Hands down, the one I'm most proud of was not taken. He was a nice 8 pointer I was able to rattle in for my oldest son, who was 12 at the time.

It was just a perfect Indiana fall evening, crisp and cool. I had both our stands in the same big oak tree. As he only hunted with me 4 or 5 times a year, every time out was special anyway. Nothing was moving so I thought I'd liven things up by showing him the rattling technique. Not 2 minutes after the sequence we hear the crunching of hoofs coming out of the marsh. A nice 8 pointer walked right out in the open, turned and came our way. He was locked in and it was really cool to watch my son's anticipation. It came in on the trail I wanted, then turned away. I quickly made a series of grunts that brought him right under our tree. My son stood up at the right time, drew at the right time, but simply did not let the arrow fly. Afterwards I asked why and he claimed there was a branch in the way. It turned out to be a tiny 1/8" twig. Don't know why he didn't just squat down a little or whatever. He was disappointed but I told him that's bowhunting. A lot of things must go right to make a kill.

I was proud to manuever this buck for my boy and proud he did so many things properly, just erring on the safe side of making an ethical shot. It was a fun teaching experience. Incidently this is the only buck I have ever been able to rattle in in my part of Indiana, where the buck:doe ratio normally makes rattling ineffective.

Sadly, girls and video games have since claimed my hunting partner.

kshunter, Did you or your hunting buddy do any good this year? Did I ever send photos of my Indiana bucks? I got a couple of 3 1/2 year olds, but not impressive by KS standards. Almost arrowed a nice 140+ buck at Tuttle.

Either of two archery elk hunts - My first elk hunt which I did solo, knew little about elk hunting or the area I was going into, backpacked in and out, called in quite a few bulls and took home a 5x5. The other hunt was with my Dad, I killed my biggest bull, a 300 class 5x6, and then I called him in a 250 class 6x6 two days later. We backpacked in on that hunt too, everything was done the hard way and that and the Father/Son comraderie will be hard to beat.

I,d have to say the first ones my kids get.

I would have to agree with kshunter, I was the most proud of my first bowkill which was only a spike buck. I had already got several nice bucks with a rifle and shotgun but this little buck with a bow made me have a great feeling of accomplishment. Especially since I was on the ground stillhunting.

Zim...I arrowed 3 deer this year, but nothing big, my buddy got 8 and 12 big weren't all that big either. The rut wasn't as good as it is in recent years and I had about 1/10 of the time to hunt as usually because of college. But still had fun and anxious for next year.
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IT WOULD HAVE TO BE MY FIRST DEER EVER, IT WAS A LONG AND HARD HUNT, AND THE LAST DAY PAID OFF. SHE WASN'T THE BIGGEST DEER I'VE EVER SEEN BUT SHE WASN'T THE SMALLEST EITHER

What trophy am I most proud of?
My wife! She coulda been a playboy bunny if she wanted to be one!

I'm most proud of a big 9 pointer I got about ten years ago. I hunted him for two years before he slipped up!

Hey thundermug what was her net score?