1st time hunter introduction

[oysters00]

Ive been researching through this forum for the last couple weeks and figured i'd start an account and introduce myself. born and raised in spokane washington i have never gone hunting. love hiking... love camping... love the outdoors... been getting into fishing the last 3 years and just picked up a salmon drift rod this last spring (lots of fun). so im pretty excited to get my feet wet. getting into this for the meat and hoping the hobby/work brings me joy as well. not going to lie, i have a hard time watching animals die and know im going to have a rough time taking ones life. still have reservations killing fish and things like razor clams...  yeah no joke. i never even shot at birds as a kid and dont smash all the spiders i find either haha. but of coarse, im a great home cook and i buy all the 'cheap' mass produced meat from the grocery stores and supermarkets... so morally speaking at this point its get rich, become a vegan or get to hunting for me, and like i said... i love to cook and eat. i figure after i find some luck and put something in the freezer i should be able to afford to supplement what i hunt with local meat instead of the chain stores.

I will be taking the hunter education coarse in cdl on the 7th of november which i will parlay into a washington state hunting license and late archery season deer tag. tore my right rotary cuff twice, pretty bad too i think, 4 years ago and it still gives me problems but i dont think it will effect me pulling back, now days it only makes appearances when i extend it straight up in the air.

bear in mine i have never shot a compound bow...i got a good deal on a new bear authority. i decided to get the 60lb version. at just over 6' and 195 lbs (180 very lean) i almost went with a 70lb but took many peoples advice here to not go macho man randy savage with it... thanks. i have not been professionally measured for my draw length but i have measured it myself multiple times and i believe it is just over 29.5". found 6 gold tip pros on clearance (bad idea??) from midway... they were only $42 with 2 inch vanes. hopefully not too good to be true. decided on 125 grain slick trick viper fixed broadheads. now i dont know exactly how long i will have my arrows cut too but at 8.9 grains per inch and 30 inches my foc was sitting around 10.5. i also ran all the numbers on the speed and kinetic energy calculators with the 449.5 grain arrows. assuming the 60lb authority will tighten down to 63 lbs, my draw length is 29.5 inches and arrows cut at 30 inches, my arrows should fly out the gate at 260 fps with 67.5 ft/lbs. with 63 ft/lbs at 30 yards this should tackle the job at hand well.

i had bought a scent away kit and small saw for an early present for my brother (his 2nd season) who lives on the west side of the state. we had plans to hunt for black tail north east of marysville this weekend coming up, but unfortunately plans just fell through... so now i need to get him something else . i bought a pack rack and uproar for deer calls. i also bought a cheap used tru flight wrist release off ebay. it seems like it should have less play before release... i understand i have to pay for the sensitivity releases, but this seems a bit ridiculous. is it possible its just worn? action doesnt even start until its been pulled close to 1/2 inch back.

ive been doing extensive research from my computer. my plan is to stay close to home so i can go out as man days as possible. regardless i might try an early day or two just west of curlew in gmu 101. i'd be driving there and back each time i go so id rather not but its the only unit open during the rut,from what i can tell, and the deer are more active in that unit late season as well. gmu 101 starts on nov 7th instead of the 25th like gmu 124 and 127 closer to home. but i plan on making my base at mica peak. i figured id shell out the 40 dollars for a little more elbow room. i have already printed off and detailed a topo map of the area as well as studied the area on google maps for hours on end.

i hit my speedbag, doubleend bag and heavy bag pretty regularly and that keeps my upper body in decent shape. the lady and i recently bought a pair of decent mnt bikes. ive been riding at beacon hill and up and down the south hill getting into good shape. i plan on mnt biking from star rd at mica peak on up... does anyone know about how far up i should i ride before i start? what are the chances that even stays feasible through november and early december? it looks like a lot of the hunting can be had below 3600 feet. i do a lot of snowboarding (plan on wearing old gear to hunt with) and i know 4000 ft around here can be sitting with 2 feet by december... so maybe ill be hiking in... if anyone can chime in who knows the area during that season it would be greatly appreciated.

i plan on making a couple trips to get a feel for the area as i havent been there for about 20 years. i might try making a natural blind or two as i hear spot and stalk is quite hard for whitetails round here. tree stands next year hopefully. i also plan on deboning the deer in the field. for the people who have packed out a deer with their bike and a backpack... about how many lbs was it safe to ride with?

one last question... anyone know if you can bowhunt at beaconhill by minihaha park? its in the no shooting zone and deer area 1050. i see a group of 20-25 turkeys nearly every time i go mnt biking on the selkani side.

well shoot i rambled on long enough...

if anyone has any tips or pointers for me im all ears, otherwise wish me luck and send up the prayers for a safe and beneficial hunt.

and to everyone who adds their two cents to this website, i learned a lot by simply reading numerous threads. again thanks.

