Hello

[Jason4x4]

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm 32 years old, born and raised in West Virginia, moved to Baltimore, MD about 8 years ago. I've only been hunting for about 3 years (3 deer seasons anyway). My dad doesn't hunt, but when I got married 4 years ago, my father-in-law was big into hunting. He offered to take me and I've been hooked ever since. My father-in-law's father owns a cabin near Green Bank, WV where we usually go for opening day. My father-in-law and a couple of his friends also have a lease on a little over 700 acres in Mason county near where he lives.

Anyway, my first deer season my father-in-law was helping me and I was able to take a 4pt from about 50 yards. The next season (last year) he let me hunt more on my own and I made a lot of mistakes and ended up only seeing 5 deer all week (I take off work and hunt from Monday (opening day) through Saturday). This year I learned a lot and did fairly well - I saw deer every day except for one, saw 2 bucks on Saturday and Sunday before the season opened (had a spike walk within 50 yards of me while squirrel hunting on Saturday, and saw a nice buck pushing a doe while scouting on Sunday). I saw another buck on Tuesday morning pushing a group of 3 does, but he was 150 yards or more away through thick brush and I was never able to see his body, just his head. On Saturday I saw a doe come over the ridge and work her way down to about 40-50 yards above me. She stood there for several minutes looking around. Eventually she turned around and headed out to the point. About 30 minutes later I saw a buck come in from the other direction and start running up to the top of the ridge, but due to thick brush I didn't have a decent shot at him. As I was watching the top of the ridge I saw him walking out the top of the ridge towards the point looking for the doe. I was able to drop him from about 150 yards through a small opening in the brush. He turned out to be a small 8 point.

I'm looking to get into bow hunting this off season. There are a lot of places around here (in MD) where I can bowhunt, but very few public places where you can rifle hunt.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning more about the sport from you guys!

[Sailfish]

Welcome to the Forum! Glad you found us.
Tons of great info here that's for sure

[Sierra]

Welcome! But looks like you might be the one helping out, since I didn't see that many.