thinking back. your first hunts. what did you do wrong?

[elky McElkerson]

my first \"real\" hunt was on a buddies ranch in NM. rifle hunt. mule deer.

my brother and i went. ZERO knowledge. we shot lots of jackrabbits with our rifles for years.. we also loaded our own ammo, so we had that part down PAT. we could shoot with the best of them. we both scored deer that first year. but thinking back, reminiscing. hahaha..what mistakes we made!

we stayed in a hotel in Lordsburg. i say it was a hour away. we had zero camping gear, and knew nothing about camping. we lived in a flea bed hotel, and ate at a diner. every morning we ate and made the drive. we did pack an ice chest for lunch. that ice flew out of the back of my jeep. exploded. we borrowed a tiny utility trailer and left it at the ranch, so i over stuffed the jeep and lost the cooler.

killed that deer in the worst spot. had zero clue about the meatless method or even taking the deer apart. moot point, i had a camelback on my back. no cargo space. we dragged the deer for miles. my deer was almost hairless by the time we got it back. yuck.
my brothers deer died mercifully closer to my jeep.

we had no binoculars. we used our rifle scopes as our optics. we truck hunted alot, leaving virgin valleys unexplored. i left the ranch with two deer in tow and FORGOT to offer the landowner any meat. DUH!!!

it was very cold so we got our deer back to a processor in El Paso easy.

oh, i almost poached a javalina. thank God i didnt shoot. i thought it was a regular wild hog..

i was such a rookie. fun, and addicted. thank goodness i got more information and experience. i am still far from any real skillfull outdoorsman/hunter. but i have some gear, some knowledge..and the INTERNET.

we had no mentors growing up..nobody to show us the ropes. i just read Jim Kjegaard books about the wilderness and my mom got me the occasionlal hunting magazine. anyone fly solo and learn the ropes by experience? or did you have a hunting family?

 

[iccyman001]

Wow!!!! Sounds like quite an experience!

I can\'t imagine an hour drive before my hunt. I get up so early to hunt and come out of the woods late. Add in the hour drive too and from and I am probably not sleeping!

Too bad you weren\'t still in El Paso! That isn\'t too far from here.

 

[elky McElkerson]

Wow!!!! Sounds like quite an experience!

I can\'t imagine an hour drive before my hunt. I get up so early to hunt and come out of the woods late. Add in the hour drive too and from and I am probably not sleeping!

Too bad you weren\'t still in El Paso! That isn\'t too far from here.

my family still lives there. My brother. We\'ll meet. Maybe even get you on that ranch.

 

[Swede]

Great story Elky. I a sure I have made my share of mistakes over time. I did not have a knowledgeable hunting mentor to get me started. Dad loved hunting, but relied almost entirely on luck and perseverance for getting game. Most of what I learned early on came from Outdoor Life Magazine or from my experiences. Experience is a treasure trove full of mistakes. Since those early years, I have read more stories and books that all helped. Seeing and hearing about tree stands was a huge leap in my progress. Since I started using tree stands, the internet has been another great source of information and a huge help. I am truly indebted to other hunters that have been willing to share their hunting knowledge.
Now, I pass on freely the things I know, unless you want the tree stand book. That will cost you $15. lol

 

[otcWill]

Good stuff, Cliff! I always enjoy hearing about peoples early days of hunting. I started bowhunting NJ whitetails when I was 9 years old so most of my mistakes were things like: missing, buck fever, doe fever, fawn fever, missing, falling asleep, quitting to go have breakfast with Grandma, fidgeting, and missing :lol: . I trade anything for one more breakfast with Grandma after a morning hunt

 

[cohunter14]

I was fortunate to be brought up in a hunting family, so my first hunt was with my father and grandfather. I did have some of the same mistakes as Will like sitting still, etc. And to this day I still make some mistakes, but I\'m sure we all do.

I do have a funny story about my first hunt though: back then, I was playing hockey and my dad was one of the coaches. We had a Friday evening practice, so we both had to be there. We headed out after that and drove the 6 hours to camp through the night. I got a little sleep, but once we hit the four wheel drive trail, I was awake and wired. We were about 1,000 yards from camp, which had been setup by my grandfather and another guy in our group, when my dad asked me \'do we take the shortcut or not?\' Having no clue what he meant, I immediately said \'yeah, shortcut!\' Well, the shortcut ended up being a path down through a muddy creek bottom instead of taking the extra two minutes and driving around the creek on the trail. What happens? We go down to the creek and thump, we high center and bury the truck in the mud! Keep in mind that this is around 1:00 in the morning.

So, off we go to wake up the guys in camp to come pull us out. Got two lessons in very quick: one, don\'t ever take that shortcut! Lesson two: never stand near a tow strap when you are pulling someone out. As my dad\'s buddy snapped the tow strap trying to pull us out, the tow strap ripped in half and one end went straight through my dad\'s buddy\'s grill on his truck.

When it was all said and done, we finally got pulled out of the mud, unpacked a few things, and got in bed by about 3:30 only to be up a few hours later for opening morning. I was so exhausted by the time we got back to camp for lunch that morning that I passed out in my cot. As I was sleeping, my grandfather went out for an afternoon hunt. He walked less than 50 yards out of the tent and BOOM! Dropped a doe right in it\'s tracks with his .270...and I never even woke up!

That first year was quite a bit of fun and made for some good memories