Guys, I had a great morning. In the first 2 hours on stand, I saw 7 deer. Five bucks, a doe and a button buck. The bucks were grunting and sniffing around like crazy. I saw 2 1 1/2s, 4 point and 7 point, the old 11 point from Sun. night, the 120" 8 point from Sun. morning and a real big 9 point I'd never saw before. The 9 point was real heavy and tall, 10 &11" tines but was kind of narrow. Maybe 15 - 16". I guessed him at about 147" with a 15" spread.

Now for the disgusting part. When the 9 showed up on the scene, I couldn't get him in the binos for nothing. I just saw great mass with tall tines. I tried the can call and the grunt call, nothing was working.[>:]

I was patient and waited, finally all of the deer moved off without busting me. This was a miracle because most of them came from behind me where the wind was blowing to. As most of you know, my only scent control is to wash my clothes in plain water and air dry them outside.

About 10 minutes later the 9 point was spotted off to my left and heading my way. I still hadn't gotten a good look at this deer but I grabbed my bow just in case. As he approached I noticed he had 5 on one side and possibly the other side as well. I knew he was in the bounds of my goal (upper 140s), and decided to shoot this deer. That's when my head had a massive failure. Because of what happened to me last year, I decided not to grunt stop him. Bad mistake! He was moving fairly fast when I shot and I hit him far back.[]It was an 18 yard shot, no follow through.[&o]

I hit him right in the middle and he bolted off into a thick bedding area. After 20 minuted of kicking myself in my treestand, I got down and retrieved my arrow. Weird thing was, there was no guts or green stomach contents on the arrow. It had no oder on it either. I quickly and quietly got out of there. I've decided to wait until tomorrow morning to go look for him so I don't push him out of the area.I hope he stayes in the brush and doesn't go into the corn. I also hope the coyotes don't make a meal out of him. Big lesson learned....STOP THEM FOR THE SHOT!

Wish me luck.... I'll need it

Signed
Dumb A$$