GB You learned a lesson, but not the hard way. You were very fortunate. My first year of bowhunting I did the same thing. But this was the king of the mountain that I had watched, plotted, planned and spent many many hours scouting to be in the right place at the right time. I was set up on the side of a steep hill overlooking a stream. The buck was to cross the stream and angle up to within 25 yards of my stand. I'm in my stand at 05:00 with the wind in my face and watching down the hill. I hear a twig snap and there he was. Standing directly behind me. We were looking eye to eye at the same level. Needless to say, I didn't get the shot. The hard part to swallow, the buck was shot by a guy that had not been in the woods until 10:00 that day. It walked within 20 yards of him while entering the woods. His shot hit it's mark and all my time and trouble went up in smoke. I did get a nice 8 point, but is wasn't the one I had worked so hard for. That never happened again.