I killed my first deer with a .357 handgun. I almost regretted it since I shot him within the first hour of gun season..... almost regretted...

Yes I will call it a successful season but not thoroughly. Now this is just going by my harvests. I took a nice 10 point opening morning of firearm season followed by a big doe the next afternoon.

However I never managed to arrow any of the nice deer that where around during archery season. They were there when I wasn't and I was there when they weren't.

Now thoroughly successful to me is seeing some of my close hunting buds not score especially after they put in so much hard time.

But there are some mighty fine big boys still roaming our archery area!

Since the OP allows us to define "sucess" then yes, I would say my season was a fantastic sucess.

I got 7 this year inluding an 8,9, and a 10 along with all 4 of my doe tags. That might seem like a lot to some people but I have 450 acres and I was the only one to harvest deer this year. I honestly dont think I killed enough. I just ran out of people to give meat too and I dont know where I would put another freezer.

I hunted 5 days a week from Sept 15th - Jan 1st to probably at least 25 trips to the stand. I can count on one hand the number of times I didnt see a deer. Saw mostly bucks, and the first week of the season 6-7 out in the same field was common. Even during rut I saw 2-3 bucks together and they didnt seem to mind another dude hanging around. Literally, and I mean literally every single doe I saw had fawn or twins with her. Lots of spikes which Im probably going to cull next season because they looked to be around 2 1/2. I saw some really young deer that were only around 1 1/2 but already growing 4 or 6pt racks outside the ears so want to grow them. I killed more Deer than I did during the 4 dove hunts I also had on my farm lol. Hell I probably saw more Deer than Doves. Who ever said there is a Deer shortage in SC is a moron.

Been walking around the farm with my binoculars before dark since the season ended and they must have a calendar or something. The older bucks look right at me and just keep feeding cause they know I cant do anything to them. The little ones just run around the field playing with each other. None of them run as long as I keep my distance.

When you're older than...
 

the Commandant of the Marine Corps, every season is a success.

Just joined forum and this is first post. I killed 4 does early in season. I had my 5 year old with me on one of them. He had fun and that made it special. We have 1 week left. A 5 year old, 3 year old, and a pregnant wife have limited my time in the woods. We had some good trail pics but have not taken any. I am changing strategy and going horseback hunting next Saturday with a friend.