Snuck up Powerline hill half an hour before daylight had a bright setting full moon and a hard freeze, set up my portable ladder stand, let 4 doe-n-heat scent canisters out and settled in, right at daylight off to my left coming from the south was a buck, a shooter! I could see the 3 large tines on his left antler and a crab hook coming off the right with some length, I immediately took my bow off the tree hanger, hooked on my release and positioned my self for a sitting shot, the buck walked right down the expected trail where i had cut a few shooting lanes. His head was pointed down, he was walking at a steady pace, cruising for does, when he got behind a small cedar tree, I drew my bow, there were small ice crystals on the shaft from the frost, my breath was fogging up my peep sight, he stepped into the perfect opening at ten yards. I let out a (Meaaaa), he stopped looked up at me and I released the arrow, (Thwack) the arrow struck him directly, only penetrating half-way as I could see the green and yellow fletching sticking half way out , I also immediately noticed the hit was high and a little far back , the big buck swung around and headed back the way he came at a fast jog, he hesitated in front of a cedar tree and I could see my arrow high in his back sticking half-way out, he staggered momentarily with his back legs and then took off in a dead sprint, I could hear him crashing through the hardwoods floor and then all was silent, after collecting my thoughts, I was concerned about the hit, I was angry at myself for rushing the shot, while waiting in stand had a small deer crossed powerlines lines in front of me, he stared at me for awhile and eventually ran to the south, I climbed down from the stand and looked at the spot of the shot, didn’t find any sign so I decided to back out, went to my truck to look at my deer vital organ chart, yes! my shot although not where I wanted it, appeared to have possibly hit the main dorsal vein down the back and maybe the top of the liver, I then headed back to my stand to rethink the shot, said a prayer in hopes of finding the buck and decided to begin the track, after going to the spot of impact, I began to walk the trail he took, after a few steps I found a good sized chunk of hair and some blood, I carefully tracked the buck and after finding good blood on a leaf I picked it up and carried it to my next spot of good blood, the blood trail was steady at times but not consistent, there were times when I lost the trail and searched the woods, to no avail, I came to the last spot of blood and finally found the route he took, after crossing back over powerlines, about 10 yards into woods, there he laid up the ridge from me, I could see his brown back, I nearly broke down, an unimaginable amount of emotion hit me as I thanked God for letting me find this magnificent animal! I took out the camera and took a picture of the buck ahead of me as I walked up to him, I poked him in the back looked at his great set of antlers sticking up from the hardwoods floor, I began to count, huge brow tines, with bark imbedded in the bases, great mass, he had broken his left G-2 an inch off the main beam, he was a fighter, a dominant buck, what a deer, greatest moment of my deer hunting career to date! Nov. 8th Morning Temp in the low 30’s, setting moon, hard freeze, calm winds, mostly sunny...i shot this buck after sitting close to 70 hours in a tree stand, since sept. 15th.

Congradulations on the deer. Very Nice!

Congrats on the buck thanks for sharing your hunt with us.

Awesome hunt!!! Congrats!!!!

It is amazing the feeling you get when you walk up to animal you have taken and worked hard to get. That feeling never goes away either, it is there with every animal. Congrats, Fine looking deer. ~Ben

Rockin!!!!!!!!![:-]

Congrats! Nice looking buck.

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Thats a great looking Buck Portable - Congrats on a super bow kill

I know the felling you speak of - It makes all the hard wook sooooo worth it

Congrats on your nice buck. Good story.