When was the moment that defined deer hunting for you?

[Treestand Troubadour]

Thats like me all I did growin up was hunt rabbit n squirrel and never really thought nothin about deer til after high school, I just seen them as mystical creatures that only inhabited back in deep hollers of posted land. I've only had few opportunities to hunt private land, and never been able to hunt it the way I hunt. Always been with somebody that's told me I gotta go this way and set up over there. But I'm not complaining because huntin public land exclusively has taught me many things that I would have never learned any other way

 

[Bone Collector]

I started chasing critters with a BB gun in VA and always wanted to hunt, because my grandfather told me stories about it. I deer hunted a few times in VA without luck, and would say in reality i was hooked the moment i started getting into the woods. Just the chance at a deer was exciting.

Of course the moment, i knew I was hooked was when i killed my first in 1993. I was so tore up, I knew I wanted to do this as much as possible.

 

[ferg]

The very first time I was in the woods with my Grandfather - I sat with him, I was all of 11 or 12, I learned then that it was MORE about 'being' in the woods with family, than 'hunting' per se' - there is nothing like 'deer camp'

ferg....

 

[Hunter 257W]

I didn't have any single event that got me into deer hunting. It was more of a gradual thing. I do recall very clearly the 1st deer I ever saw on our farm back in the mid 1970's. I was in my mid teens and had been out shooting blackbirds sometime in the Fall and when I came back out of the field into my Grandparent's garden, there were 3 does just inside the pasture beyond the yard. My jaw almost dropped to the ground. I started pestering my Father, who wasn't a hunter, right away for some kind of gun to deer hunt with. I didn't get one for several years and that just made me want to go that much more. I was already a rifle nut motivated mainly by sniping groundhogs from across big fields. Deer hunting was just another excuse to get and shoot more rifles. At that time, big antlers didn't really have much of an influence because NOBODY had even heard of the Boone & Crocket scoring system and ANY buck was something to be proud of.

 

[TDW05]

I got hooked from my first hunt when i was about 6 i would say. I would go with dad when i could and walk beside him step for step. He tells me when i was about 5 or so we went to A-row in franklin county turkey hunting and he was calling and nothing happened so i yelled "here turkey turkey!!" lol. But i'd say the moment that really got me into it was when i was about 8 or so and had some does come in and being so excited. Got the cross hairs on her and squeezed. BOOOM! Deer take off. Feel something cold on my face that turns out to be blood from the scope hitting me in the eye lol. Then come to realize i completely missed. The roller coaster of emotions and the memories of me and dad are what had and has me hooked to this day. :super: arty:

 

[Apple1982]

I started hunting when I was 10 year old now 32 years old. It was when I killed my first deer at age 13. Little basket 8 point. That's how I got hooked on hunting!

 

[moondawg]

I didn't start hunting til I was almost 30. I had been camping and fishing for several years, but never did any hunting. I started out small game hunting with very little (read: No) success. Then i got the interest in deer hunting through my inlaws. They were kind enough to let me hunt their property, and mentored me along the way.

There's two moments that defined me. I borrowed an inlaw's 30.30 one morning. I had never fired a rifle before. I was in a deer stand and a buck came by. I don't know the yardage, but I remember looking at it through the scope. It was a broadside shot...and I didn't take it, not knowing the range of the rifle. In retrospect, I could have made the shot. I remember the deer looking at me, probably laughing as I was a total noob. That's when I realized I needed my OWN rifle that I could practice with and get familiar with.

The other moment came maybe a year or two later when I had my very own rifle...a .45 caliber muzzleloader. It was a cold morning during muzzleloader season. I was in the stand, and a two inlaws were hunting the area as well. I remember seeing deer coming down the dirt road. Oh wow! There's some deer! I was excited just see deer. A buck was walking towards the north of me and...hmmm, this deer is in range. I carefully raised the rifle, got the buck in the crosshairs, and pulled the trigger. Through the smoke, i saw the deer run, and I thought I missed. Then the buck's shoulder started drooping, and his head started drooping and swinging. And then he collapsed! I hit him! I remember the heart pounding and the shakes that followed afterwards. And that was a rush I will never forget.