Average Joe Hunting Adventures with Dan and CJ

Just when you think the action is done....

Florida’s 17-18 season is still going. Well let me tell you a crazy story from today!

I was on my way to the gym today around 1pm and as I was coming by an area I hunt and I saw buck cross the road. He was heading right towards some of my spots! I didn’t have my gear with me (doh!) but I knew one of my buddies was out hunting about 10 minutes away. He’s still learning the ropes and I’ve been trying to help him and teach him whatever I can. I called him and said “get your butt over here!”

He showed up and we went into my first spot. Sure enough the buck has been there FOUR MINUTES BEFORE WE SHOWED UP.




My gut started telling me something, so I took him to a spot that I just “had that feeling” about.

I showed him the tree to sit in and told him where the bucks come from.

I left him and went to the gym, crushed my workout, went home to shower, grabbed my gear and got ready to head out for a hunt. I checked my phone and I had missed phone calls and a text “I JUST SHOT A BUCK. I CAN SEE HIM, HE IS DOWN.”

I called him and told him to not move! I wanted to be there to see him recover his first archery buck!

17 yard shot, 35 yard recovery....













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My buddy is head over heels excited and stuck on cloud 9. I helped him pose some pictures and told him I’d love to help him get the deer gutted, packed out and quartered.

If anyone knows me.... they know I like to take deer out a certain way....







If this isn’t silly enough, my buddy wanted to take his deer to my house in his vehicle....





I called another buddy over and we taught my buddy who shot the deer how to skin, quarter, and debone the deer.

All and all it was an amazing night. He’s pumped because he got his first archery buck, I’m pumped because I got to help, and this my friends is how traditions are carried on!


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That's great!

I'm giggling a lil to myself thinking I want to see you guys pack one of our big northern ny bucks out like that. They sometimes dress out over 250# up in the great white north....

That is a great buck and want to make sure I congratulate you on a fine FL buck!!!!! Also again what a year you guys have had- it's amazing!!!!

What a great friend you are sir!

Pretty sure that dude is hooked for life, congrats to you both.

Bwana said:

What a great friend you are sir!

Pretty sure that dude is hooked for life, congrats to you both.

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He is still on cloud 9! (I'm still giddy too!)
Just the whole experience was such a great time and I don't think the excitement will disappear any time soon.
We've got him set up with a nice taxidermist down here and they are going to do a nice wooden plaque for him and a euro.

Crossbowguy said:

That is a great buck and want to make sure I congratulate you on a fine FL buck!!!!! Also again what a year you guys have had- it's amazing!!!!

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It was the third biggest buck we were keeping tabs on and a fine buck indeed!
You only get your first archery buck once, and he definitely got a nice one!

Crossbowguy said:

I'm giggling a lil to myself thinking I want to see you guys pack one of our big northern ny bucks out like that. They sometimes dress out over 250# up in the great white north....

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haha I am betting your does weigh more than this buck.... he was probably 110lbs soaking wet..

Bowhuntrben said:

That's great!

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Thank you!

Good job. Your buddy looks like a kid in a candy store.

duckhunt said:

Good job. Your buddy looks like a kid in a candy store.

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Yes sir!!! He was (and still is) PUMPED!

Always good to see a buck killed in the old home country. Congrats on putting your buddy on a buck. What a good friend.

3855WIN said:

Always good to see a buck killed in the old home country. Congrats on putting your buddy on a buck. What a good friend.

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We have one phase left down here (Feb 10-19) and I am going to give it my best to put the big boy down that I am chasing.

Good luck and I expect to be seeing some pics very soon!!!!

Crossbowguy said:

Good luck and I expect to be seeing some pics very soon!!!!

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Thanks! I'll give it my best and that's the best I can do!
I've got some more recent pictures of the buck that I need to text you here soon.... he's a dandy...

Today is the last day of my 2017-2018 Florida deer season.
The deer are just starting to move, but I just spent 2 1/2 days in Las Vegas with the family (took my wife to see a concert she's been dying to go to) and I'm leaving for NM tomorrow for a work trip.
So I think it's time to call it a "year" and start prepping for the next one.

At first I had the dream of doing some giant write up to end this year off, but I don't really think it's necessary.
This isn't going to be just a one and done thread. I plan (and hopefully CJ isn't sick of me yet and will too) to keep this going, but just start a 2018 thread.

So I'll keep this short and sweet because I can babble....

