I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks. I feel like I "know" a few of you from reading all the posts. I am 46 y/o and live in central Vermont. My 8 y/o son asked me if we could hunt last fall while he was watching one of the cable hunting shows. We do alot of fishing together (with his 4 y/o brother too) so I told him to give me a couple of hunting seasons to get back into deer hunting then we could start getting him familiar with firearm safety,range shooting,state mandated hunter safety etc.
I have a number of friends who hunt with guns and bows. I put in about 55 hours last fall during rifle/muzzleloader season with no bucks spotted.

This summer I thought it would be fun to take up bowhunting so I borrowed my friends older Browning compound bow and immersed myself in as much as I could read about archery/bowhunting. Two months of target practice almost everyday and I felt confident up to 20 yards. Took the Vermont State bow safety course and sat in a treestand about 14 times during our 3 week early bow season which ended two days ago. Now my older boy wants a bow and he is itching to get started with rifle hunting next year. Both the boys have helped me scout and sat quietly one afternoon for about an hour while we waited to spot a deer.
I am looking forward to teaching both my boys about hunting as we have really spent some quality time together fishing.

Thanks for reading my long post. Looking forward to chatting with you folks some more.