Well, this season, I officially took it 115 stand-hours deep. Score 27 climbs, 66 deer total, 25 bucks.

Tagged out early in PA, and spent the balance of the season in Ohio - losing my Buckeye Statepublic land virginity.

5 days total out there, sprinkled over two+ weeks - a day or two scouting - a little more mileage on the shoeleather express - 3 or 4 hunts...All the scouting paid off, and wewere dialed in on some good buck action. I passed a lot of shots on a lot of nice deer before I finally caved in an crushed this guy.

Perfect day - I'd been holding out on hunting this one particular pinchpoint for a pronounced Southwesterly wind. Well... Saturday was the day.

It was the perfect ambush - deer approaching from the west from a heavy bedding area,taking the only accessible route through a deep ravineto skirt a swamp edgeand work a ridge back aroundtoward the south - sidehilling into yet another bedding area. Basically, it was your typical pinchpoint setup, with the wind in my favor. I wassurfin' the platform 18 yds to the NE of the trail headwith awind out of the SW, carrying my scent up the drainage... It almost wasn't even fair.

I passed a helter/skelter shot on adecent 5x5 at daybreak,saw a good 4x4, and then this guy crossed through. Tired of waiting. It was time to make something happen.

Long hike in there though. My god. Those big expanses of land out there would wear out a good pair of legs. Looking back, my entry point and ingress was perfect for the set. I'll be back in that tree again in about a year. Probably meet it with the same results, too.

I'm happywith this guy - looks like a solid 2.5 or weak 3.5 buck, fairly representative of a good buck for the area, from what I've seen. Starting to show some character - great mass, heavy bases, good brows - just lacking in tine length and width. He's definitely not a top-end buck though, so I'd be remiss if I didn't say that I didn't meet my own expectations.

I waited and waited and passed and passed and passed, but the clock was reallyticking on my archery season. I was fresh out of off-days, and it looked like I only had1.5full days left tositdue to family and social obligations - before the orange army invades.

So, at 10:00 this morning, it was Game Over. Game Over for me. Game Over for him. All buck tags filled, and no tag soup for this guy.