Let me start off with a little bit about myself and the beginning of this new adventure.

I was born and raised in a small rural town in south eastern Pennsylvania, the heart of Amish country, Lancaster county. I grew up with an affinity of the outdoors, hunting, fishing, and exploring the woods at a young age. Throughout my youth I was raised hunting eastern whitetail, dove, waterfowl, small game, and occasionally going after the elusive PA black bear.

After high school I enlisted in the Marine Corps and was subsequently stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Oahu. This was where I got my start in archery. Between the gun laws on base and the gun laws in Hawaii their really was no other choice than to start bow hunting. With a sizable feral pig population and the itch to hunt, I set out on my endeavor to learn how to archery hunt. While I was only mildly successful bagging only one small pig in the six months I had left on the island I was hooked on archery hunting.

In 2010 I returned home to Pennsylvania after my four year enlistment and was eager to resume hunting. I now had some archery experience and was excited to put it to use in the fall for the whitetail season. That summer I was able to go on a New Brunswick black bear hunt with some close friends of the family. I was fortunate enough to bag a small 100 pound black bear. This was the first time I had ever hunted in a desolate wilderness and the experience was exhilarating. Our stands were miles away from any hard road or really anything at all. I was determined that this was the type of hunting I wanted to do.

Over the next few years I hunted the PA archery and rifle season. I got into some urban archery spots in the Philadelphia suburbs. Chester and Delaware county have some of the largest deer populations in the state and very limited to no public hunting opportunities. Gaining permission from private land owners is rare and takes many off season weekends to go door to door asking permission. Sometimes the land owner may only have a few acres to hunt, but that’s all it really takes. The availability of tags is plentiful and the hunting is sometimes less challenging. This type of hunting allowed me to try out different equipment and techniques without ruining an entire season.