[wannabhntr]

Welcome. Sounds like you have done your research on your archery equipment. I would suggest taking your arrows to White Tail Plus in Deer Park to have them cut. If you haven't shot your bow I would also suggest maybe shooting regulary and maybe skipping this season. You really want to make sure that you are comfortable with you equipment before you start throwing arrows at animals. I don't believe that you can hunt Beacon Hill. I believe that it is a county park now. Check on the Id hunter safety too. Not sure how that works transferring over. That being said I've nevr looked into it. Good luck if you decide to go and shoot straight.

[boneaddict]

Nice introduction.  Welcome to the outdoors and to this site.   I hope it continues to inspire you. 

[Blacktail Sniper]

  Howdy!

[huntnphool]

  Be sure to study up on field care of the meat. For someone just starting out, you don't want to make a mistake and end up with "gamie" meat and get stigmatized.

 Be sure to get the hide off and bones out asap, then get it cooled down. If you do this, it will go a long way in keeping you hunting for your own meat.

[bobcat]

Welcome. My suggestion would be to look into hunting some of the private farmland in your area. The deer will be much more plentiful and easier to see as well.  Although I guess numbers are down in some areas by quite a bit due to the blue tongue outbreak.

Good luck.

[h20hunter]

One comment has been made about meat care. I would second that. My suggestion is to get a few names to have a call list for after the shot. Tracking can be a slam dunk 40 yard stroll or it can be hours of tedious looking. If you have a few guys you can call to say ok, I've got a bloody arrow, now what, you could save yourself from possibly loosing an animal.

Best of luck, welcome, and looking forward to a success story.

[oysters00]

yeah i will certainly pass up the opportunity to huck an arrow at an animal... i pick things up quickly and i have the days off to put in some serious hours of practice. i read a good grouping at 25 yards can come quickly. however if i cant group my shots comfortably then yeah... ill leave the bow at home and just get a feel for things. thanks for the advice.

any decent but cheap targets anyone can suggest? should i dish out for a broadhead target or just get a fieldpoint target, sacrifice and tune my 4th broadhead on??? wood? i also love diy projects, specially if they save me cash. i'll google that sometime today but if anyone likes to make their own targets, broadhead or fieldpoint, let me know what you prefer to make them out of, please. 

and yeah i heard bad things about the archery place in spokane valley... i was planning on taking the whole thing to deer park to have it set up and tuned to me.

as far as the education course goes Washington accepts all state hunter education courses, or so i read. i never called up on that actually. there were no local field tests in spokane and the closest one was 45 miles and 9 months out.

i actually started down this path by studying the butchery of hogs, lamb and sides of beef first... there is a guy on youtube, the scott rea project, hes a butcher by trade and he puts out really well made videos, some on butchering the deer over on his side of the world. from there i watched the few field deboning videos on youtube and have memorized the process and the steps pretty well. one of those things that gets ingrained as you do it though. probably bring a notepad along too in case i draw a blank in the moment.

ive eaten deer before. cooked some backstrap steaks, given to us by my ladies nephew from white swan, over a fire while camping in glacier national forest. a place like that has a way of making anything you cook over fire taste amazing but that deer was the best meat iv ever had. i couldnt put a name on it... but it just tasted clean. i also like all livers, hearts, gizards, anything minerally. eatin some past its prime lamb too.... eh not too bad. as far as hanging or aging the meat goes. i read that i do not need to age/hang it, as long as i defrost it on racks, so that it does not sit in its thawed juices...

yah? nah?
 
if nah, then how do you guys like to age your meat if deboning it before the process.

blue tongue outbreak?  i'll have to google that

i honestly think ill be on my own, unless its on a weekend or morning weekday. im no stranger to huffing and puffing but i did pull my back this spring backpacking up to lil spar lake by the montana/idaho border (absolutely beautiful place btw.) i do have people who can help as long as they arent working. so ill try to have a back up plan ready to go. again thanks for the good advice guys!

[HankC]

Welcome and good luck out there.

[oysters00]

thanks

yeah you guys got me thinking about the shot now. im sure its one thing to hit a target you know is "x" yards away on a flat surface... and an entirely different thing to be able to correctly judge in the field. other than mixing up the elevation and angle of the target, is it smart to take shots from random distances when starting out? or should i focus more hours into controlled distance/s?

looks like i have some more studying to do. i was confident to start after reading people talk about grouping within a week at decent distances. i didnt really start to imagine the parameters involved with shooting in the field vs shooting at a fixed target in a controlled environment.

regardless, ill give it as much time as i can and feel it out from there.

question for everyone, how long or after how many hours of shooting were you confident and proficient enough to take a kill shot?

