someone please save me!!

[muskieswen]

I have been hunting deer with a rifle 30 years give or take a year. Two years ago I got into bow-hunting and have vowed never to hunt whitetail again with a rifle. My first year bow-hunting i was fortunate enough to pop a nice doe. The same year I started to bow hunt my wife showed interest as well. So off we go to purchase a bow for her as well as the camo and stands etc. This year my 25 year old son gets into bow hunting as well and is fortunate enough to shoot a deer about 10 minutes before I shoot my second deer in the two years of bow-hunting. So I have three of us bow-hunting out of my family of 4. Now here is the problem. We are done for the year filling two out of our three tags (two deer is more than enough for our family). All I can think about is bow-hunting next year. I look at bing maps looking for new land to hunt (we hunt public land). Before the whitetail gun season my wife and I would be grouse hunting and I would be pre scouting for the 2013 archery season. In my mind I want September of 2013 to be here NOW! It is great to have this passion burning in the stomach but I think I have an un-curable sickness. How does one handle this? Is this normal? How many of you archers have this same passion (or sickness)?

[matchset]

I defiantly have the sickness. I eat sleep and breathe bowhunting.

Some guys/gals like it; i LOVE it! It's awesome to hear your passion, keep posting

[DonBo]

Join the club! Better get used to it.

[slimngrizzly]

Shoot a lot, hang stands, clear trails, shed hunt, put up cameras, buy MORE cameras, put them up, shoot more, hang more stands, plant more food plots, talk about deer and text about deer every hour of everyday to your just-as-addicted circle of friends.... it all helps.

The only time I go crazy is like April 15 to June 15.... Late for sheds, deer dont have horns, early to plant (kinds sorta)..... I guess thats why God made fish.

Welcome to the club

[jentz]

Extend your season.Get some fluflu arrows with blunts go squirrel hunting,rabbit,coyote.I go out till The end of Dec.

[bigbucks]

Have to do a combination of things: 1) Find a friend who wants a deer & fill that other tag. 2) Look into doing an out of state hunt too, may also need that friend who wants a deer. 3) Raise your standards, has to be a big doe, or has to be a buck, has to be an 8 ptr, or outside the ears or whatever. I think we all do that as our bow hunting skill increases to extend our seasons.

I made a bad hit on a pretty nice buck, not huge, 2 weeks ago, regrettably we couldn't find him as it was apparently a nonfatal injury. Even as he was running off & I thought I'd hit him well I was saying to myself, what have I done? I can't bow hunt any more this year!

[Cheetah]

You can keep hunting other states, but at some point you are just hunting for the sake of killing more animals that you don't need.

You might consider spending more time hunting upland birds, waterfowl or small game once your primary target (deer) is done each year. Maybe you can scrounge up a fall turkey permit. Different types of game meat is nice to have, venison can get old if you eat it every night. Or you can just continue deer hunting but use a camera instead of a bow.

[CC Hurl]

I too filled a couple tags early this year and now can't hunt in my SE Minnesota spot with my Bow. Still have an intensive harvest tag that I may use in area 225 but as stated a bit ago...how much meat can a family of three eat. Lol

I am going a little crazzy thinking I am done in my favorite woods as this is the earliest I have filled the freezer. What I am doing now to keep me in the woods is cut fire wood for the land owner who has a bad back and loves it when I set them up for the winter heating. Not to mention it is great PR work that keeps only me hunting in there 80 acre's of woods.

I sat with my camera last Thursday down there as I was jonesing for a evening sit in one of my stands.

From now until it gets to cold for my little daughter of 7 years I will take her out and see if I can't get her up close an personel with a Whitetailed deer. She has me convinced she will be my hunting partner in the coming years so it's time to show her what it takes to get them close. The shooting part is coming along with her but as we all know we also need good skills to get them in are theater for the shot. Can't think of a better time than now to start showing her what it takes. I will have the camera and a big smile on my face having her in the woods with me. It is an addiction we all learn to live with. I also have a trained Lab for shed hunting that gets me out there for a few weekends.

[Musky Buck]

I am Devils advocate so I'd say if you want to keep hunting later into the season the obvious answer is some will power to not fill your tag until later in the season and sure you may wish back to that September buck shoulda woulda coulda most likely got him, you will also learn more about the habits and etc. if you hunt through Sept.Oct.Nov.Dec., not just drop the first decent deer in range and call it a season.

[mnguy152]

one other thing you could do is join a archery league. I know there is a few around my area a couple are just for fun league and the others are for the compitve type.

[muskieswen]

All great feedback. I really like the discipline aspect where I get a bit more selective which in turn extends the season. I am in a league to get me through the winter as well as my wife and my son. Thanks for all the good advice.

[bikeoutback]

I know everyone here is stating that eating venison every night gets old BUT you could also always take that 3rd deer and then either donate it to a processor that will process it for the food shelves thus helping those in need of food OR learn to turn it into other things. This may sound greedy on my part but I eat everything I shoot but do attempt to shoot a lot of deer in my hunting party. We then make summer sausage, breakfast sausage, snack sticks and I make jerky all the time. I'm also going to look into brats and a few other things this year. Most of this stuff then goes on camping, ice fishing, backpacking and whatever is left next years hunting trips. Again it sounds a bit greedy when I type it but we are using all the venison and only due to my work schedule and not being home as much this was the first year I carried venison in the freezer from one year to the next and it was about 8.5 pounds was all. Essentially nothing goes to waste and we are taking legal number of deer per the regulations and tags allowed.

