I grew up with assorted guns in my hand, shooting water moccasins and armadillos in S. La. Never did go deerhunting and plan to start this November. About all I have fired since I was 18 were little black rifles for Uncle Sam that don't kick or have scopes. So far, I have purchased a Rem. Mod. 700 in .30-06, tried to zero it, and spoken with my deerhunting brothers-in-law. I plan to hunt on my in-laws' farm in East Texas. I have my old Army camoflague uniforms and plan to wash everything in scent-kill soap from Oshman's. I tried zeroing the .30-06 with elk-rated 180 gr. ammo and forgot how I used to shoot my .303 Enfield. When the Enfield kicked back, I went with it back when I was 155 pounds. That recoil didn't bother me and I was always standing when I fired. Now I'm 200 pounds, seated on a stool at a rifle range, and forgetful, so I tried to stand my ground with the .30-06 and have a yellow/green shoulder as a result. Next time I will "give" with the recoil and am downgrading to deer-rated 125 grain bullets. I figure that's a large enough bullet to do the job if I will stop flinching at the prospect of recoil. (I caught myself once as I had forgotten to release the safety and flinched as I pulled the trigger.) I was always a dead shot as a teen and then as a soldier and expect to get back on track with practice and this lighter load. The rifle came with a Maverick scope that seems unimpressive. It will probably do for the short range shots I expect on the farm. Saw a nice entry-level Leupold at Academy that might be worth its 200 dollar asking price. I plan to scout the farm out for wind patterns and deer haunts the next chance I get, but the place has had no deer hunting preparations (unless you count the peach trees they like to eat up!) I need guidance on field dressing a deer. I plan to take it from the field to a nearby wild game processor.
My son is a big 9 year old who wants to tag along this year. Should be interesting to see him holding pretty still for hours on end. I guess he and I will be learning deerhunting together.