I quit. I did enjoy squirrel, rabbit and some bird hunting still but not often.

About 3 years ago I hooked up with some guys at work and after 1 weekend hanging out at deer camp I was hooked. But had to learn on my own or through thier stories about bow hunting and about deer hunting in general without being part of a drive.

After all this, I'm a trophy hunter for the most part. I love venison but am leary of taking the first deer I see due to the reduced population here in Wisconsin. My attitude might change in Tennessee, but I've let as many as 50 deer walk within 25 yards in a single day waiting for "that" deer. This year my plan was different, as I'm out of venision, so the first mature doe was getting stuck, but my buck tag would stay in my pack waiting for the big one.
 
It sounds more impressive than it is. Out of the 50 only 4 or 5 were bucks older than a year and most were does with twin fawns most of the time. That same stand went to seeing 1 or 2 deer per day shortly after the leaves and acorns fell. I never had an encounter with what I consider a "shooter" buck there, alot on camera at night nothing when I was sitting.

Edit Note: I'd have to go up to the cabin to look at our stand notes, but if I were to average sets vs number of deer, that stand would probably average 5 deer per day. But it was by far an early season stand, once acorns fell it would go pretty dry.
 

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