Saturday morning Oct 29.I had originally planned to hunt in the morning but after a turn of events I didn't get to bed until after 2am Friday night and accidentally slept until 10am. By 4pm Saturday afternoon I was at the lease and planned to hunt a small ladder stand that we put up 3 weeks prior however when I climbed up I realized that most of the leaves the leaves I had counted on for cover had fallen off and I was sticking out like a monkey on limb.I quickly decided to move the stand to a different tree 10 yards to the left. By 4:45 I had the stand moved and all my gear up.By this time I was sweating slightly and sprayed down with scent killer and took off my boots and my shirt and hung them over a limb for about 10 minutes until I had cooled down a little. Here's an aerial pic of where stand is located (North is the top South the bottom) The stand was facing to the south,I had a cut beanfield 140 yards to the South and CRP to the West,North and East The wind was about 15 mph out of the SW,it was almost 80 degrees and the pressure was 30.1 and falling. By 6:00 I had yet to see a deer and was feeling a bit dejected but managed to remain alert. At 6:45 I glanced over to my left (East in the pic) and spotted a buck cruising North to South on the opposite side of the tree row.I only saw him for about 3 seconds but I knew instantly it was a good buck. Two minutes later he popped out into the bean field and started feeding heavily.Darkness was fast approaching so I grabbed my grunt call and gave two loud grunts. He looked my way for a few seconds then turned and headed straight for my tree.When I grunted at him I also attracted a small 6 point that was about 70 yards to my right. The two deer met at 45 yards in front of my stand and both circled each other with the hair standing up heads lowered.After about a full minute of this the little buck walked off to my left and the big guy started heading right so I grabbed my grunt call and grunted one more time. Instantly the bigger Buck whipped around and started on a stiff-legged walk straight for the small buck. I started ranging him as he closed fast and saw that he would cross in front of me at about 25 yards.I slowly drew my bow as he crossed the 30 yard mark and when he crossed a spot I had ranged earlier and I knew he was about 27 yards. I let out a quiet "urp" and he stopped quartering to me just slightly so I aimed just a little forward,took an extra second to settle the pin and squeezed the trigger. He mule kicked and tore off through the CRP with his tailed tucked tight.The shot was about 3 inches farther forward than I wanted but I knew it would be fatal however I hadn't seen him fall so I wanted to give him some time. Almost instantly after the shot I started shaking so bad I had to hang up my bow before I dropped it.I waited about 10 minutes to calm down enough that I could pack up.It was dark by that time and I quietly slipped out to the road to wait for my brother to get back to he could help me track. He got there at about 7:20 and I replayed the scenario to him.We then walked back into the stand and after looking for a little we found the first blood.The first 10 feet of the trail were a little spotty but after that it really opened up until there was blood sprayed 3 foot high on the CRP.50 yards later we found him folded up. We took a few pics and then texted one of my buddies,who said he would be there shortly to help us drag him out.15 minutes later he arrived and the fun began.Thankfully the landowner gave us permission to drive in the field so we only had to drag him about 60 yards. Now for the trophy pics PS;final score was 141 1/2.
