I came from a family of hunters, I grew up eating dinner on Sunday at my grandfathers house and I would admire the many sets of antlers that covered the walls throughout the family house. I hunted all the way up through high school but it was more of a family tradition during rifle season kind of thing When I joined the Army I completely fell out of hunting for a few years because I was stationed away from home. Then in 2014 one of my friends introduced me to bow hunting while I was stationed in upstate New York and I quickly became pretty much obsessed with it. My first season I had no success, but I started doing a lot of reading to learn more about bow hunting. Last year I set out to get my first bow kill, I passed on a number of young bucks throughout the archery season, took a doe with my bow, but ended up shooting a buck in rifle. This year I was dead set on getting my first bow buck. Through much of October I was unable to hunt due to other responsibilities but I hunted and scouted hard when I could. I had a few encounters throughout October and early November but it never all came together. November 5th I got into my stand in a funnel in an area I knew there was a lot of doe activity, and after only half an hour on stand I heard movement behind me. I turned around to see a deer coming out into the clearing I was hunting over. I looked him over while he stood there for what felt like forever, and I noticed that he appeared to be a mature deer and decided he was a shooter. I only had one shooting lane that he would cross and he was headed right for it so I ranged where I thought he would cross and drew my bow as he walked closer. When he crossed into my lane I stopped him, settled my pin and pulled through the shot. I watched the green streak from my Nockturnal fly through the air and stop right behind his shoulder. He kicked and spun, running back the direction of which he had come, I watched through my binoculars as he piled up 70 yards from the point of impact. I thought I was hooked on bowhunting after shooting my doe last season, now its even worse.
