How long did you hunt....

[Big Slick]

I took my first buck on opening day of my fourth season. It was well worth the wait, I got a 5x4 Blacktail with eye guards. I moved to Colorado and it took me eight seasons to get my first elk, a spike that was very good table fare.

 

[Kiwi]

Approximately 20 days hunting until I got my first deer. 3 days hunting for my first tahr and chamois.

 

[Ben Long]

I started hunting deer and elk at age 12. I was 15 when I got my first doe; I think I was about 18 or 19 when I killed my first bull. I know a LOT of elk hunters who have put in 5-10 years before connecting with an elk. No shame in that.

 

[Ultrahunter]

I got totally lucky and killed a spike bull as the sun came up on my first day of hunting with tag in pocket. I shot that bull on the run with a borrowed .30-30. Total luck all the way around, but I was the happiest kid on the planet!

 

[Chad Gus]

Took me 22days over the coarse of 3 three seasons to get my first whitetail ,a small 5 pt. Took 2 days for my first mule deer, a 5×5. I tagged out on my first elk after 5 days of hunting my first year out, a 5×5. Antelope took an hour and a half into opening morning, 13 incher from south Dakota. Then there is bear, have had two tags here in Wisconsin. There has been multiple shot opportunities that were followed my multiple misses.

 

[HuntinIsNeat]

I was on my own to figure out how to hunt so from 12 to 15 I didn't do much. When I could drive I was able to get out there and start figuring it out. I was able to harvest my first deer, a forky mule deer, at 16. Probably the most exciting thing I've ever experienced.
Now elk were a different story, and still are. I had my first opportunity at an elk at 15, a spike, in his bed, at under 100 yards, by myself.......the excitement proved to be too much for me....I missed....twice. It took another 6 years of effort to finally connect on my first elk...a 3x4 with a radio collar the biologist named Wilber. I was finally an elk hunter.

 

[Colberjs]

Now elk were a different story, and still are. I had my first opportunity at an elk at 15, a spike, in his bed, at under 100 yards, by myself.......the excitement proved to be too much for me....I missed....twice. It took another 6 years of effort to finally connect on my first elk...a 3x4 with a radio collar the biologist named Wilber. I was finally an elk hunter.

That's the funniest thing I've read in a while!!! I'm still LOL'ing!!!

Wilber!!!!

 

[MTborn64]

I started hunting in 1976 at the age of 12. We actually did more pheasant hunting than deer or elk hunting in the early days. I didn't shoot my first deer until I was 18 and my first elk until I was 20. Since then I have pretty much shot a deer each season and an elk (half bulls half cows) about every 4-5 seasons on average. Now that my son is 14 and hunting with me I let him do all the shooting.

 

[ida homer]

While you're at it, are there any other podcasts (besides Randy's upcoming) similar to the MeatEater podcast that you guys enjoy?

Marc Warnke of Outdoors International has a good podcast. Professionally, he is a hunting/fishing consultant, but he hunts many of the same woods we do on public land here in in the west.

http://gothunts.com/general-hunting-information/podcasts/

 

[jtw]

I got a blacktail the last day of late buck season in my first year. It took two more years before I got another one. I started hunting elk three years ago and so far I've seen elk every year except this year (I had a cow tag this year). Have yet to see a legal elk in season...Hoping next year is different.

 

[Mudranger1]

Shot my first whitetail in my second season carry a gun (I was 13). Shot my first elk in my 3rd year archery hunting (unfortunately still trying to recover one) first antelope first year last day of season if that matters. My first black bear was the first year I bought a tag but I wasn't really hunting them per say. He charged my elk calls and stood at ten yards for a second too long

 

[L. I. Yankee]

First year I started hunting....for me I was 19 and took a 6 point white tail.......

 

[idelkslayer]

I Killed my first deer on my 3rd day of hunting, a mule deer doe.
I killed my first whitetail, a small buck my second year of hunting for that species.
My first cow elk came in my 4th season, after a combined 11 days of hunting.
My first black bear took 4 seasons, fall 2008, spring and fall 2009 and finally got him in spring 2010.
I've been hunting for 18 years and came across my first mtn. lion last winter while shed hunting, stalked to 100 yards and put her down.
Still trying to get my first wolf, been hunting for them since 2009.

 

[1_pointer]

Shot my first whitetail deer, a doe, the second day I ever hunted; age 11. Fast forward 1 year and I shot my first buck, second day of hunting that year from the same treestand. First muley came my second year of hunting them. Cow elk took until my second year; 6th day. I got my first bull elk this past year after a decade of off/on trying for them. I think I ate 4 or 5 bull tags before finally filing one. Pronghorn I shot on my second day hunting them, two does. The next year I got my first buck 3 days into the hunt. Sitka blacktail was on my 3rd day of hunting for one. It was about 17 years from my first turkey "hunt" until I finally killed one, but I did not hunt them for about 17 years in between...

 

[Firedancer]

My first season when I was 12 it took about an hour to shoot my first elk. Had a small herd run by at about 150 yards and stop. I was shooting a 243 at the time and she dropped first shot. My first deer was sometime in my second season.

 

[scapegoat]

Hunted in the foothills of Southern California on my first deer hunt at 14. Didn't even see a deer. Went on an unguided hunt near Mammoth California when I was 16 and had no idea what I would've done if I had killed a deer. Hunted a couple days over two seasons in Northern California (Humboldt County) during college, but no luck. Shot my first deer, a doe, on private land in Michigan when I was 25 or so. In the last 10 years I've taken a lot, but it took a while to get the first.
When I first moved to Montana 9 years ago, elk weren't even on my radar - when I started, it took me 3 years to get one, a bull, that I just stumbled upon in a meadow on my way back to camp after a 10 mile hike.

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

First deer at age 10 with black powder. I'd been tagging along for a few years at that point and blew out a lot of deer getting excited when they came into bow range. I'm sure I was slow getting up the hills that cost us some other chances.
Elk took me a bit before I connected. I had a hard time holding still in my treestand as a teenager then had wind and fog foil my stalks a bunch of times. It was a few years before I got it done. Sports and school got in the way for a few years too.