I just bagged my first deer with a bow on Sunday and I was thrilled. I have had success rifle also, bagging 8 in Pennsylvania, and three of those were close enough for a bow, but the movement of drawing a bow may have cost me those three, who knows. I hunted bow twice before this year, back in '89 and '90, and scared the deer off with my drawing of the bow. Now that I'm a little wiser from reading these boards, I feel more confident in bow hunting and that will be my first choice in the future. All the things that you need to do right to get the deer close to you is so rewarding when you get it all right and luck plays it's part (luck is preparation meeting opportunity), is second to none, short of jumping out of the tree and stabbing the deer to death, maybe.

However, I'm not gonna give up rifle hunting because I remember each of those hunts as well, although 10-15 years gone now. In fact, I'm traveling back to my native PA to rifle hunt after Thanksgiving. I'm just as excited about that as I was when I was 12 and on my first hunt. I say hunt as often as possible- you can't go wrong.