I can honestly say that I had the chance to fire a shot at 1 doe this year and it was a fronal shot that I missed with my muzzleloader. The woods are thick here and I wanted some meat. I saw other deer during the season on 2 occassions, but was not presented with a shot because of branches or I couldn't tell what it was because of cover. So my first deer season hunting the Jefferson Nat. Forest here in VA has been dissappointing for me considering how much time I spent in the woods. I was out yesterday and the weather was perfect, but I didn't see a single deer. Between work and family I don't get enough time to hunt and that bothers the hell out of me.

One point of optimism for this season is that I'm learning to bowhunt and I bought 42 acres of land that I'm going to plant food plots on. I like to hunt but when I spend 9 hours in the woods and don't get anything it makes me feel like I wasted time that could be been better spent doing something else productive. When I have my food plots in place I expect to spend 3 hours on stand and get a deer. That is my goal for the '06 deer season. This is coming from a guy who spend nearly 50 hours in the woods this season.