Attached is a picture of my largest buck to date, taken with my bow. The story behind it demonstrates what a true friend and sportsman is.
My buddy invited me to go hunting with him on his private land. On the drive out there in the morning he informed me that his back was really bothering him and he didn't feel safe climbing up to his tree stand. He said he really wanted me to hunt out of it, as in his opinion it would give me my best opportunity to get a deer. This friend is the definition of a "trophy hunter" but he stressed repeatedly that I was free to shoot anything that made me happy. It was only about an hour after sunrise when the biggest buck I had ever seen came walking towards me. It all happened so fast I had to litterally sit down, try to stop shaking, and recall what just happened. It took me a while to realize that in all the excitement I had seen the buck fall and sure enough he was laying dead only about 30 yards from the stand. As I already said this was by far my best deer ever but I also knew it was probably on the border as to if my buddy would have shot him. We have all heard stories of friends getting upset when you take a buck that doesn't quite meet up to thier standards, especially from thier property and out of thier stand. A couple hours later I tried to curb my excitement as my friend approached because I really wanted to see his reaction. Well, when he first saw the buck he screamed "yes, you did it!" out loud and immediately started to hug me (and no, neither one of us are known as being huggers). Both of ours excitement just built from there. It really was a toss up as to who was happier, me for getting my best buck ever or him for putting me in a position to get him. As I stated at the start of this post, that to me is the definition of a true friend and a sportsman.
PS It took a couple of weeks before he finally admitted that he probably would have let the buck walk. Still, that did not diminish his excitement for me at all!