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Congratulations, Dad!
By Aaron Rippstein
Sometimes the best bucks are the ones taken by the people we love. I wanted to share this buck taken by my dad, Rob, on Nov. 4, 2017 in Highland County, Ohio. Growing up in southern California didn’t offer many opportunities to go deer hunting, so when my family moved to Ohio in 1992, my father wanted to try something different. It didn&rsquo... READ MORE
How To End a Season
By Miranda Cheatham
Every hunting season since I was 2 years old, my dad and I have traveled from our home in Niceville, Fla., to Macon County, Alabama. It had been four years since I was able to take a nice buck worthy of mounting.
This year I had a new gun handed down to me, a 1980s Browning BAR .270. I had been letting small bucks walk until the rut hit. Then, on ... READ MORE
Worth the Wait
By John Mitchell
It took a few years, but when Micah got his first deer, it was a good one. I started taking Micah to the dove lease when he was 7, and he started deer hunting with me when he was 9. Micah has developed a love for hunting and being in the woods. Even so, it felt like he would never get his first deer. It seemed like no matter what, something always ... READ MORE
Ghosts of Christmas Past
By Burnell Simmons
Far too many of us take hunting and Christmases for granted.
Thirteen years — that’s how long it’s been since I fell 25 feet from my treestand. I survived the fall and the hospital stay and made it home for that Christmas in 2001.
It happened at 8:20 a.m. on Dec. 16. I had to walk home from the swamp I was hunting because I had ... READ MORE
No Limits
By Bonnie Olson King
New hunter overcomes challenges to claim her first buck. The 2015 hunting season turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I was 64 at the time and had only taken up hunting in 2012, when I retired from my nursing career due to significant health issues. That fall, I received a crossbow for my birthday, and that was when h... READ MORE
Lessons in the Wild
By James Oliver
Young bowhunter doesn’t make the same mistake twice! I have been hunting for as long as I can remember. It was a tradition passed down by my father, and I have passed it on to my two boys. My youngest, Hunter, has been at home in the wild since the age of 3 when I took him hunting for turkeys for the first time. When he was 4, Hunter took his... READ MORE
Daddy, You Shoot It!
By Dale Sampson
Heat of the moment was a little too much for first-time deer hunter ... but not for her dad.
The season started with little excitement. Although a big coyote came by early, I didn’t see anything with antlers. That was okay since I was more looking forward to my daughter Kaitlin’s first whitetail hunting experience later that evening. A... READ MORE
My First Deer
By Trentin Meyer
Video games can’t provide life-changing experiences like a first youth hunt can.
It was Nov. 8, 2014, opening day of Vermont’s youth weekend. It was my first official youth weekend deer hunt. My dad and I decided to start our hunt in Wilmington and work our way toward Stamford.
When we got to Wilmington, I was excited and couldn&rsquo... READ MORE
Nephew's 1st Buck Leads to Uncle's Bruiser
By Rocky Harrell (Cody Harrell's uncle)
I love hunting.
The good Lord comes first, and then family, then deer hunting, but I really love deer hunting. I've hunted in Rutherford County in Middle Tennessee since I was about 8-years-old, but I didn’t take my first deer until I was 10.
Hunting in Tennessee was hard at that time. All I saw were does, never any bucks. When I was ... READ MORE
Hunter Does Papa’s .30-30 Proud
By Penny Robertson
My husband, our two sons Hunter and Seth and I moved from Tennessee to Moneta, Virginia, in May of 2013. We’d been looking forward to the chance to go hunting together as a family all year long, so we decided not to travel back to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. Hunter, our 13-year-old son, had been bowhunting earlier in the season on our ne... READ MORE