Whitetail Deer HuntingGain a better understanding of the World's most popular big game animal and the techniques that will help you become a better deer hunter.
As far back as I can remember I can picture my dad leaving the house in the dark with some hot coffee, a lunch my mom packed, and his Wingmaster. I can remember wanting nothing in my life as badly as I wanted to go with him......but I was too young........I was in the woods and saw plenty of dead dear and was a hunter in training..........but I still couldn't go yet. When my brothers were old enough and I wasn't opening day broke my heart as I was the only one left behind. A Remington 870 under the tree marked the year I was able to come along for a tradition like no other in my life (I still hunt with it today). Since then 20 years have passed and the memories are endless.........crappy old videos on VHS tapes, grainy photos, forgotten lunches, complete spectrum of weather, and enough deer stories to talk for a week non stop. Gun season is just different.......the woods "feel" different, stuff happens in the blink of an eye.....shots ring out and make your heart race at the thought of someone in your group getting a deer and what might be coming up over the ridge your way. We have easily killed hundreds of deer over the years and they are all special..........but not even close to the memories I have of sharing that time with my family. When our butts hit the tailgate for lunch it is simply time I treasure. Today things are different.......on the outside. Now dad sits on our trucks and laughs at all the toys we have accumulated to stay warm and shoot a deer......he is a self taught hunter that I have seen pull off open sight shots with a smooth bore slug gun that left me speechless........he also hunts from the ground. Just plain old school. At the heart of it though, nothing has changed........just the reflections in the mirror. I know the day will come when my dad hangs up the wingmaster and I really don't even want to think about it. One thing I do know is I would never trade the memories over the last 2 decades for anything.
That's gun hunting to me..........the cold biting at my toes, snow flakes the size of Frito's, great friends, great family, and hopefully the acrid smell of gunpowder smoke engulfing my stand
As far as the challenge goes it may be the most difficult of all. My slug gun is sighted in at 50 yards and 95% of my kills over the years have all been in bow range. With the pressure deer get during gun, getting them in that close is anything but easy. I feel no greater accomplishment when taking one with a bow vs my shotgun........I have had "hard" and "easy" hunts with both.
Those that weren't brought up with this experience may never understand it truely.
Well said! I think your right on Greg. If you've never experienced the things atlas has brought up, how could you understand it?
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When I break out the gun, 90% of my hunting goes to public land spots. It kinda evens the odds and makes it VERY challenging. Taking a public land buck for me with a gun, is basically like bowhunting Private land, to me. As far as the feeling of getting the kill. My goal, for years to come, is to take a good public land buck with bow gear.
When I say public land, this isn't like Iowa public land, or Illinois, or some Midwest state where it isn't unusual to take a 140" out of. This is a place, where if you kill an 80" 8pt, people's jaws drop. Sign and deer sightings are usually very few and far between. That's why I was so shocked when I found this spot, that I've been talking about. It's VERY VERY rare, and no one is hunting it but me and a buddy. It's hard to hunt it, and hard to get to, but I want that deer more than anything. I've been putting in a ton of hours in that spot, and have only seen 1 doe. I just can't hunt where I need to be.
It's not like glassing private land food plots. Or picking and choosing deer. Picking and choosing deer, has led to me not taking an archery buck, again. I'm fine with that though.
Anyway, atlas, I am the same way as you. I have been brought up with the same traditions as you speek of, but I started with a 30-30. I love hunting with other people, and especially with my family. I could care less if other people say that gun hunting isn't any fun. Hunting, isn't all about the hunting part.
During gun season, more often than not, I wind up driving an extra 6 miles past my spot on private land to hunt on public land. There's just not a big enough piece of private land around to hunt like that.
I never had the chace to hunt with my grandpa, but he started a tradition that will live on for generations in our family!
At 9 years old I followed my dad on a deer hunt, for the first time! At 10 and 11I carried a .410 single shot, at 12 it was a 20 gauge, and at 13 it was a 30-30 lever action!
If I had to put the bow or the gun down forever, it would be the bow! I could never give up the deer shack, and all the memories that come with it!
atlas: You just sent chills down my spine. As I sit here tonight and prepare to head to camp tomorrow afternoon for Monday's opener...I can picture everything you said in my mind.
Thank you for posting this. The last few years I've been facing the mental challenge as to why I continue to hunt with my rifle when I love my bow and flintlock that much more. Especially this year. Now I remember why. Its not the gun, its not the deer. Its the experience.
Why I love gun hunting as well as bow
I love that smell 
