Great story and congratulations.

My first bagged deer was a cow horn spike. I killed him with my "Wonder Bow" , cedar shafted arrows tipped with 160 gr. broad heads. forget the brand. This was in the fall of 1963. I was almost 15. I rode my old Murray bicycle to the edge of a swamp that was on the east end of a family friend's property. I shot the buck around 7:30 a.m. as I recall, at about 15 - 20 yards from my brush blind. I can still recall the arrow's flight, the hit and how the deer whirled off splashing through the knee deep water.

I was naive about letting an arrowed deer lay, and took off after him almost immediately. I was so excited. It finally fell dead about 1/4 mile farther into the swamp. I field dressed it. Recovered my precious arrow (represent a lot of yard mowing back then). Took me well over 2 hours to drag it to my bike. I tied it straddling the bike frame with my boot laces and started walking home - I lived about 1 1/2 mile from where I had parked left the bike in the field. A buddy's father happened by and gave me and my "big"' buck a ride to a local grocery, where the spit and whittle club oohed and aahed over it for a while before Mr. Calcote took me home. I hung it from a swing set frame, and skinned it out best I could. Deer were scarce in that part of La. back then. My dad hunted about 6-8 weekends every year for over 12 years and never got one shot off. So I was a celeb for a while.

Then it took me only about another 12 years to ever get another bow shot at a deer !