My first hunting season, I was in the woods with an old SKS rifle I had bought to play around with the year before. I knew nothing about deer hunting. I had done a lot of squirrel hunting with an air rifle as a young teenager but I had never been on a deer hunt. My father doesn’t hunt. His father did. I do not recall a single conversation about hunting with anyone in my family. In 1988 I married into a family of accomplished hunters. I was allowed access to some of their family land and encouraged with a few gifts or hunting accessories. They strongly disapproved of my choice in weapon. I suppose I would have had to prove myself before being invited along on a hunt.
That first year, I shot at a deer that was running away. Thankfully I missed it. I hunted without scouting. I was resistant to change.
I am also CHEAP. I am notoriously cheap. I refused to buy hunting specific weapons. I had an old military rifle and a 12 gauge riot gun. I wanted to do it on my own terms.
By my third season I had started to read about hunting and had picked up a few things. I still didn’t own a tree stand. I missed a decent buck from 25 yds with a slug from that riot gun. I still have no idea how I could have missed. It was a broadside shot in the last 5 minutes of legal light. I sat in the freezing rain while 4 inch icicles formed on my elbows. I drove deep into the mountains alone in an old VW with no heat.
I spent 2 days in a swamp with a .357 pistol. I was putting in the time.
My 4th season started with BowSeason. I had a second hand PSE. I shot and shot and shot untill I could hit the vital section every time from 25 yds. I built a chain on stand out of 2x4’s, plywood, and heavy rope. It’s was an ugly noisy monstrosity but it worked. Opening day found me up a tree on public land with so many other hunters around that it’s a miracle I saw the small pig-like albino doe that came shuffling along just out of range. I hadn’t bothered to go very far from the road.. Later that season I actually spent 2 days scouting with a friend to find a spot where I could hang that ugly stand near a fireroad. As we were walking down a well traveled game trail we walked out on a group of about 6 turkey. I drew my bow and aimed at the largest wich was less than 10 yards away. It just stood there waiting. I didn’t shoot. I didn’t know if they were in season that day. They were.
I hung my stand that afternoon and hunted that night and the next morning. All my time and effort seemed to pay off when a spike buck came walking up the trail that emptied out onto the fire road right in front of me. The deer stopped behind a fir tree just 15 feet in front of me. There was a small hole in the branches about 6 inches by 8inches that displayed his vitals.. I thought I could shoot thru it and hit my mark. I caught a small branch and the arrow jumped high over his back. He didn’t leave …..until I dropped the next arrow trying to get it out of the quiver. The season didn’t get any better for me.
The next two seasons I didn’t even see a deer. I hurt my shoulder and couldn’t draw a bow. I stopped hunting. I took that old ugly home made stand to my dad’s house and stuck it in the basement. I changed jobs several times. Wives too.
8 years passed. We bought a house near the woods. The deer were in my backyard. One night last year I asked my wife, who had not married a hunter, if I could buy a crossbow and go hunting. She said ok. I read everything I could get my hands on. Reviewed satellite maps of the area. Scouted, planned practiced. Dug that ugly old homemade stand out of my dad’s basement and hung it in the woods. My wife sirprised me with a “real” tree stand. I hung it in another spot in those same woods. I took a doe the 3rd day of bow season. I spent over 100 hours in the woods last season and didn’t take another deer. I did miss a shot at a very nice buck ( new rifle and it hadn’t been sighted in properly).

This year, I have spent hours scouting. Reading maps, reading and discussing the effect of the weather on the deer herd. I spent a full day sighting in and shooting my rifle. I now own a climbing stand and will be practicing with it many times between now and opening day. I have permission to hunt on some nice private land where I think I have a very good chance of success. For the hunting that I will be doing on public land, I plan to go very deep into the woods and get as far away as I possibly can from the roads.
I’m sure I will have more mistakes to relate at the end of the season but they wont be the same ones I already made.

David