Well with 2.5 days left of bowseason here in NY I think my opportunity for mature buck walked by me this morning.

Around 7:00am I caught a glimpse of a deer in the alfalfa field in front of me. My stand is tucked back in some thickets 50 yards so I can't really make it out too well other than I was pretty sure I saw a glimpse of a rack. Anyway I knew he was heading towards me so I clip the release on and get ready.

I catch another look at him as he gets closer to the field edge and towards my stand. Definitely a buck and looks like a decent one, but not quite sure yet. Then he finally ducks into the thickets and holy crapola it's about a 130"+ 9 pointer with a HUGE body.

He quarters in from the left standing right in one of my lanes at 22 yards. Too hard of a quartering in angle for a shot. I knew he was going to cross in front of me anyway so I hold off. He starts coming down the happy trail to my shooting lane that will give me a 20 yard chip shot slightly quartering away. He's moving right down the trail and as his head goes behind the cluster of trees I draw back. Where'd he go?[:@] I'm at full draw for 45 seconds or so and he takes one more step. Only enough for me to see the monster rack again and his head!

I'm at full draw for what seems like eternity and he turns to the right facing me now. Not how it was suppose to happen. Now I have absolutely nothing but a good view of his headgear. I'm trying to hold my bow as long as I can hoping he turns for me. Trying to relieve a little tension by holding the string with my chin.He's just hanging out in front of me while I'm at draw. This goes on forever. I'm starting to shake at this point. I let out a little grunt (not to call him) because I'm about at the end of being able to hold my draw. He turns barely back to the left, but not enough for a shot. Still way too hard of a quartering in shot.

So I've held as long as I can. I have to let off. Sure enough as I do he looks right up at me, turns, and trots off back to the field[:@]. So after several passes on various different bucks (2 around 115-120ish), a zillion hours in stand, another zillion miles on these feet, I finally get one that I was after in bowrange and that's the way it goes down. Oh well maybe he'll be around next year.

Sorry for the rant. Had to get it off my chest. I feel better now.