The 5 stages of the hunter: How I've grown as a sportsman over the years [column]

The 2024-25 archery deer season in Pennsylvania's Wildlife Management Units 2B, 5C and 5D opened Saturday, Sept. 21.

WMU 5C includes a sliver of northeast Lancaster County, as well as parts of neighboring Chester and Berks counties, among others.

Like many of you, I was out there sitting in a tree stand in western Chester County on my first hunt of the new year.

Besides Sept. 21 being opening day of the new deer season, it also marked the start of my 35th season as a Pennsylvania deer hunter.

I didn't start hunting until I was 21, or else I'd have even a few more seasons in the stand.

I recently came across an on the Boone and Crockett Club's website entitled "Five Stages of the Hunter- Hunt Fair Chase."

The Boone and Crockett Club, if you've never heard of it, is a nonprofit organization founded – in part – by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887 to conserve wildlife and to promote fair chase hunting.

As I read the , I saw my own development as a deer hunter over the past 35 years.

I went to my basement and looked at antlers on plaques, with cobwebs connecting tines, and dust piling high on the fuzzy red velvet covering the skull caps.

I sifted through the pages of a photo album I started keeping in 1990 that I have long referred to as "The Book of the Dead," as it chronicles my hunting career up until the point camera phones became a thing and photo prints became a thing of the past.

As I studied the physical trail of my life as a Pennsylvania deer hunter, I confirmed my own passage through the five stages of the hunter, as outlined by the Boone and Crockett Club.

READ: What to know as Pa. hunting season kicks into full gear

Shooter Stage

This is the first stage of the hunter, in which simply seeing game and getting a shot is the goal of the hunt.

"Our skills are being tested and refined, including field shooting skills and whether or not to take a shot," the states.

The first day I ever went deer hunting was the 1990 firearms season opener.

In the days before that opener, I went to Kmart and got an insulated, blaze orange coat and pants, a deer drag that I still carry in my pack today, a knife that probably wouldn't cut through soft butter and some other gear I thought essential.

I borrowed a .30-.30 rifle from my brother-in-law and took maybe three shots from it before heading out to the woods.

We hunted from my brother-in-law's family camp in the big woods of Lycoming County. I'd never been there before. I was shown a spot the day before the opener, and that's all I knew.

Within the first hour of opening day, an eight-point buck appeared no more than 40 yards in front of me.

My mind raced.

Am I really allowed to just shoot this deer? Is that legal? Are we sure today is opening day? What if we got the date wrong?

By the time I convinced myself this was a legitimate shooting situation, I was a nervous wreck and I missed that deer clean.

But man, what a rush.

The following year I took my first deer ever – a button buck that I shot with my bow.

A year after that, I used a 12-gauge pump gun with a rifled barrel and open sights to shoot my first buck – an old, broken-horn warrior.

READ: Here's how registered voters feel about allowing Sunday hunting, according to F&M poll

Limiting Out Stage

A few early successes stoked the hunting fire, and the obsession grew.

Hunting mainly in Chester County, where doe tags were more plentiful and the hunting seasons longer than in other parts of the state, I found myself caught up in securing multiple tags every season and working hard to fill them all.

For buck hunting each year, my aim was simple. Fill the tag. When a legal buck presented a shot, I took it. Antler size didn't matter.

All of that perfectly exemplifies the Limiting Out Stage.

I proudly reported to others that I'd gotten my Pennsylvania buck five, then six, then seven years in a row.

My photo book started filling up with pictures of does and average-sized bucks. I made sure to get photos of every deer, and to mount every set of antlers on plaques.

This was the evidence of my success.

During these years of tag filling, there were several occasions when I was out doe hunting – my buck tag having already been filled – and I came into close contact with truly impressive bucks.

They presented "gimme" shot opportunities, but since my tags were already filled, I could only watch those deer walk away into the unknown.

READ: Are we on the doorstep of Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania? Not quite

Trophy Stage and Method Stage

These are stages three and four, according to Boone and Crockett's discussion, but for me, they took over at the same time.

According to Boone and Crockett, the Trophy Stage is when hunters place a higher emphasis on the quality of the game taken over the quantity. And the Method Stage is when emphasis is given to how game is taken.

At some point in the early 2000s, the drive to simply fill my buck tag every year faded.

I wanted to shoot bucks that were bigger than the ones I'd already taken – even if that meant passing easy shot opportunities at legal deer.

And I had to take them with my bow.

My streak of filling my buck tag every year came to an end.

It didn't bother me.

Over the following 20 years or so, I shot only six bucks. But they were among my biggest Pennsylvania specimens.

Which brings us to the definition of "trophy" in the deer-hunting world.

None of my best Pennsylvania bucks is magazine-cover material. The biggest is an eight-pointer than measures around 135 inches gross.

I have always considered my trophy expectations to be realistic. I know the quality of the deer in my hunting area, and so I'm not holding out for something that just isn't there.

During this period, I shot a six-pointer – a 5.5-year-old, 20-inch wide six-pointer that weighed 240 pounds.

Is that a "trophy" buck? It is to me.

And I shot it with my bow.

READ: Saturday or Monday? Pa. hunters debate which firearms deer season opening date is better

Sportmans Stage

According to Boone and Crockett, this stage of the hunter manifests in many ways, from mentoring new hunters to taking time to "soak it all in," to participating in conservation organization activities.

For me, the Sportsman Stage means I place more emphasis on the hunting experience than on filling tags.

I'd say I'm currently in the Sportsman Stage, Trophy Stage and Method Stage all at once, to be honest.

The main reason I hunt is to be in the woods, surrounded by nature.

Is there a better place to be in late October than sitting on a piece of metal strapped to a tree 20 feet off the ground?

If there is, I haven't found it.

It doesn't bother me if I go home empty-handed. Every day spent in a tree stand is heavenly.

But if I do choose to take a shot, it's going to be at a deer that I consider to be a "trophy," and it's going to be taken with my bow.

Last year, on the last day of the Pennsylvania firearms season, I hunted with my bow, rather than a gun, and I ended up tagging a 10-pointer.

It was the perfect hunt at this stage of my development as a hunter.

Which stage are you in?