I was out in my ladder stand tonight and around 4:30pm I heard the biggest banging and clanking and grunting. It was so loud. I looked up to my right and it was what looked like two 8pt bucks fighting over a doe. I couldn't believe how load they were being. flipping each other and running into trees. As I was watching them fight directly behind me I heard something. I was already standing up so I looked and it was a doe walking behind me. She was maybe 12 yrds behind me and behind her was a perfect 6pt buck. His antlers were about 5 inches outside his ears and was a beautiful buck. He was standing broadside directly behind me on the left side of the tree at 22 yrds but was standing behind a tree that was hiding his vitals. So I waited and waited... for more than 10 mins he stood in the same spot while she fed right behind me. She started walking directly away from my tree and thats when he took a step and exposed his vitals. He was at 23 yrds now. I got to full draw and shot and my arrow hit a limb and went into the ground right under his belly. He jumped and ran about 20 yrds. Now he was behind me to my right and was at 37 yrds now but in full alert. He was stomping and snorting but didn't know exactly what happened. I got to full draw and put my 40yd pin on him and shot again. He ducked my shot and I seen hair fly off the top of his back. The arrow stuck in a tree behind him. Now he ran out to 55 yrds directly behind me. The doe was still feeding around she had no clue anything was going on. He stood behind me at 55 yrds for about 20 mins. Now it's been over 30 mins since this whole thing started and the two big bucks were still fighting about 130 yrds off from me to my right. Then about 60 yards in front of my stand a little buck. maybe a 4 pt. came out and snorted at the buck I just shot at. He turned around and grunted at him. They looked each other down for about 3 mins and the younger buck backed down and walked away and out of site. At this point the doe had fed off to my left and the 6pt walked out of my life following her at 55 yrds. I waited about 20 mins and just after dark I retrieved my two arrows and walked out of the woods. I was so excited, it was the most actions I've ever seen in such a short time. All that happened in about 45 mins. I was even still shacking a bit from the whole encounter. I have a 30 min drive home from where I hunt and I didn't get mad at myself for the 2 misses until I was almost 20 mins into the drive!. What a night!
You will never forget that hunt. Those types of hunts are the best. I still remember seeing a forky chasing a doe around my stand for like 10min. It was the first chase I ever encountered. It was like 10 years ago and I could tell you every detail of those minutes.
