I took my first deer when I was 20, a nice 8 pointer. I had been hunting about 6 years. This was in 1982. Back then if you saw a deer in Northern NY, you called the neighbors and told them about it. At our camp in the Adirondack mountains I only remember seeing one deer ever. Nowadays, you have to shoo them out of the bird feeders and wait for them to move out of the driveway before you drive in. Driving 55 at night on our back roads is just inviting an accident.

I have a friend from our church who took a deer when he was 16 and he hasn't gotten one since, and he is retired, late 50's to 60's. Now that's perseverance!