Who else introduced themselves to hunting?

sheephunter said:
We go hunting :) We both have real jobs that pay the bills and we each work several others that pay for hunting. There's not much else either of us would rather be doing so we do it. Just got back from date night in the whitetail stand!
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You never feel you need time alone or something that is yours?... Interesting
 
My brother and I went hunting for the first time this year. We talked about going for about five years now but decided to just go for it.
We bought similar rifle packages and lots of the same gear, so we looked like middle aged twins.

The first day, in early November, we went out with my brothers neighbour; a great guy, just turned seventy. He drove us around to some areas he liked and just dropped us off. We walked as quiet as we could hoping to bump a buck. We startled a buck and a doe but didn't have a shot. It was a great day anyway just hanging out with my brother.
In the last couple of weeks, we've gone out three more times, often spotting deer but with no results. The best chance I had was on a doe at 170 yards, but I was shaking so hard the scope was all over the place. I ducked down behind the rise in the prairie to get calm, and when I popped up and shoulder my rifle I couldn't see anything. I had been breathing on my scope lens and fogged it up!

I am glad I didn't shoot anyway because my brother pointed out it was a Mule deer and we only had tags for Whitetail.
I have learned so much about hunting in the short time we've been out. Like bring extras socks when you fall knee deep in a beaver pond or read ballistics data before you go out. (Big difference in drop between 300 and 400 yards)
I will wrap this up now but I have a ton more stories about my short time hunting. The best thing is I can't wait to go again next year, and who knows, I might even bag a deer!
 
My parents emigrated here from the old world before meeting and marrying and having me. No one in my family hunts. They've farmed, and I still have relatives in the village that still do, There was no one to teach me.

Military service (almost 20 years ago) introduced me to firearms, but I've just started venturing out on my own now to hunt, reading everything I can and talking to any hunter that isn't glowering at me when I wave at them (yes, hunters can be a surly bunch, I've noticed...).

I'm in NC now and I'm traipsing around the Smokey Mountains hot on the trail of (trying to) stalk wild boars with my AR-15 (they still have real boars here, not the feral pigs Texas has). I take lots of pictures of what I think are signs of the buggers, then come back to the hotel and check to see if I'm right. Over the 6 weeks I've been going out, I've taught myself a lot about stalking - mostly through trial and error and checking the pictures of their signs to confirm or deny my hunches about them (and what they like to rub against, which is pine. Deer don't rub their velvet off on pine as the sap sticks to their horns. You hunters all know this of course, but remember, this is all new to me). It's time consuming to go out, fail, come back, research what you did wrong, go back out, repeat, but as we used to say, you have to put in the time.

I've gotten to the point however, that just last week I came within 50 or so yards of a doe, and had 2 'yotes pass me by without being alarmed by me. I know the 'yotes aren't that big a deal, but to a newbie like me, just being that close to animals is a thrill. I don't have deer tags for NC, or the right caliber for deer (standard AR chambering of .223) so I was happy to watch her feed and then leave.

I'm sure that at this pace of learning, I'll get good enough in my stalking to bag my first piggy, but even if I don't, I've already planned my next hunting trip in AZ (where I'm heading after the holidays).

In the meantime, here are a few pics I took while I was out trying to teach myself to hunt.







 
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