My introduction to hunting started on the heels of my dad. As a kid I followed as our bird dog working the fields trying to catch the scent of a Ringneck. Then off into the deer woods where I carried lumber for my dads treestands, all while paying attention to all of the deer signs he pointed out and explained to me. I soaked it up like a sponge and waited until I was old enough to hunt. The first deer I harvested was a young spike buck which lead to my love for whitetail hunting—this is where it all began!
I started shooting the bow at 15 and harvested my first yearling doe later that year. I read books, magazines, and watched videos but spent most of my time trying to read the book of the woods to understand deer and their habits, which lead to the desire to harvest mature bucks. I started shooting a traditional bow in 1991. My first bow was a Black Widow Graybark (62″ 56lb. @ 29 inches) which I hunted with until 2012, when the top limb finally gave out after 2 repairs and almost 100 deer.
In 2000 I met Jim Purcaro who shared my passion for hunting mature bucks and promptly invited me to hunt in Northeastern Montana with him. A ranch that had never hosted a traditional archer and was a little skeptical however 30 minutes into my hunt I cleanly harvested a 151″ 12pt and satisfied their doubts which also peaked Jimmy’s interest in traditional archery. A year later he switched and we began traveling and hunting from our home state of New Jersey to Montana, Kansas, Illinois and Texas.
In 2003 we took on the challenge of trying to capture our hunts on film.