[bobcat]

You should be fine after a couple weeks of daily practice, especially if you have a pro help set up your bow properly and maybe give you a quick lesson on proper shooting form. You may have to limit your shots to 25 or 30 yards this first year, but by next year you could probably extend that to 40.

[oysters00]

cool, yeah i read the lady up in deer park is great and worth the drive.

i'll have just over 3 weeks to practice before the season starts at mica peak. i can probably put in 2-3 hours a day maybe more. i'll just save my mtb days for when i scout. 

[Mark251]

Welcome to the forum!

[oysters00]

thanks!

[mfswallace]

cool, yeah i read the lady up in deer park is great and worth the drive.

i'll have just over 3 weeks to practice before the season starts at mica peak. i can probably put in 2-3 hours a day maybe more. i'll just save my mtb days for when i scout.

Limit your practice sessions to the point of getting "sloppy". At first you'll want to practice for an hour or two but training your muscles in proper form and technique is more important than length of time shooting. So when u get a little bit tired take a few more shots then stop regardless of time. U don't want to develop bad habits. Like anything you practice you will be able to shoot longer the more you do it so take it easy at first  and develop proper form and technique... 

[JJD]

Hey, Welcome 
I just got into archery a few years ago too.  It's sure addictive. 
Kinda spendy, but I suppose you can say that about any hobby.

This site is a wealth of great info.  Lots of ideas and opinions.

[oysters00]

tips noted for practice. hopefully these guns can keep up haha.

spendy is right... looks like maintenance cost should be minimum throughout the years though and im not one to buy something new every year. once i have what i like that doesnt wear out, i keep it and master it. now snowboarding... thats a hobby that keeps on costing. skipping season passes this year

[oysters00]

well i got my bow yesterday and took it to whitetail plus this evening. Greg was great and really took well care of me. he gave me great tips and did a good job at ingraining those mechanics so i can practice them at home. really nice guy too. picked up their house made field tip target.

have to say i certainly underestimated the effort to draw this thing back. he recommended 20 shots at a time. so im just going to try to fit as many short practices as i can into each day.

after using his release and coming home to mine... this will be my back up and i need to get a better one soon.

also road up mica peak a couple days ago and checked the place out. its quite the climb to the first fireroad but a really nice place to ride. spooked numerous deer just on either side of the road. seen a spot that should possibly set me up with a shooting lane while still staying downwind. ill be going back once or twice a week to get used to the climb and scout and build small blinds. in the mean time im gonna try to ingrain this knew muscle memory.

[theleo]

Really try to limit yourself to 20-30 yards at most. There's a lot more to shooting bows than firearms and you'll rarely have an animal broadside on level ground with you squared up to shoot it. You are way behind the eight ball and really should consider taking this year off to really have time to get things set up the way you want rather than rushing into it. Hunting is good fun and all, and I love the meat but killing a beautiful animal, for me, isn't really all that great when you're so close and watch it die, a wounded animal running of is a gut wrencher. You owe it to the animal to have everything dialed in before hunting season starts.

[pianoman9701]

Welcome and congratulations on your new, healthy and legal addiction. Shooting sharp sticks at living things is a big responsibility, one that becomes very clear the first time you see a deer or an elk walk away with an arrow sticking out of it's butt. Take all of the suggestions about practice and integrate them into a solid practice regimen. This is a MUST if you respect wildlife and value your hunting privileges. Good luck!

[CoryTDF]

Welcome to the sport!

Here are 10 tips in no particular order from this guy :

1) Killing is a dirty business. You need to get your mind right about what you are about to do. Sometimes things don't go the way we want. You owe it to the animal to kill it in the fastest most humane way possible. I have seen people make bad shots and then freeze up because the reaction of the animal was not what they were expecting. There will be blood, oh yes, there will be blood. Make sure you are ready to deal with EVERYTHING that comes with taking a life. Remember that your success comes with the animals sacrifice.
 
2) Hunt the wind! I don't care how much of that scent free stuff you use if the wind is wrong and blowing into a mature bucks face, he is going to smell you. Does the spray work? I'm sure it helps, and that is all I can say. If you are going to archery hunt you need to hunt the wind. That is the bottom line. That said, I shower is the scent free soap and wash my clothes in it. What I do know for sure is that is does not hurt, so why not use it.   

