Anticipation....

Opening archery day in PA, has been looming for so long. When it was finally the week before opening day, I was just so bubbly and excited. I couldn't stop smiling or contain myself. We had some trail came pictures of deer near my stand.

I had been doing my reading of Bowhunting World magazine and Hunting Mature Whitetails. I guess you could say I was on deer overload.  Can you sympathize with me?

Now remember, this was my first ever deer hunt. Like any new adventure...you really have no idea what you are getting yourself into. I started to realize that part of my excitement for my first hunt was that I was hopefully going to be able to provide for my family in a way that I have never done before. I grew up eating venison and I love it! So for me thinking about myself, shooting the deer and putting food on the table was unreal. I would eventually be cooking venison that I harvested.  It still excites me. I'm getting excited to hunt again this weekend, just thinking about it. I am going to take great pride in know that I can put food on our table that I harvested from the woods and not just meat that I bought at the supermarket.

Some Light Reading

(both cover pictures stolen from respective webpages)

I have been doing some reading over the winter months. I am trying to become more knowledgeable about whitetail hunting, especially bow hunting. Since I am new to hunting and archery, I figured there was not a better way than to read up on my new found past times.

Lee & Tiffany are my favorite hunting couples to watch. (Although I am becoming really fond of Driven TV and The Chase.) So of course, I had to read Hunting Mature Whitetails The Lakosky Way. I learned a lot about food plots and land management. You also get the background on Lee and Tiffany, I really enjoyed that part.

It was my hubby's decision on which magazine we would subscribe to. He chose Bowhunting World. Each month there is a wealth of information on bow hunting. In my current issue, I am reading about the must have deer calls. I do have Primos Tiffany Mid Tone Deer Grunt Call. But I have not mastered how to use it so I haven't taken it out to the woods.  One thing this article has convinced me of is that I want to purchase a doe bleat. What are your go to deer calls?

Now I need to find a new hunting book to read. Any suggestions?

3D Season and practicing

April was the start of 3D season here in Northwest PA. My husband and I became active members of our local archery club during the winter. We now enjoy going out as a family to help set the targets before the shoots. We load up our 4-wheeler, our 3 year old and head out to the club for a few hours and ride around in the woods setting the targets. We have some fun targets to shoot at.

The first shoot in April was chilly and rainy. But still fun. I did not have a very good score for my first shoot. That did not stop me. I started practicing several days a week. May came and I got my morning out in the ground blind for opening morning of turkey season. Then I got another chance at the 3D course. May's targets were turkeys. I did better that day, encouraging. That was also the day I decided that everytime I went to a 3D shoot, my goal would be to hit all the targets. It took me a while but, after much practice during the summer, August brought my first shoot with no missed targets. It was a victory for me. I felt accomplished. With this accomplishment, came confidence and my shooting improved even more.

September had the last two shoots of the season, the deer shoot and the hunter warm-up. The hunter warm-up was my best shoot. It gave me more confidence that I was lacking going into my first deer hunting season. It was perfect timing, this shoot was the weekend before opening archery season in PA.

I'm ready for archery season!

Catch up on the last year

Christmas came with many camo gear, bow accessories and cold weather. When opening my gifts Christmas morning...I had under armour, Sugar Beet Crush, quilted camo pants, rage broadheads, tons of turkey calls, and a few more hunting accessories. I was very excited.

I got out on the weekends, often, to shoot my bow. I went to my first turkey shoot in February at our archery club. That was so much fun. There were not many women there, but I didn't mind. I did win a turkey in a shoot out. My husband also won a turkey. We had a good afternoon. So after that fun afternoon, I decided that a turkey hunt would be my first hunting adventure.

As the weather started to break, I was able to get out more often to shoot. Opening weekend for spring turkey season approached. Hubby went out to scout and set up our ground blind. The night before opening day, we went out to "put the turkeys to bed", as my hubby calls it. We got up early that cold Saturday morning and drove to our hunting area, walked out to the ground blind and got all situated and waited for the turkeys to start gobbling. And when they did....It was AMAZING. The turkeys sounded like they were sitting right on top of us. I have never experienced that type of adrenaline rush before. I was so excited to see a turkey and hopefully get a shot. After several hours and cold feet...we decided to call it a day. When we stepped out of the blind to find that someone had set up some decoys and was sitting on the other side of the field. Unfortunately when you have a 3 year old, you don't always have a babysitter, especially at 5 am. We did not get another chance to go out turkey hunting again.  Despite the disappointment of my first hunt...I still had a great morning and can't wait to hear the gobbles again.

My 1st hunting clothing

For the past few months I have been slowly building my camo hunting wardrobe. First I ordered gloves, then I got a ladies hat and now my cool weather suit.

I started out purchasing the gloves since I knew the cold weather was coming. I wanted to have nice gloves to go out and shoot my bow. Since I have small hands I had to order my gloves on line so that I could order women's small. I don't know about other areas, but where I live you can't find much in the way of women's hunting anything, let alone women's size small gloves. The gloves were backordered so I just received them. I haven't had a chance to shoot my bow with them. Maybe tonight but definitely this weekend!

As for my great fleece hat. I was not looking for a hat, but while shopping online at Bass Pro, they were having a GREAT sale that you got free shipping with the purchase of any hunting clothing. So I found a ladies hat. It has a slit in the back for your ponytail to go through. That is cool. It also is camo on one side and hunter orange on the other. The hat is also a little longer on the sides so that it covers your ears. I'm excited to try it out.

Yesterday, hubby and I had an opportunity to do some early Christmas shopping. So while shopping we went to our local Gander Mountain. They were having a sale on their brand of hunting clothes. I tried on their women's hunting clothes and ended up purchasing youth hunting clothes. They fit me and they were of course cheaper than the women'shunting clothes. So I got my very first Realtree AP hunting suit!

The Beginning

About 2 months ago my husband asked me if I would like to shoot skeet or trap with him as a hobby that we could do together. I said "NO. But I'll try shooting a bow with you." So hubby promptly borrowed a re-curve bow for me to try. I liked it but was not shooting very well. He had gotten a new bow so we went to our local archery shop to see if they could turn down the poundage on his old bow so I could pull it back...nope. The next thing I know I am holding this cute little bow and being asked if I could pull it back. We bought my first compound bow, a Hoyt Kobalt that night. I love it!!! I am hooked on shooting it.

I have been trying to learn as much as I can about archery, hunting, bows (especially Hoyt bows) and just immersing myself in the world of archery. I have joined forums and chat rooms on several different archery websites. When I first started this adventure it was just to have a hobby that hubby and I could do together and it was just going to be 3D shoots in the summer. Then I was browsing the Shoot Like A Girl website, I was looking at the photos of women and their kills. I read about a 15 year old girl that had a picture of her and her first turkey kill with a bow. It really sparked my interest. I went home and told hubby I think I want to try turkey hunting but not until spring Gobbler. He asked if I was feeling sick.

Now I'm researching camo clothing, camo blinds and turkey calls. I have not bought anything other than a couple new camo hats. I am actually a little intimidated by all the options there are out there. But I will keep looking and asking for advise. So if anyone has some good words of wisdom to help me out I would greatly appreciate it.