I've been a deer hunter for.....oh....12 years now. And when I say "deer" I mean just that......Deer, and any deer. My philosophy has always been "See deer, shoot deer, eat deer." This year I decided I wanted to take a buck w/ my bow......Didn't happen, BUT I learned a lot. Had a good year as well. I saw more bucks this year than the last 3 combined, and had to let several walk due to antler point restrictions, which I HATE by the way, but that's for another day.

I knew killing a buck WAS NOT gonna be easy. I had no grand dillusions of walking in the woods, sitting in tree and shooting one. I knew I was gonna have to work at it, and apparently I need to work at it MUCH harder than I did. I let quite a few deer walk this year, deer that even last year I would have shot. That was tough for me. Each time they walked off I was kicking myself in the butt saying "You dummy....shoulda shot that one!" Growing pains hurt, I guess.