This will be my first year taking it into the woods so we'll see.

I've been at it serious 4yrs I can't get close enough! I won't stop trying.

I have learned over many years of hunting is that some of the best things you can return home with are the memories. Yes we do venture out there to "harvest" an animal and there is disappointment when that is not accomplished but I have found that the disappointment has become less and less over time.

Some of the best gut wrenching, belly hurtin, outright crying laughs my friends and I have are caused by hunting stories we tell about each other. Mostly from trips where we return home with nothing but those stories.

Besst of luck to all who have posted here. Maybe this year will be your year.

Best of luck, guys!  I love reading about firsts.  Looking forward to hearing about your successes in the fall!

QuoteOriginally posted by gregg dudley:
Best of luck, guys!  I love reading about firsts.  Looking forward to hearing about your successes in the fall!

+2  

I have hunted exclusively with trad stuff for a few years. Was finely fortunate enough to take a big mature doe with my home made BBO and cedar arrows. I think the way we hunt is as fair and honorable as any thing I can think of. A few are going to get away. I reackon that's why we love it so much.

I'll second what Sixby and Shawn said you have to take the chances that come your way!

The opportunity dosn't come by as often as I would like, and then when they do,I have to be able to make good.  This year it did not pan out I had 3 total shots at deer and had clean misses on ever one of them.  Then during this spring I had 2 shots on Hogs and missed those too!

The misses are frustating but you don't quit, you keep trying you do things different to figure things out. They'll be a day when the the stand was placed right, your in it on the right day, and the deer, hog, whatever stops at the right trail, and time, and you put it all together.

Then you pull that camera out and smile from ear to ear    Nothing like it!

I've had chances and misses! Still waiting to get my first.    :D      

Your first one always seems to take forever. Then it happens a little more often. Then over the years it get even more frequent. One thing I noticed, the more I'm out there the more I get. Sometimes I'm hunting for a week or more at a time. But I've had some great hunts. Wait till' you shoot the first one and the adrenaline kicks in. What a high. Gary

I'm still after my first deer; hunting Nebraska in Oct but after I chase big Mulies in the Milk River Basin in southern Alberta
110% gang

I've hunted blacktails for 50 years and rather successfully. I'm not a Ron French but I do have several good bucks and lots of smaller ones and does. My best success has been in hunting food sources, Elderberry patches ect. in complete camo and face mask with a heavy cover scent such as (Skunk Screen). I have had deer that I could literally touch and never know I was there. Always hunt the wind if you stalk and move like a turtle. Take a step or two and carefully look. Usually its a tail or an ear twitch that you will catch. I have seen one deer and then made out a whole group that I didn't see.

I like to hunt the high country ridges for big bucks late in season as they will lay right on a ridge top to get away from flies and to get wind. You need to work the ridge itself though , Not up and down or they will simply pop over the other side. This kind of hunting is slow and very quiet. If you can hear any noise you made you can bet the deer are already gone.

As a longtime blacktail, elk , hunter my one great observation is that humans greatly underestimate the survival senses of these animals. I have seen elk run out of a meadow when I was back in the trees a half mile away. How they could have seen me ( I had the wind) or somehow sensed me is unfathomable.

I will tell you this, If my familys life depended on me killing a deer with a bow and arrow. I would kill a moo cow.

God bless you all, Steve

I have to say I still am. I hunted a lot last year and missed every time. I got a new bow recently that is lighter and that I shoot better,but recently missed a hog. I shot at a turkey and there were wet under feathers on the broadhead,but he didn't look hurt a bit as he flew off. I'm missing closer though. I seem to be having a hard time aiming at live animals,as I do pretty well on the target. I'm missing high every time!  

I've been at it for almost nine years and have yet to take a Trad Deer... Now don't get me wrong... The action stalking and still hunting from the ground has been great!... But "Almost" ain't gonna put cutlets on the table...  :rolleyes:  ... Been lots of fun tryin'...

... mike ...

I've taken many deer over the years but still waiting for my first trad deer.  I still haven't even been tempted to go back to wheelie bows, though.  Eric.

I've been hunting hard for about 8 years so far and have only managed to kill a couple of carp with my recurve. I still haven't connected with ANY weapon on deer, turkey or hogs. I've shot at (and missed) several deer and turkey with compounds, recurves and longbows. I always seem to mess up, somehow! VERY frustrating at times, but I just remind myself that I learn something every time I hit the woods, and that I'm now trying accomplish this feat by (almost) the hardest possible way. I have to hunt VERY over-hunted public land (military installation that is closed for a lot of the season, which doesn't allow for much scouting), and I hunt from the ground and with a stick and string. I still enjoy seeing God's creation, in all it's glory, every time, and I know that I'm much too stubborn to EVER give up!!!! Glad to know that I'm not the only one, though. I don't believe in luck, so, God bless each and every one of ya!

I'm still looking for my first turkey......some day, but i'm not concerned about it.

I'm after my first animal with homemade equipment.  Osage longbow and arrows.

-Jeremy  

I'm still after my first deer with traditional equipment.  I'm hoping to find some more time this summer to shoot the bow.  I've laid it down the last couple years due to not devoting enough time to shooting it.

I am after my first big game kill still weather that be deer or pig, hope this will be my year.

Both pig and deer have fallen, but that darn elk eludes me after 4 years of trying. ( I did have one miss last year and still kicking myself for that). This year is the year!!!!