early in

I didn't realize we were discussing broadheads.

TreednNC

I wont say it has helped me as far as hunting goes, but it certainly hasnt hurt. I have hunted the same places as before (not a lot of choices on 60 acres lol ) and still saw deer and killed deer. I will say that reading this site, seeing all the newbies score, sure gives me the inspiration to get out there and try try try and possible try things that I normally wouldnt before.

My biggest thing is I NEED TO HUNT ON THE GROUND MORE. Ive got a lot of deer moving in areas where I can't get into a tree at, or if I do, Im skylined, so I just avoid them.....that along with the fact that it's thick thick thick. So I avoid them. Next year, like GMMAT said, Im going to be putting some ground blinds, preferably as natural as possible, in.

Critr-Gitr

There is alot of truth in BIGJ71's post, I agree very much.

There wasn't an internet when I started hunting, and I'm glad there wasn't. There are many, many things I would never have learned because they would have been so taboo if I had merely browsed the internet. The hunting world I grew up in was not overridden with PC BS. I learned the basics of hunting from my family, and much much more with just me and my friends.

The way I look at it, hunting is a very personal endeavor. While I enjoy reading and posting with you guys on here, what happens out in the field is very personal to me. Hunting is a sport where neither the other team or the referee is on the field with you. It is about competition and goals within yourself, and not how they apply to others. It is about being proud of your behavior, and doing the right thing, even when there is no one to watch you. When you bring competition with others into the mix, then IMO you cheapen what you do. Which is not to say I do not enjoy hunting with friends and family, but I am proud of the accomplishments in the field for what they are, and not whose is better. And that is much of the problem with the internet. Horn porn, antler envy, call it what you want but it is out there by the bucketful on the net.

Not to say there isn't good info out on the net, because there is. I have learned many things, of all kinds, on the net. But for the one just learning, who doesn't know better, sifting through the BS can be tough. I would rather just take my chances in the woods, they way it has always been. After all, are we not trying to get back to our roots when we hunt? The primeval urge to kill? Where has the internet been throughout history? Hunting has always been a man (or woman), with their weapon, in the woods, in a very personal endeavor.

My son does not really look up hunting on the net. He hunts with me or his grampa, andmore and more we are letting him make some of his own mistakes. He is progressing, and the leash is lengthening. Soon we will slip the lead and let him run, free to go into the wild to return as he needs. It is the way it should be.

Planter

You just don't know what your getting on the net. We have master hunters who post about shooting nothing less than 130" deer but can't produce a pic. You could just be a good parrot repeating everything you've read, heard or whatever and still have zero practical knowledge.

I'm guessing the hot blonde in the "phone entertainment" business is neither blond or hot.

GMMAT

All VERY valid points, guys.....

I've got a great friend who started bwhunting at an early age. If I'm not mistaken.....he went 6 SEASONS....admittedly killing a deer in each of them....and never recovering one. Would a person starting out be better served (andwould the herd he's hunting?) to go through such a stretch?

Woodmanship......"killer instinct"......can be learned hunting any animal. I'm not sure these things CAN be "taught". Asmany of you have said.....I wouldn't trade the days I started out shooting sparrows with a crossman for anything.

But let's take Duke and Gri22 as examples......

Would they be better served to go blindly into new grounds and learn it the hard way (ALL on foot) v. studying aerials and topos? Would they be shorting themselves the "experince" if they took tidbits of knowledge from the landowner? The farmer? Is it better to take a shooting tip from an accomplished hunter....or learn it on your own?

Some of my fondest memories in deer hunting are from the early days when I walked into a woodlot and willy-nilly set up a blind or clibed a tree......with NO direction. None. I realize, now, how foolish I was....and that's OK!

But learning to read a topo (even at the level I'm at, now) is only a first step. Ya still have to be smart enough to apply any knowledge gleaned. That's done through trial and error.

Tactics? I've eaten more crow than anyone I know, here. Bucks not hanging out where does frequent? Crow. Playing the wind? Crow. Heavier arrow setups? Crow. Speed as THE factor in arrow efficiency? Crow. Concealment issues? Crow. BH's? CROW!

If someone is smart enough to ONLY take solid advice......then they're smarter than I.

Duke loves to say "hang to kill". I probably did this 5-7 times out of a TON of sits, this year. My goal is to be smart enough to do this on a more regular basis. Would it be more virtuous to learnALL of this (see above)on one's own? Maybe. I DO see both sides....but I think people have views that lead them to believe that there's no trial/error process that STILL needs to be experienced. If there is.....I'm not that good.

Critr-Gitr

I'm not necessarily saying learn it all the hard way, though there is a character building process that does benefit there. I believe a person appreciates things more when they have to work for them and rely on themselves. But mainly I just really believe in the traditional family/friend hunting unit that is time proven. I realize not everyone has the benefit of that system, and must get information where they can. But I did have that system and I'm glad I did. And I will teach it to my sons and daughter. Just a different perspective I suppose.

GMMAT

Not a different perspective between us, Critr. I had the same.

Critr-Gitr

I could write a book on crow recipies, Jeff. To me it is part of it. And I didn't mean we had a difference of opinion, just that it might be different than some. It's all good.

brucelanthier

I ahve been in the "internet" since screens were monochrome, before the world wide web LOL. Back then it was no different than it is now, information-wise other than there is a lot more of it now. You will get out of it what you want to get out of it. You can buy a set of encyclopedias but, if all you do is look at the pretty pictures you won't learn much. If you read to learn and apply the knowledge to find out what works for you through trial and error you can learn faster.

Kinda like trying to learn spanish by watching spanish tv. Eventually you will learn spanish but it would go much faster if you got to talk to spanish speaking people and ask them questions.

OHbowhntr

Heck Scott, the internet has been around since about the time you probably started??? I'm one of the guys who wished I'd have had a resource like this way back then. I kind of taught myself about a "Walk-Back" tune when it seems that moving sights couldn't fix what was wrong, I shot some CHEAP 2212 arrow out of a 70# bow at 31" using my fingers, and wondered why every time I actually hit a target at my first 3D shoot the arrow snapped off, I didn't finish the first 10 targets and I was done because I'd busted ALL of my arrows. Right SPINE??? Nobody told me about any of that crap, I had some money in my pocket and the arrows were $14 per half dozen and $24 per dozen. Nah, I'll take having somewhat of a clue what I'm doing over being CLUELESS, some of the mishaps were funny, I look back and laugh at that day now, but I'll tell you that at the time, I was probably SMOKING I was so pissed off. My buddies were not sure what to do/think/say because their arrows weren't breaking like mine. They bragged my bow up for years, as being the "FASTEST" bow ever!!!! And that old Pearson Spoiler at 70# and 31" shooting a 2212 probably was awful damn fast, it was expensive, too!!!!! I learned from that though, thereafter, I bought heavier arrows, 2117's and 2219's. And when the first carbons came out, it was the stiffest arrow they make for me, because I wasn't going through any more 10 target 3D courses anymore!!!

No, Scott, I'd take the information highway over the way I learned hands down.

Edit: I never came from a hunting family, my two best buddies came from "hunting families" but one's Dad died when he was 8, and the other's Dad was on the road all the time. We all 3 learned by the school of hard knocks, and it took several years of "ignorant" hunting techniques before any of us killed a deer with a bow. We always killed them with shotguns, that was easy, but getting one with a bow, that was another story altogether!!! I still look at the old Nap Center-Rests I used and think "What a genius that guy who designed it must've been!!!"