Jan 2, 2018. Christmas and New Years have passed. It's cold here in Massachusetts. This is my first blog entry and a birth of an exciting adventure. I'm 40 years old and was raised in Massachusetts. I went to college, got a job, got married, had kids. I have done some fishing before but no one in my family has ever hunted. As you may have guessed "Buck Shot" is not my real name. I wish I could use my real name but as I've discovered there's different views on hunting in this world and I don't want to upset anyone I know or do business with.
Will anyone ever read this? Who knows? I'd like to say "who cares?" but I'm not writing this for myself. I am looking to share my adventure and create something. Nobody I know hunts, no one in my social circle understands anything I've tried to do the last few months (in regards to hunting.). For that reason I'm going to keep this an anonymous blog, a journal of my quest to become a hunter. It's a quest to tackle a new challenge, to eat better, to enjoy this life while it's here and maybe pass some knowledge on to my kids if they are ever interested.
So where do I begin? How about how this all started? I travel a lot for work calling on different areas in a "B2B" sales position. My work schedule requires many hours in a car. I used to listen to Sirius XM but my trial expired so I started getting into podcasts after I got my iPhone. I never could easily manage podcasts on my androids. With podcasts I just start up my car and the bluetooth connects instantly and I have hours of free entertainment and interesting discussions that follow me through the states I travel in.
One of the "top downloaded" podcasts had a TV personality on who was talking about some hunting and some cooking of game. He was very knowledgable about history, conservation, laws, and it seemed he really liked to eat good food. It was a good 3 hours and when it was all over they mentioned this guest had a show on Netflix. I watched each episode and they were not hunting shows they were more of a "lifestyle experience" show. The narrative was nothing like I used to think of when I thought hunting. I used to think of red checkered flannel and beer and shotguns. The host of this show was thoughtful and expressed complex feelings on the land we live on and the vast resources we've created that are at our disposal.
After watching these shows I was definitely curious. I had so many obstacles, though. For one, I had never shot a gun. Second, I had never hunted or dressed any type of wild game. If I was ever going to see if this hobby was right for me I had some learning to do so I hit the internet and youtube and watched some videos. The amount of information is staggering and I had no direction. This was earlier last year in 2017. I have a friend who is into archery and I told him I was interested in learning. He set me up with a 25lb bow and some cheap arrows. A few pulls on that and my chest and back were sore for days! Eventually I got my form down and borrowed his 30lb and then 35lb bow. These recurve bows helped me get my form down which is crucial in Archery. I started visiting internet forums like www.bowsite.com and read about those guys and what they were up to. I was still very much a rookie at shooting and attended a 3D shoot which was embarrassing. You can get good at 20 yards but to hit at variable distances is really tough.
I'll write more about 2017 later but for now I need to leave off here.
Over the course of this blog I'd like to share with the reader what I go through this year to try to get my first animal hunting. I don't know how it's going to work out and I can't promise success. I'm hoping to reach "first time" hunters or rookies who feel nervous to get into hunting. I'm hoping to interest more people in trying to hunt. I want to share what I've learned so far and I want to share what I'm about to learn about how difficult this pursuit really is. Thanks for finding this blog. I hope you subscribe to my entries and leave me a comment. I'll be back with news soon enough.
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