When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

Was it the first time a deer walked under your stand? How about that very first bowkill? Maybehammering a bigboy?

Mine wasn't any of that. It was actuallywhen I heard for the very first time, antlers of a (happened to be, tho I didn't know it at the time) mature buck laying a light tapping rythm on the saplings and brush as he made his way my way through the thick. In those 15 seconds I thought for sure I'd fall out of my tree from the uncontrollable shaking. I never did get him, but got something to last a lifetime... the addiction!

How about you?

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

I love this post...

It was October 1st. 1986. I was 11 years old

I shot 3 feet over the back of a doe at 7 yards with a 45 pound bear kodiak magnum recurve.

"I still remember the steam from her nostrils as she left the corn towards me"

On November 8th of 1986 I arrowed my first deer..a button buck.. Over the years hunting has caused me to lose various relationships with hot beautiful women...a few skipped school days....but 22 years later I'm married to a supporting wife and still huntin.

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

Actually I was a turkey hunter first, after that first roaring gobble I heard i knew I would be a hunter for life. After that I just picked up bowhunting naturally. A year later I missed a 7 point at 20 yards with my bear compound and had the shakes so damn bad I had to climb down and sit under the tree for no less than 20 minutes. Ive been a dedicated bowhunter ever since. I still get that feeling (albeit not quite to that extent :D) everytime I have an encounter like that. Its what gets me through the day, better than any drug anyone can come up with!

Im high on life!

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

When i grabbed hold of my first deer, a doe, and rolled it over then said "Dad, this doe has nuts!"

I then found out what a button buck was ;)

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

Hunter for life? Fall of 2000 (i think?), blew an opportunity with Dad at a legitimate 160 class deer..on my first week of hunting.

Bowhunter for life....this years success has reassured this. After turkey season closes I am going to make a highlight cap of 2008, far and away a year to remember for me.

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

This season in general has got me hooked. I have seen more deer in bow range than any other and when i killed my first buck with a bow(10 point) that sealed the deal, i was hooked.

Wayne

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

Late Oct 2005

I had a small buck chasing a few does and one small BB below me. I knew I wasn't going to try to shoot any of them.....but I still had to push my right leg back against the tree with my spare hand to keep from shaking me out of the tree I was in. i was shaking that bad.

Hooked.

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

The very first time I picked up a bow, I became attached. (no pun intended)

The first time I drew back on a deer I had already had coons playing, wood ducks dropping in the pond and swimming around right behind me, squirrels in the tree with me, and a frosty 32 deg morning when the deer stepped out and I came to full draw. I wish I could bottle that morning and just open it and take a long drink of it every day.

LT

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

I was born with a love for the woods...I worked on the farm from about the time I was 8 yrs old and during the brakes of the summer when the farming was done, I walked the woods and fileds of the farm in the middle of July!!! I was hooked before I ever knew it, before I ever shot at a deer, before I ever knew what i was doing.....

RE: When did you know you were hooked for life?
 

Ill get the video of how bad I was shakin this fall when I had a deflection on a small 1.5yo 8 this year...he pushed a doe directly under my stand, the arrow deflected by 2-3 feet ona 15 yard shot...I was RATTLED. it wasnt the buck either, I had passed him 1-2 times before and 3 times since...I just thought it felt right on THAT hunt, glad it worked out the way it did now looking back.

My buddy who was filming said probably 20 times, "Trevor your seriously going to have to stop shaking man..your goin to fall out of the dam tree!" I watched the footage later, HILARIOUS. Ill post it up for you guys to get some good jabs in on me when I get my hands on that tape, it is too funny. I shook for probably 20+ minutes.