My answer would be very different if you had asked me 10 years ago. But the short and probably most obvious answer is that I love everything about deer hunting. I love learning about their behavior, mapping out my spots and picking new areas to hunt, watching them on my cameras, the camaraderie with all my friends, and even reading Deer & Deer Hunting magazine every month. But most importantly, I love my wife for not killing me yet! She’s the reason I’m able to do what I do.

I was late to deer hunting on my first trip out – only 21 years old. My first shotgun season was in 2011 at Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois. I hunted all day Friday and Saturday with no luck. Back at deer camp that evening, we were all sitting around the fire eating and probably drinking way too much, when we started discussing who was going out the next morning since they were calling for rain. My dad’s buddy Greg was going and said he would drop me off at the pines on the way to his stand. It was somewhere I hadn’t hunted yet so I took him up on it. There I was, sitting against a tree early in the morning in the pouring rain thinking, man this really sucks, when I look behind me and see two does and two bucks following closely behind. I turn around, aim my gun, and shoot one of the bucks spot on! By this time, my heart is racing, and I’ve completely forgotten it’s pouring rain outside. I give it about 15–20 minutes or so and decide to go looking for him. I follow the blood trail and there he is, an 11-point buck! My first deer, one shot and one kill. I called my dad and told him to bring the truck. We loaded him up, took him back to deer camp and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Hunting to me is about being with all my friends and family around a fire at deer camp, listening to their hunting stories from previous years and reliving each moment with them (even if the stories seem to get a little more elaborate each year!). This year will be the most special yet. I finally get to take my 7-year-old son out with me for his first time. Youth season, here we come! This will be a year I will always remember. My dad, my son, and I all around a campfire doing what we love to do most. Because that’s what hunting is all about. I can’t wait!