15 October 2011 bow opened none to soon and for me it was back and forth compound and longbow depending on wind direction, spot and setup. I wanted to shoot my first traditional deer on the ground, it just seemed fitting to me. I had an uncle Bud that for a lot of years was the hardest hunter I knew. He hunted a lot on the ground, in the middle of the day, sneaking here and there on the prowl. In later years he would show up at camp unannounced at noon to find all of us sitting around playing poker and laughing. He would give us a look and say " You can't kill your buck from camp!" We wouldn't miss the opportunity to inform him we didn't need all day long to kill our buck like him! "Ya right" he smiled, "where is he then?" He has since passed from cancer but his ethics and appreciation for hunting the hard way made a lasting impression beyond his actual years in the field. When he was sick in the hospital I spent a good amount of time with him because I worked there as a registered nurse. He said he had a book for me and one day during a visit he handed it to me. I opened the hard cover book and fanned the pages looking quickly between them. What struck me the most was the page after page of underlining and highlighting arrows to here and there. To him the book was not light reading but a heartfelt study a passionate guide very relevant to how he spent his days afield. I held his original hardcover copy of Howard Hills " Hunting The Hard Way" I didn't read it all then but appreciated it then for what it meant to him. I have read it more than twice so far today!