isatarak

When I bought some prime hunting land in 1999. That has made all the difference in my hunting enjoyment. Also got me started bowhunting. I still gun hunt though.

130woodman

There has been alot of turning points. The latest has to be the ongoing decision to start a GDM program and turn the tables to create some luck instead of stumbaling across it.It's been apretty good run.

GMMAT

I had a turning point occur, yesterday. Lisa and I were heading up to my mom’s house to do some things for her…..and while riding up the highway…..I glanced to the right and saw a deer behind the guardrail…..bedded with its head up. I got up to the next exit and made a big loop. When I got to where the deer was…..I pulled over and got out. When I got back to her….I could tell her right front leg was mangled up pretty badly. She was just bedded there with her head up….panting badly. I had no weapon with me. Nothing. In the meantime she tried to get up and basically rolled down the embankment, under some brush.

I went back to my truck and looked for anything. Nothing. I called the GW (friend)…and he was off duty and out of the area. He called the on-duty officer….who called me…..and I told him where we were. He came and dispatched her.

I can’t tell you how hard it was to look at that deer in the condition she was in. I’ll never forget it.

To relate this incident to this post……I think my effective range just got even shorter. To thin I might have an animal out there that was suffering like this girl was…..bothers the hell out of me. I now there’s no such thing as a “sure thing”……but they’re gonna have to be close for me, from now on.

There’s my turning point…….

Charlie P

The first time I took my son with me in the woods and realized for me this is what it's all about,passing it on.

aldo88

The most defining turning point in my hunting was standing behind my son and watching him shoot his first deer. Because it was then that I realized what my father saw when I got my first deer.

BowHuntingFool

I bought my first Longbow yesterday!!!!!

Last night was pretty cool, I cooked up some backstraps and the boy tried it and liked it! He likes summer sausage and jerky but refused to try it cooked. Not a big steak type fan, he came back for seconds! This was my late season Doe that butchered my self, kinda cool I thought!

Schultzy

There's something about eating a critter that you butchered up yourself. I always thought the same way!

Schultzy

Turning points for me was when I picked up the recurve at the age 3 that dad bought me. Mom and dad couldn't get that bow out of my hand, dad was proud of his son! I can't wait to do the same and give my daughter the option of bow hunting as well if she'll partake in it. My biggest turning point lately was when I switched from compound to recurve some 13 years back. I never knew bow hunting could be this exciting for me!

SouthDakotaHunter

The year that I decided to take the plunge and buy a bow and take up archery hunting. It was a little longer road for me because at the time I didn’t really know anyone that archery hunted so I had to learn most everything myself.

Now it seems weird, but at the time, my decision to buy which bow was totally based on that years archery review in Outdoor Life – I didn’t even bother shooting any bows. I just bought the Editors Best Buy pick…


That year after getting my bow I put successfully harvested a Muley buck from the ground and my hunting has never been the same sense.

HuntingBry

[ul][*]When I was 15 and got a call from a friend who worked in an outdoor shop saying they just got in aused left handed bow if I wanted to look at it. This was a huge turning point that got me started down the bowhunting path.[*]When I moved to Florida and was no closer than 2 1/2 hours from the nearest available hunting. This made me realize how important hunting was in my life.[*]My return to PA which was driven by my need to hunt.[*]Most recently, graduating from grad school which allowed me to have more time to hunt and the resources to hunt the way I want. This allowed me to commit myself to hunting more mature deer and putting more time in the woods both hunting and scouting than I ever have before.[/ul]