Let's hear those stories of the big buck down or the one that got away! I hung a stand for an afternoon hunt about 100 yards from the edge of an old overgrown cow pasture, which was the edge of the property that I hunted at the time. Well I was only in my stand for about an hour when I heard someone on the other side of the pasture rattling. I thought man it's pretty early for that, I think it was around October 12th. I also remember thinking that whoever was doing the rattling was making a heck of a lot of noise. I was convinced that my hunt was going to suck because of it. About an hour before dark, I caught movement in my peripheral behind me at about 100 yards. I saw antlers gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. I stood up and grabbed my bow. The buck was running, and he was running right towards me! The deer ran right under my stand, quartering away, I grunted, he didn't stop, I whistled, he kept on going. Well, I blew it! I thought. Until I caught the glint of antler in the sunlight again, in the same spot I had seen the first buck, about 100 yards behind me and closing in quick! I realized that the overly loud hunter using rattling horns, turned out to actually be two bucks fighting. This time I knew exactly where this buck was going to be. I waited until the deer was under my stand, I drew my bow. He trotted, quartering away at 10 yards. I made one of those "berrrp!" sounds, you know, the ones those guys on the hunting channels make to stop deer. It worked! I shot, the deer went less than 20 yards before he piled up. I was excited to say the least! To go from a missed opportunity, to a filled tag in about a minute was a flood of emotions. It was probably my most memorable hunt so far, and to think, it wasn't even mid October yet! The deer weighed about 220 dressed. I never got him scored but I think he'd be about 140 class, not that it matters too much to me.
