I'm still fairly new at this bowhunting thing. I've gun hunted since I was 14, but I've really only been a serious bowhunter for 4 years now. I've managed to take 9 deer with my bow in 4 seasons. The problem is only 2 of them were does! One was a mature buck taken in Illinois. The others were either button bucks or 1.5 year old bucks.

Here's the kicker: In 4 years of bowhunting in Michigan, I've only seen one buck that looked older than 1.5 yrs old.

At the time I didn't feel bad at all about shooting young bucks. Heck, I probably only get about 4 or 5 deer in bow range all season where I hunt. So I felt like I needed to have a "brown its down" mentality. I'm also starting to realize that I'm probably my own worst enemy because I've shot so many young bucks in the last few years that its no wonder I don't see more mature bucks. But as a new bowhunter I think it was good experience at the same time.

This year, I gained access to a pretty good area to hunt during the rut. I can see myself becoming a mature buck hunter next year, and shooting does for meat. That was my plan this year, until I hunted the entire month of October without seeing a deer of either sex. Then I got frustrated and decided to stick an arrow in the first deer in bow range. Of course, it was a BB (accident - thought it was a doe).

Now that I'm confident in my abilities to kill when the time comes, and I've got a few under my belt, I'm going to try to become a mature buck hunter who shoots mature does only for meat. That's my goal for next year.