How long did it take you to become a "Good Hunter"?

Jimmy S · 02-08-2007, 08:05 AM

I realize it is a constant learning experience when deerhunting. We can literally hunt our entire life and still learn something each and every time we go afield. That being said:

How long did it take you to become good at hunting deer? When you finally became confident in your style of hunting and put your scouting to work?

Also do folks that hunt in areas with large deer numbers become "good" quicker simply beause they see deer more often than not?
Or, do large deer numbers require less proficiency than those hunters that have to scout harder and longer to be successful because of the limited number of deer?

I personally believe that the number of deer taken has absolutelty nothing to do with how good a deer hunter someone is.

Personally, ittook me until my 3rd or 4th year to become somewhat confident in what I was doing. Confident not necessarily successful, because Idid not have the luxury of seeing deer more than a few times during the entire week. But I at least felt good about how and why I decided to hunt a certain area and what method I would use.

kevin1 · 02-08-2007, 08:57 AM

It took me six years to get my first deer, and two weeks after that to get my second. This past season I got bupkus due to lack of time afield, so i guess I'm not good yet.

Red Lion · 02-08-2007, 09:00 AM

A "good hunter" by your definition? I would say4 years from the start to become a good solid hunter using firearms. I think/know that I am still in process of becoming a good bowhunter; not there yet, but not for lack of trying.

KoBear · 02-08-2007, 09:19 AM

i would say it took me 5 years.

it would vary from person to person. it depends on how quick you learn and how much time you have in the field, and how passionate you are about it, i would imagine.

and i feel that if your a good bowhunter, you will be a good gun hunter. i shoot most of my deer with my gun at the same distance that i shoot deer with my bow.

Paul L Mohr · 02-08-2007, 03:22 PM

I don't feel I'm really there yet. I am very proficient with weapons, I have no trouble putting an arrow or bullet in a deer when I need to. However I don't consider myself all that great of a "Hunter" yet. I have been doing it for about six years. I am not real hardcore about though, which doesn't help. Because of my small size and the fact I don't own any land and am pretty poor deer hunting is a bit of logistical nightmare for me. Heck I don't even own a truck

.

I think now that I know I like to hunt I might focus more on small game and turkey. These are things I can do much easier on my own. I think I can handle dragging a bunny out of the woods.

I still manage to average one deer a year though.

Paul

Gangly · 02-08-2007, 04:30 PM

Im still not a good hunter

rybohunter · 02-08-2007, 05:13 PM

The 1st day I set foot in the woods

[8D] <<<<< HUGE JOKE. BEING FUNNY. NOT COCKY

Honestly I don't think I'm that great a hunter. I just am lucky enough to hunt good spots. BUT setting that aside, I have hit steps of "good". My dad REALLY prepared me to hunt when I first started. Some ups and downs thru those early years I was a little inconsistent, but did manage at least one deer a year since I've started. It was about 7 years before I was confidentAND routinely successful when it came to bowhunting. I've kept upping the bar. Despite killing a bunch of bucks, I wasn't that good, they were young deer. Now that I've stepped up to hunting mature bucks, I've still had good success. I'd consider myself good, with a TON still yet to learn.

I've found myself getting "sloppy" because things were "easy". I needed to humble myself and did. So in short, I feel I'm good. But I've got so much more to learn, and some guys I know make me look like a dang incompetent boob.

GregH · 02-08-2007, 05:26 PM

Still trying.

Hiawatha · 02-08-2007, 05:34 PM

I was fortunate that when i started hunting i never had anyone to show me what was to be done. My dad never hunted at all so i had little advice given tome. I say i was fortunate because all that i have picked up over the past 10 years or so has been hands on knowledge learning from mistakes rather than someone telling me what to do. When i was a little guy i used to try like a bugger and put in a ton of effort and still come up with just average deer. I still try hard but i am alot smarter about how i go about it now and am starting to see the benefits of my first 4 or 5 years being "re-building" years lol. Always going to learn something new but i am alot more confident now than i was when i started. Obviously i ain't learnt it all yet cause the buck i was after is still walkin around and not on my wall.

eatsleephunt · 02-08-2007, 07:41 PM

My main downfall is patience. However, I would say that it took me about 7 or 8 years to feel confident about hunting. This was in the white tail woods of Illinois though. I think the breaking point was when I turned 16 and could drive, from that point I started learning more from first hand experience instead of being with my dad all the time.

When I moved west I was able to apply quite a bit of knowledge previously learned, but it was really like starting over in a lot of ways. I think that starting out young as a bow hunter allows a person to adapt quickly to new hunting types/methods/terrain. When you know how to get close to the game, the odds are in your favor. I find open plains rifle hunting for mule deer and antelope very challenging. Sometimes the effort of getting 250yds from something feels like finally getting a good whitey under your stand (after all of the care and prep that went into it)