Hey DeerT,

Welcome to the world of bowhunting! I say welcome, because it sounds as if you' ve now made the transition completely. Sometimes it takes " accomplishing" the thing you thought would mean victory, only to find out you scored a meaningless, hollow kill.

And I guess that' s why rifle hunting doesn' t do it for me. It' s killing versus hunting. Oh, I know, there are your fair share of good hunters who happen to use a gun to bring the hunt to its finality -- but, for me, it' s a shallow act, void of the thrill of true accomplishment. With rifle hunting, if I could see it, I could kill it. Period. That' s not hunting; that' s shooting.

I sold my 30.06 a couple years ago after the realization I would never take a rifle into the deer woods again. As Wolfen alluded to, if the deer beats me, fine. He was just better, craftier, wilier -- or perhaps luckier -- that day. But I won' t cheat my own standards any more and resort to any other weapon. Again, this is not a holier-than-thou feeling; if you' ll notice, I said my own standards. I would never disparage someone who chose to hunt with a rifle and enjoyed it.

But I think you' ve come to realize what most of us have: Success is the journey, not the destination.