RE: my first good buck
Great deer. You must have kept your cool because you made your one shot count. Getting a brute like that on your third year may have spoiled ya.
Trophytaker_browning said that you had had previous bad seasons. I don't think I have ever had a bad season deer hunting and I don't think you said you've had any either. Just because you strike out or shoot a button, that does not mean you had a bad season; if it does that means I have had quite a few and, funny, I don't remember ever feeling like I've ever had a bad season. Something kept you in the game after not getting a deer the first season after all.
Bob