The evening had been pretty uneventful as I expected it to be. Long about 4:00 that afternoon, I heard some noise. A doe was moving in the woods beside the green field that I had planted. She came out almost down wind of me on a road that I also had planted. I sat there and was surprised to see in the woods a huge rack in the woods. I raised my Thompson Center Omega and put the cross hairs on him. BOOM and smoke bellowed out as one would expect from a 50 caliber smoke pole. As the smoke cleared, I was surprised to see the buck still standing there. I was only about 30 yards from the deer and he didn't know where the shot came from! Excitedly, I attempted to reload but the big buck and his doe eased of into the thick woods.
I got down and just couldn't believe I missed the buck. I looked for blood and looked for blood. As dark approached, I gave up my search for the deer and went home. I remember working the next day and making it back up the property to do one last search. I found the bucks tracks but never a sign of the big guy. I spent hours looking for that deer and it was real hard for me to admit that I had missed.
Later that week, my son had tubes put in his ears. Having the whole day off, I had told my wife that I may hunt that afternoon. I can however still remember how angry she realized that I was going to VA. I truly had buck fever at that time and was just sick at myself for missing that deer.
Once the boy was OK, I left out for the woods. I went to the other side of the farm and hunted another field that I had planted in whitetail extreme. I was sitting in tripod at that time and got into the stand around 3. The wind was right for that stand and I just knew nothing would come back to the other stand.
I can remember taking a work call and getting off the stand and walking to the truck for reception. I got back into the stand and still had memories of the big buck on my mind. I was questioning myself and my decisions. I remember texting my wife back and fourth attempting to get her in a better mood with me. She is an excellent wife, extremely good to me, but was not happy I was hunting there that afternoon. 5:00 in the afternoon, without any warning, the Big Ten point ran across the field. He was running at a steady pace and was making his way directly across the field. This time I got a good rest and put my cross hairs on the buck. BOOM! This time the Big Buck went down in his tracks!
As I said earlier, there was no tracking. The Ten point lay kicking in the field and died in his tracks. I had made a 70 yard shot at what was a very nice buck for me and pretty respectable for any part of the world. To make things even more interesting, the buck had mark on the top of the back. This was the same buck that I missed earlier in the week. The sabot had removed the hair on top the buck's back.
He was heck to load on my 4 wheeler. I can remember texting pictures to my wife and my buddy "B". He was for me the culmination of allot of work that I had done on that farm as well as just the biggest buck I had shot to date. The things I learned from this one: A) never give up and B) get a good rest when shooting a gun. All my misses have come when I shooting without a rest. C) Have a good wife who loves you and is willing to put up with a hunter with Buck Fever. D) A little luck never hurts :)
