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.

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

I'm going to say when I was just a little fart. By the time I was 4 years old my dad couldn't get home quick enough from work as far as I was concerned. I couldn't shoot my little recurve unless he was with me. I've been nuts about It ever since!!

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

iv been hooked since i first picked up a gun. iv always felt a kinship to the long hunters of the past, i gues you could say my heroes growing up were daniel boone and kit carson, iv always known that i was meant to be a hunter, and every day in the woods just makes that even more evident. the respect for the game, the thrill of the chase, the let down and elation of the kill, icouldnt be anything else if i tried. me...im a hunter through and through have been since i was a babe and will be till i die

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

I knew before I ever hunted. My dad would go and I couldn't wait for him to get back to see if he shot anything. My older brother went when he was 12 and I was POed because he got to go and I didn't. Well my brother hated hunting but I couldn't wait to go. I was 9 at that point. I would also go rabbit, goose, and duck hunting before I could legally hunt so I never had a chance.:D

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

I was hooked before I knew it.

I honestly can't remember how long I've been shooting. I know I was very young. I know I was shooting a recurve my dad bought at a garage sale. I know I was shooting hand-me-down aluminium arrows my dad had given me.

I've been hooked longer than I can remember.

It definitely didn't take shooting an animal to reinforce the fact that I love this sport.

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

when I quit compound hunting and took up bowhunting (using recurves and longbows) - they are two different things, compound hunting and bowhunting ...

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

That's a tough question. Hooked on Bowhunting and chasing bigger bucks? November 4, 2004. Here I am, working from home on the phone with a customer and I look out the window to see this.


video here http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/m...t=200410pt.flv

From that point on, I've become obsessed with chasing Whitetails with the bow.

Great post by the way.

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

hmmm well since i went on that frozen marsh for the first time that december it was december of 97 and i was 8. Shot my first black duck he is sitting right above me as we speak :DI can remember every second. When i first got into bowhunting was when i first saw that little 3 pointer sneaking out of the thicket infront of me i was 12. That was my first archery kill and i havnt looked back since. Im now 19 and have2 more bow kills since that one. They were both this year :D

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

Ever since my Dad started taking me upland and waterfowl hunting when I was a small boy. I started going with him at age 6 which would have been 1978. As I got older, hunting occupied most of my thoughts and all of my free time.

I started shotgun hunting for deer in 1985 and killed a doe. That started my obsession with deer hunting. Then in 1991 a very good friend got me into bow hunting and I have never looked back!

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

I killed the first deer I ever saw off of the stand. It was my very first bowhunt and it was my 14th birthday.

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

The first time I saw a deer on stand

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

Mine was my first year of bowhunting, my very first hunt. A big 8 pointer followed the fence row right to my stand like it was on a string. He stopped at 15 yards and i flung an arrow right under him, just missed.It was intense. that was with an old Oneida bow that i hated. This year i got a PSE and have killed two deer with it in my second season bowhunting. HOOKED!

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

I can remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 1978, I was 5 years old. My Dad pulled in the front yard, jumps out of the truck and runs in the front door. I had never seen him so excited (still haven't) in my life.

Mom said, WHATS WRONG!!! He said, nothing's wrong I JUST KILLED THE BUCK!!!!!!As we went out to see, friendsand family had started to show up to see "the buck". The local news paper even came by that morning for pic's and astory.

Wow, the rack was sobig I couldn't holdthe buck'shead up. Needless to say, the excitement and magnitude of that day left a mark. The buck was 14 points and scored 186, to a five year old boy, it was a moose.

My shrink said, it was this event that created a monster. [8D]:D:D

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

I was hooke before i even got to the woods for the first time :DHeard my Uncle and my Dad talk of trying it but they never did. I was all ears and very young, i just had to try it.

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

Oct 23 2005. Let me start out with I never hunted seriously until 2004. That year my sons and I started to learn to shoot bows with the Springwater Archery Club. It was just a chance to spend some time with my boys. They were 11 and 12 years old.
We all got pretty good and won our first outdoor teamshoot that fall. Our neighbor was an avid Bowhunter and taught mealot of things about Bowhunting. In 2005 I got serious on Oct 23 I was 18 ft up in a climber and a nice 6 pt walked in at 23 yards 1 shot he ran 30 yards and that was it. The feeling of accomplishment was incredible.Since then the boys and I have taken 11 Deer (no monsters ) But all good eating. This sport has brought us closer together. Opening day is always a rush