In one of our first posts we mentioned that we just really wanted to share our experiences, hopefully help teach some people some new things, help people break out of their "I can't do it" molds, and show that with an established plan you can do anything that your desire.

My year was filled with a small deployment, work trips, raising a newborn, family obligations, and more, but was still able to get out there and chase my passion.
Tags were filled, friends were made, and fun was had. It really couldn't have gone any better.

I want to personally thank everyone who followed us along this year. Whether you were a lurker or someone who participated in the thread, thank you.
We truly appreciated all the feedback. I'm still BUMMED that photobucket did that third party sharing change in the middle of this because the first half of the thread we lost some cool pictures. The take away though is the next thread won't have that issue!

Applications have already started for 2018, big planning is already underway, and I can promise you that the 2018 is going to be just as much fun as this one, if not better!

I have no cool motivational quotes to end this on and I'm far from philosophical, but I do have a few final parting words for this thread and they are from experiences I had this year.

If you have a passion, do it right or don't do it at all.

This year I spent time trying to help a lot of different people start out hunting, fine tune their skills, scout areas, etc.
Some of them, at the end of the day just wanted me to hand them coordinates because they didn't want to do any work that's involved.
While others were just beyond grateful that I was even taking the time of day to help.
This surprised me in two ways.
One) Some of those people claimed hunting as their "passion", but they wouldn't put in any of the things that are involved: training, scouting, practicing with their weapon, etc
Two) It amazes me how many people won't take the time to pass on information or try to help someone else. If something is TRULY your passion shouldn't you be helping pass it on for others to enjoy? Some of the best experiences this year were watching people take their first animal, learn a new skill, or just enjoying the experiences outdoors. I'd take that 3x to 1 over actually filling my own tags.



Stop worrying about what everyone else thinks.

Whether it's social media, your hunting buddies, or whoever..... stop worrying about what everyone else thinks and worry about what makes YOU happy.
This is YOUR passion and your life to live.... not theirs.

This year I watched hunters (both new and experienced) go the whole season passing on animals they truly wanted to kill, but were not "social media" worthy.
Now they are looking back on their year wishing they wouldn't have done that or have some level of regret.
If you spend your time trying to please everyone else you're going to be severely disappointed. You can't always please everyone.


Stop saying you can't.

I firmly believe that anyone with a plan is unstoppable. If you want to do something then build a plan for it and attack.
Anyone out there can do this kind of stuff.

Every year I know I am going to do some serious hunting so I plan for it physically, financially, logistically, etc.
This entire hunting season was budgeted for and I borrow a single penny to make it happen (I hate debt and refuse it!)

If you've dreamed about some sort of hunt, but continually talk yourself out of it because "you think you can't do it" then you're missing out on some of the best experiences of your life.

So no more excuses, no more lies.....get out there and do it.




Ok, this post is getting a little too long.
Thank you ALL again for being a part of this and for letting us share our season with you.
Keep your eyes open because a new thread will be starting here soon enough and I promise you we will try to keep it as fun, helpful, and useful as possible!


Take care,

Daniel

I absolutely loved your 2017 season and cannot wait for the start of the new thread. And also your last post was very inspirational.

Thank again to the two of you for your service to our country and for sharing your outdoor experiences with us!

duckhunt said:

I absolutely loved your 2017 season and cannot wait for the start of the new thread. And also your last post was very inspirational.

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Thank you for following along with us this year duckhunt, it was a pleasure having you around.
We look forward to seeing you in the next thread. A little teaser...... there's a good chance I'll be hunting turkey and deer in your state this year. Dysart area.
Thank you again!

Bwana said:

Thank again to the two of you for your service to our country and for sharing your outdoor experiences with us!

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Thank you again for your support and for following along with us this year. It was a pleasure having you around Bwana.

Great job to both of you guys this year! Thank you for taking us along on your adventures! Great job also on getting others involved and helping them experience a great time outdoors.

Bowhuntrben said:

Great job to both of you guys this year! Thank you for taking us along on your adventures! Great job also on getting others involved and helping them experience a great time outdoors.

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Thank you for following along Bowhuntrben! We appreciated having you around.
We are hoping to help even more people this upcoming year.

You fellas had an unbelievable 2017 season, your hard work, dedication and time away from your families was rewarded big time with some great animals. I'm proud I served in the same service as you, and getting to know you guys have been a blessing!!!! I know the work never stops so enjoy what downtime you guys do have, I will be in the woods looking for some sheds and improving my lands for this next fall!!!! I look forward to the 2018 season!!