I agree with David. There are two ways to look at this (off the top of my head).

1. I DO find it honorable that many are "holding out" for their first to be something special to them. Kudos.

2. I found that while I was trying to do No. 1......I was ill-repared when the time came to take my 1st. I blew it, mentally. For folks who are trying to get their first deer with the bow....I'v eoften said that you could build a city in between "passing" on one and actually putting it on the ground. So many things can go wrong......the most of which will be controlling your nerves. Matt said in his sticky post above....that you will be in the midst of an unbelievable OMG situation the first time you get to full draw on a deer you are planning on taking. That is very true. If I had it to go back and do over, again....I'd have killed "a" deer, sooner.....AND I think I might have been better prepared when that deer I was really after presented me with a shot opportunity.

Mine worked out in the end. I killed that deer 2 yrs later. But I wounded him (flesh wound) the first time I encountered him with the intent to kill him. There's nothing wrong with hilding out. Nothing. But understand that there's no way to prepare yourself for killing.......short of doing it.

Good luck to all of you this year. Your stories are great.