We arrived at camp Thursday morning to our 62 acre lease and grabbed a few cameras that were close by. Several good bucks moving and a few in daylight! A nice cold front had just hit so our hopes were high. That first night I saw a 100" eight but that was it. Friday morning I changed areas and right at first light I had a 90" eight making a scrape 8 yards from me. That hunt was awesome! It was like a steady stream of bucks filtering right past my tree. I ended up seeing six bucks and two does all under 16 yards. Three of the bucks were 90-100"
Saturday we woke to heavy rain so we slept in. The rain was supposed to taper off and the wind had switched from SW to NW and the temp was dropping And I knew exactly where I needed to be. The main part of our property is a N-S running ridge, hardwoods on the West side, 15 year old clear cut on the East. I had speedscouted the clear cut area the very first day we got the place and I jumped a good buck when I was there and marked it on the GPS. With the trail cam pics of our main bucks all after dark I knew they were holding tight to that cover. I decided I would slip around it on the downwind side and the rain covered my noise perfectly. As I got close to the tree I wanted to use three does jumped up and blew out of there. I didn't figure they hurt much so I grabbed the card from the camera right there and climbed up with my spikes and saddle. I hadn't checked this cam in a while and as I was going through the pics there's our #1 buck in the daylight! A few more pics later and there he is again before dark the day before! Now I'm REALLY pumped. It was drizzling rain and getting colder. Two does worked their way in and eventually busted me because of some swirling wind. It didn't really worry me, I just had that feeling that something was going to happen. At 5:20 I catch a glimpse of something moving and pull up the binos to see the end of a main beam! He steps out from behind a tree and I instantly knew he was the big nine we had pics of. Our #2 buck. He was calmly feeding my way and man did he look big walking through the timber! He was coming straight in behind me so I swung left with my feet on the edge of my platform and twisted all the way to the right. He kept coming slowly and just as he was about to step into my 22 yard lane I drew but the buck stopped!! He was starting to act a bit nervous and here I am at full draw with no shot. His head was behind a tree so I slowly let down. After a few minutes he goes to take another step and I draw again. He stops short of my lane again! I set the cam of the bow on my knee to help hold it and the standoff began. I sat like that for nearly three minutes and got to the point I couldn't hold it any more and let down slowly. When I did that another deer I hadn't seen behind me stomped and took off. At this point the buck turns to go back the way he came and I come to full draw again. I have one TINY little opening to shoot through and he stopped perfectly right in it. As quick as I needed to shoot I calmed myself, settled the pin and squeezed the release and watched the arrow hit exactly where I aimed with the sharp WHOP of a rib cage hit! He bolted down a ditch and up the other side where he stopped. I could see his tail flicking fast and then his rack went sideways and all went silent. I didn't see him fall but was pretty sure he was down for good!! I think I climbed the 20' down the tree in three steps with my spikes LOL. I got to my arrow and it was soaked in blood. I looked up in the direction he ran and there he was! He fell right where I last saw him. Man what an awesome feeling to have a hunt come together like that. I'm pretty dang sure he was using the same bed I had marked a month earlier. My entry and wind were perfect. I'm very thankful!!
Here is the map of entry/bed/shot. I came in from the South with a NW wind. Buck came down the hill and shot was at the blood drop waypoint
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