I have been hunting all of my life, my dad took me and taught me when I was young, and I thought I had grown up to be a pretty good hunter. My trusty rifle and shotgun had rarely failed me, I had been all over the country on different hunts, and my walls were adorned with mounts. So when I met my husband, a farm boy who had never hunted outside of southern Missouri and had no trophies to speak of, I thought that I would be the one teaching him. That is until he introduced me to his passion, bow hunting. I had a bow that I shot occasionally and had once sat in a tree with it, but I had never actually bow hunted. Of course I didn't let him know that, although he could tell. We were married in the summer so I had a few months to practice shooting with him before deer season arrived in October. I was able to hit in the kill zone well and joked that this bow hunting stuff would be a piece of cake. By the time bow season came around I teased my husband about how I would outdo him, and said that I would only shoot a good buck.

When I got into the stand for the first time, I was very confident, all I had to do was wait for the deer to walk by close enough and I could shoot it, right? Wrong. The first deer that I saw that morning, two does and a small buck, walked right underneath my stand. I stood up to shoot, and they ran away. This was definitely going to be harder than gun hunting. I was going to have to be more sneaky. Soon I heard another deer coming. It was an eight point. My heart began to race and my knees shook as I watched it come closer. He was out in the open, and I wasn't sure how far he was, but I guessed about 35 yards, that was farther than I had practiced but it was a good buck and I thought I would try. I was afraid to stand up since that spooked the last bunch, so I drew back sitting and put my thirty yard pin a little high on his shoulder. I hit my release trigger and watched my arrow fly over his back. The deer ran a few yards and stopped and continued walking about fifty yards away. This was aggravating, I had to sit and watch this buck I had just missed walk around to far to shoot at. I sat and wished I had a gun as he fed on out of sight. I walked back to the truck, very humbled. I went home to my husband with my story and found out that this was a common part of bow hunting, all of the factors involved is what makes it a challenge, and what makes it fun.

The next couple of weeks were filled with days spent in the tree stand watching deer walk by that were to far to shoot at. I began to put out lures and use calls but the deer all seemed to ignore me. The more I sat and watched to more I wanted to get something with my bow. One rainy morning my luck changed. I had arrived at my tree stand right before it began to pour, so I sat underneath my stand in the dark waiting for the thunderstorm to blow over, not wanting to walk back in the dark, it was raining to hard for the flashlight to help me see anyway, and not wanting to hear what my husband and his friends would say if I wussed out. After about an hour the storm passed and daylight finally came. I climbed soaking wet into my tree stand, and watched as rain still sprinkled around me. The first sound I heard other than the rain was a turkey yelping. I had no turkey calls with me so I made some pitiful yelp like sounds with my voice. To my surprise I soon heard wings flapping and four young turkeys landed about 20 yards from my stand. I waited until they walked behind a bush, a trick I had learned the hard way, and drew back. It seemed like forever before one stepped out into the open, I could not hold the bow back much longer as I aimed and released. Phwack. The bird flopped on the ground as I realized the sound I heard was an arrow hitting it's mark. My joyful squeals scared the other birds away as I climbed down the tree. I had never been prouder of myself as I walked to my house carrying a small turkey who was more soaked than I was. To my surprise I found my husband and his friend there. They had come in because of the rain.

The next morning, with a new spark for hunting instilled in me, I put out some lure on a nearby branch and climbed into the treestand where I had first missed the buck. I had been sitting for a few hours seeing nothing when I saw movement in front of me. It was a spike buck. My heart raced, I never thought I could get so excited over a spike, but I was shaking all over. I had the fever. I stood up as it began to walk on a trail that lead away from my stand. I turned over my can bleat call. It worked this time. The buck came running towards me and stopped at the branch with lure. He was behind the tree to me, so I carefully drew back and waited for him to step into the open. He was directly under my stand when he came into the clearing, so I aimed at his spine and shot. He dropped in his tracks. I was twice as excited as the day before as I ran the entire way back to the house to get the truck and tell my husband. He couldn't believe it.

That little spike was the smallest deer I had ever killed, but I was more excited about it than any other deer. It was a trophy to me, my first deer with a bow. This bow hunting was a huge challenge and I had done it, I was now a bowhunter, and I was hooked. This had been by far the most exciting and fun deer season I had experienced, and I can't wait until next year.