Trent wrote:That thing is amazing! Great looking mount. You must have been pretty excited!
Thanks, Trent. I was more in awe at the time of the hunt because everything came together absolutely perfectly (and that never happens). I saw the deer cross the neck of a field about 100 yards ahead of me and then heard him walking through the woods in my direction. That allowed me time to get up and position myself for a shot in the direction he was coming. The buck walked into view and then stopped about 30 yards from me. I contemplated the shot, but knew that he was walking a trail that my stand was positioned right on top of. After a few moments, the buck started walking up the trail again toward me. As he passed behind a large tree, I came to full draw. The buck walked a few more yards and then stopped, directly in front of me at six yards. He was so close that I couldn't really use my sight pins, so I just took an instinctual shot that ended up taking out his heart and one lung. The buck only went about 75 yards before expiring.
I still get excited every time I walk past the mount now, though. It was a great hunt that I'll savor for a very long time.