3) Shoot only what you are comfortable with. If that is 50 yards so be it. The "distance" debate will make your head hurt. Everybody has their own opinion. Remember that 50 yards at a target and 50 yards at an animal are different. You cant really train for "Buck Fever" but if you want to try getting your heart rate way up and then shooting. Note what distance you cannot continually group at and then you will know your limitations. Modern archery equipment is more than capable to kill out to 50 yards.
 

4) Be the man in the woods that you would like to run into. If somebody needs help... Help them!

5) Caring for meat. This is again a Ford/Chevy type debate but I choose to age my meat for a minimum of 7 days. This is not a problem for me as I have a meat cooler at my house. It is the way I was taught to do it and I'm one of those "if it isn't broke don't fix it" kind of guys. Either way you do it just make sure to keep it cool until you get it into the freezer. Make sure to remove as much fat and tendon as possible while butchering. Unlike beef, deer fat is nasty.

6) Be a good steward of the land both public and private. Clean up after yourself and if there is room in the truck for the beer cans and trash from others who are not as ethical as yourself take time to bring it out. Litter is one of the biggest reasons for land closure. The next would be simple destruction of property. Don't be the guy who breaks down fences, leaves gates open, cuts down live trees without permission, or anything else like this. Treat the land better than you would your own.

7) Be honest. Do not become the BS outdoorsman who tells tales of grandeur to every person they meet. Do not create an image for yourself and other hunters as untrustworthy. Integrity is important.

8 ) Make the right kind of friends. If you meet people who are unethical and often unlawful, stay away from them. This ties into the integrity part above.

9) Buy quality equipment. This is a no brainer. Remember price does not necessarily dictate quality but often times the best gear is the most expensive. Collect what you can as you can afford it. It is an addiction for sure. LOL

10) Really this should have been number one. Count your success by the experience you had. You do not have to kill to make it a great hunt. You do not have to kill a HUGE buck to make it a successful hunt. You always strive for the best but not to the point that it sours the experience. Have fun, and recognize the small things and do not take them for granted. Take every part of it in and hold it. Take notice of the smell of wet moss, the smell of dusty September pines, the bite of the cold, the sting of rain, and the crunch of the snow. Drink in everything as we are only here for so long and in the end it is the hunt you will miss far more than the kill.     

[GETOUTSIDE]

Welcome! I too am pretty darn new to this whole thing and my first year with a bow, although i picked it up early spring and practiced ALL summer. Too much fun, even the wife wants one, not even to hunt just shoot. Anyways, I'm on the South Hill in Spokane too. Still have all my tags unnotched so far this year. I have an IEP pass as well and spent a good amount of time up there last year. It'd be killer to link up with a like minded and newer hunter from my area as well. I generally am alone because I really don't know many people who hunt and/or don't have a pretty full camp or property they can't share. Shoot me a PM, maybe we could hunt a day or two together come late season. Good luck to you!

[oysters00]

thanks for dropping more knowledge everyone.

i plan on making blinds in areas that will delivery close and open lane shots. im thinking around 20-25 yards or closer. i understand that i'll be saying hi then bye to the deer i see and im completely fine with that. i think i am going to give it a go this season and probably just waste 44 bucks on a deer tag for the experience. im committed to only shooting if i get lucky and a perfect shot presents itself at the perfect time. im confident i will not put myself into a position of regret with buck fever and im planning on coming home empty handed every day. if anything ill have to worry about regret fever i believe. that being said, i react well and quickly under loads of mental pressure and adrenaline. and im going to start doing push-ups to elevate my heart rate before practicing.

im able to shoot down my hallway just over 10 yards away after it gets dark outside. because of this i was able to have multiple smaller sessions last night. front elbow was pretty sore going to bed but feels good today. gonna step it back just a notch to make sure i dont aggravate any past injuries. i know the short distance wont help much for accuracy but it should help ingrain the correct mechanics which is what im going for. im starting to draw with a relaxed shoulder which was hard to overcome. i have double jointed elbows so i have to work to turn my elbow out. im also cross dominate... and bought a right handed bow with left eye dominance. a mistake. yes, but one im likely better off because of. it feels like the rotary cuff is active in the front arm and not in the back arm, so my right shoulder will thank me, in the long run, for having a right handed bow. anyways thats the story im selling to myself . im currently only wearing my right contact to retrain my eyes so i can shoot with both eyes open easier. with both contacts in i can still shoot with both eyes open but it takes a lot of concentration. shooting with one eye closed seems to work fine for me too... why is one able to shoot more accurate with both eyes open rather than one closed?