[Summett]

I know everyone here is stating that eating venison every night gets old BUT you could also always take that 3rd deer and then either donate it to a processor that will process it for the food shelves thus helping those in need of food OR learn to turn it into other things. This may sound greedy on my part but I eat everything I shoot but do attempt to shoot a lot of deer in my hunting party. We then make summer sausage, breakfast sausage, snack sticks and I make jerky all the time. I'm also going to look into brats and a few other things this year. Most of this stuff then goes on camping, ice fishing, backpacking and whatever is left next years hunting trips. Again it sounds a bit greedy when I type it but we are using all the venison and only due to my work schedule and not being home as much this was the first year I carried venison in the freezer from one year to the next and it was about 8.5 pounds was all. Essentially nothing goes to waste and we are taking legal number of deer per the regulations and tags allowed.

One side note on this, as i looked into this last year as well...that some of those places take only a certain # of donated deer per yr, so you'll want to make sure that they are still taking them before you go get that 3rd one.

[Buckhunt]

Love this post! I thought maybe i just had an addictive personality so it's refreshing to read there are others like me.

I would classify myself addicted to several things outdoors including bow hunting, ice fishing lake of the woods and coyote hunting. But above all one takes the cake for me - bow hunting the west. If you haven't done it yet be careful...... I would take out another credit card if it meant I could go west to bow hunt. Doesn't matter what for sign me up!

[Rippinlip]

Bad addiction here too.

My wife started a few years ago and harvested a real nice Doe last year and since our area went to HC this year, we have been waiting.

Wife wants to shoot a buck and I have my eye on "the One" I have been after for a couple of years now.

Not saying I won't drop the string here soon on a nice doe, but I still have @ 8 weeks...lol

I also took in a city hunt about 40 miles away from home for more hunting time.

I take about a month off a year from anything about deer hunting, that would be January.

Then I start shooting again, shed hunting, scouting in the snow and find out things that have changed over the year, trail systems, etc.

We are looking for a league close to home right now, there is a club pretty close and hoping to join it his year.

Welcome to the addiction.

[MUSKY18]

I have only been bow hunting for 4 years now, and up until this year I wasn't never really what I would call a "hardcore" addict. Then this summer while playing in golf league, I met this guy. We were playing against each others teams one night and I mentioned that I bow hunted Ripley. The golf game stopped and we sat and talked bow hunting from that point on. Don't even know who won the golf match. SInce getting hooked up with him and another buddy, I have done nothing but. Upgraded my bow this fall, new arrows, lighted nocks, and whatever else. I love to tinker, so after season is done I will start looking into making my own fletchings to redo arrows, etc. I will take a break from shooting until about March, but then try to shoot arrows at least 3 times a week. This year I didn't even buy a rifle license because I am so determined to take my first deer ever with a bow. I am probably my own worst enemy as I have let quite a few deer walk the past two years, but I don't want to just shoot a small fawn or doe just to say I shot a deer with my bow. IT will come and I lOVE being out in the woods, so I don't mind if I have to put some extra days in the stand. Only reason I bought a muzzy tag is because I was drawn to hunt Ripley with muzzle loader, otherwise it would be all bow. Yes, you can now officially call me an addict.

HELLO! MY NAME IS BRET, AND I AM A BOW HUNTING ADDICT.

[tunrevir]

Great post! I'm going on 25 years of bowhunting now and went through alot of the different phases. When I started it took me 2 years to down my first deer but from then on it was 1-2 deer a year most years but a few years of tag soup intermingled. I set out to shoot some monster bucks and eventually even tried hunting for specific animals(prior to game cameras) which was maddening at times and caused a few tag soup years. Once I decided to leave the trophyquest and be satisfied with a decent doe and then hunt for a mature antlered buck things got a bit easier. I have decided that any deer taken with archery tackle is a worthy trophy and now that my hunting time is shortened due to kids sports events and work demands I appreciate anytime that I can get to the woods to hunt! I took up bowhunting because I wanted to spend more time in the woods with unhurried deer and in warmer weather conditions. I love the long season and much like the author put away the rifle and shotgun for the most part(except tag soup years). In all the years I have bow hunted it has taken me to 5 different states, 2 provinces and good old Minnesota. If you have the fever look into other species besdies whitetails. You can hunt hogs throughout most of the south for a reasonable cost anytime of the year, out west there are mule deer, elk and antelope, moose and bears to chase. You can hunt coyotes and fox and even upland birds with flu flu arrows which is a hoot, grouse can be really fun! Dont' forget about the spring and fall turkey seasons and bear hunting. Oh yeah, bow fishing in the summer! Lots of different seasonal frame works all over the US and Canada to scratch the bowhunting itch. Barren ground Caribou is on my bucket list for the bow. It is a passion and it can take you all over the country and even to other countries when you need to scratch the itch. You may also enjoy shooting the local 3D shoots with your family. A great way to spend time outdoors with the family and hone your shooting skills at the same time. Yep, once the fever gets you it will never let go!

On a side note, if you start processing your own deer and then start making your own sausage it can add to the enjoyment of the harvest. Buy a wild game cookbook and look in the cooking forums here on FM to find great recipes to prepare venison and soon a couple deer may not suffice. Many times I will take ground venison and some choice cuts and sausage and give it to families that I know will use it and are in need of a bit of help with the grocery bills if I feel like I have an over abundence of game. It makes me feel good knowing I can help someone else out. Just a thought. Yep, I got the fever too, welcome to the wonderful world of bowhunting!

Tunrevir~

[STRAPASSASSIN1]

im a ___ now!! LOL