Just the other day I was having a conversation about my 'addiction' to whitetails and I had to share 'the video' with my friend. But let me back up a bit first. See, I grew up in a hunting family and remember days as a kid, shooting a .22 on the farm in Tidioute, PA that we spent a lot of time at in the summer and fall. My Dad and Grandfather were always by my side and I taught me a lot over the years. I tagged along for many hunts and still long for the days to walk that field with my Granddad. I took my first buck on that very farm when I was 14 and my first archery buck closer to home the following year. I continued to hunt and eventually went to school and got married and over the years it all got away from me. After things settled down, I was ready to get back into it and found myself hunting more and more again. It wasn't until I moved into my current house that my love of whitetails grew. Over the next few years, I would notice more and more deer hanging out behind the house and kept thinking, maybe I should be hunting back here.

November 4th, 2004: I'm sitting in my home office working like I always do. Juggling customer calls and my boss breathing down my neck to finish testing our soon to be released new Software product. As I'm on the phone, I get up to walk around and am greeted by the site of antlers moving thru the brush. Nothing new but I grabbed the camera and stared to video. I finished on the phone and moved downstairs and snuck out the back door to the deck and videoed some more. It wasn't until I review the footage that I realized what I had seen. At this point, my obsession started. In retrospect, I wish I would have put a stalk on, but being the sensible man I was at the time, I headed back in the house to work.

Notice I say, 'sensible man I was at the time'. From that point forward, my addiction started. I stared passing bucks I never would have thought of before. I finally saw the magic of the rut and knew I'd never be the same. My boss knows that come November, all things change. I'm not available as much as I was the other 50 weeks of the year. There will be periods of time that I am not available on IM and I won't answer my Blackberry. He knows that when I do answer or get back online, his first question should be either, 'any luck?' or 'How big?' as he knows and understands. My wife has pretty much given up hope that I'll change during this time. Although, I do make time for her birthday on November 7th and will never sacrifice that time (although we did have to hold up going to lunch one day because I was filiming 2 8pts running a doe.)

Well, I've teased enough for now. I've finally got around to getting footage off the tapes and onto the computer.
2004 Western PA 10 point buck...
http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm15/DennyRussell/?action=view&current=200410pt.flv

So, was there one particular deer that started your addiction? If so, lets here the stories and see the pics/vids.