October 15, 2017 my husband and I were hunting in Payette National Forest down an old Forest Service road. About a month prior I purchased by first bow, and made a promise to myself to only hunt big game with my boy until I had successfully harvested something with it. After several unsuccessful trips my hopes of harvesting anything with my bow started to die; after all, it was no longer the short-range weapon only season. My husband had switched over to hunting with a rifle, but I was not going to go back on my promise.

We decided to go different directions since he was rifle hunting. As I was walking down the road, I saw a few small, dark objects lying in the road ahead of me. Having grouse hunted successfully during the early season, I knew what they were and got excited! I changed out my broad head arrow for a small game arrow, adjusted my distance to about 30 yards – in an attempt not to scare them away – took a deep breath, aimed, released…and missed. My arrow slid right underneath the grouse I had been aiming at. Being my only small game arrow I walked slowly towards them, picked up my arrow, aimed, released…and I guess you can say it was a hit. The grouse started walking away with my arrow piercing the skin on the back of her neck. Amazed at what I was looking at, I chased her down, killed her, and took my arrow back. I successfully harvested three grouse that evening with my bow, but unfortunately did not see any big game.

When I met back up with my husband he asked from a distance “Any luck?” my response “I bet I was more successful than you.” being a smart aleck he responded “What’d you do, lose an arrow?” and with a BIG smile on my face I responded “Nope, I killed three grouse though!”