The rut is on in Richloam and Greenswamp now..a little 8pt was chasing a doe about 35yds. behind me in Greenswamp two days ago. Last tues. in there I had two chances at a state registry class buck in there. He was cruising for does hitting the feeding areas..steady walk..they will be doing that till the end of the season in there.
Once 8:30am he was about 175yds. and I couldn't get my crosshairs on his chest like I wanted..(was using 14" 7-30Waters Contender handgun and just had 5 heart by-passes 6wks. ago at the time) That afternoon he came in where I was setup in climber and stopped broadside at 5 steps. I had the crosshairs right behind his shoulders and my gun locked in on a monopod rest..pulled the trigger and it just snapped. Had it set for rim-fire barrels instead of center-fire. I re-live the event about every 5 minutes and will for many yrs...that's how good of a buck he is.