Cristina Houchins-Butler West Virginia

I have always admired women who bow hunted. What patience. I have gun hunted for 10 years now, but until 3 seasons ago, had never even touched a bow. My then boyfriend (now husband) surprised me our first Christmas together with a new PSE bow and a new treestand.  I was giddy as a little schoolgirl. It was obviously too late in the season to hunt this year, but I knew I had lots of practicing to do. The first two seasons, I harvested 2 does per season. This year, I saw lots of little deer, but knew that after 10 years of hunting, that I wanted to wait for a trophy. Everyone made fun of me because I hadn't killed anything this year, but my heart was telling me to wait. December 23, 2004, I decided to hunt that afternoon, and hadn't been in my treestand more than 10 minutes, when I heard a deer approaching, a small buck, cute as a button, but my heart couldn't take him, then, all of a sudden, I hear more footsteps behind him. Oh my gosh! A huge buck. I know at that moment, my heart stopped beating, I waited, watched, and prayed, and then at 10 yards, he made available to me, the perfect shot. My heart raced, he ran about 30 yards, and I couldn't see if he fell or not. I was quite, slipped out of my treestand, went to find my husband, and he made me wait till after I ate dinner to go find him. Only 30 yards from my treestand, and there he was, a beautiful, magnificent   9 point dream buck.So, after all my waiting, I harvested my first, and hopefully not my last buck, and I want to thank all of those women out there for the inspiration, because anyone can do it if they put their mind to it. Thank you all!