since the season is just about over for deer everywhere its time to brag and share the stories of the 2004 season. heres one of mine. it was the first friday of rifle season and i had seen some awesome bucks on the farm during bow season and our 10 day muzzleloading season that followed. i was a little upset that i hadnt bagged one of the bruisers then and since the dogs were out now i was even more skeptical but i headed to my stand. i had parked the jeep next to the roundbails and got my scentlok on and started walking the edge of the field when i got about 50 yards from my vehicle and heard antlers cracking. it was about 6:15 am and it was still kind of dark and hard to see but i took a knee and looked around. now at first i thought it was another hunter letting me know he was there so i started scanning the field with my scop powered down to 3 since that was the only way i could see with the low light conditions and then "BAM" there was the source of the racket. 2 nice mature bucks waging battle just 75 yards to my left. now i was stunned. these bucks had to see me park and start walking the edge of the field cause they were only about 80 yards from my jeep. but i put the scope on the bigger of the 2 and waited for his vitals to look me square in the eye and i took the shot. he dropped and then ran. i waited for about 45 minutes cause i had 2 things not in my favor. 1 it was dark enough that i couldnt really tell where he ran too but i knew the general direction and 2 he got up and ran. so i went looking and i looked for an hour and a half and i saw nothing. no blood no sign at all. i went back to me truck in dicust thinking i must of missed and i drove to the other side of the farm and started watchinga field but i was so anxious to find out where that buck was i went back and looked all over the place. i finally had accepted that i missed him and started walking and old fence line that seperated the 2 fields back to my jeep with my head down and my gun over my shoulder and i had happened to look to my right and there he was tangled up in the sticker bushes of the fence row dead. i started jumpin and yellin. i had to cut his rack frre from all the stickers just to drag him out of there and he was everything i thought he was. he was a monster. he was the oldest deer i had ever taken and only had 2 teeth in his mouth. he was a huge 8 pointer with a 23 inch spread and weighed just over 200 lbs. then 2 days later i harvested the one he was fighting and im getting them mounted fighting eachother on the wall just like i had seen them doing in the field. well thats my best story of the year and i just thought id share it.