Thanks, germ. Hope you had a great weekend golfing!! Getting away is a good thing.

I honestly learned more just by SEEING this buck than I have in the last 3 years. He totally changed how I hunt that area, and I mean TOTALLY. I won't park in the same place, I won't enter the woods in the same manner.....I won't hang my climber in the same place for fear of him hearing me. I didn't hang a portable stand in the spring, I wish I would have just spent the damn money and done it now.

There's a GREAT inside corner that's between 2 doe bedding areas I will hunt him. My plan is to sneak in 1 or 2 evenings early season if the wind is right, and if I don't connect I'm outta there till LATE October into the November pre rut, and only if the wind is right. Seeing him was kind of the last piece of the puzzle I needed, so to speak. He taught me everything I needed to know....

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty confident right now.....Not arrogant mind you, but confident. You're right, there is a reason I haven't seen him in the last 3 years, and seeing him the other night taught me exactly why I haven't.....Those mistakes WON'T happen this year. I also can't help but feel like there's a reason I finally DID see him as well, I don't think it was just dumb luck.