Definitely a nice buck! I’m glad I was still in town to get to help recover him.

I’ll attach a picture of the 10pt I shot the day before.

The hunt was about 500 yards from the main highway up and down hollers. It was definitely rewarding to get it done and we were lucky the neighbor helped us haul him out. I hunted this spot in Turkey season and knew the terrain would funnel deer past the stand. Too darn steep any other way. I hunted it once in early season and saw 5-6 does. The PM before I shot him I went in to find a tree to climb. As I started the climb I noticed a good buck sneaking into the thicket about 200 yards away. I hurried up and got settled in hoping he would come back by before dark. I saw several does and a few young bucks that afternoon but not the big boy. I knew that he was using the hillside on the other side of the thicket as his home.

The next AM I was fighting a coughing spell and was tempted to not hunt that spot anticipating I would cough the whole morning and screw it up. I decided to go for it and move down closer to the thicket where all the action was. I got settled in just at daylight and about 10 minutes later a spike came by. About an hour later a doe came by with a spike and 5 pt chasing her (same deer phil had seen less than 5 minutes before a few hundred yards away). I saw several deer that morning and a few hens as well. Phil was feeling under the weather so we were going to head back to the cabins early to rest before the pm hunt. I had just tied my rope to my gun and I hear a deer running down the hill towards me. He must have smelled my tinks as he was almost directly downwind of my stand. I flipped the gun around, gave a doe bleat and fired at about 25 yards. He ran a few yards and stopped. I wasn’t sure if I hit him so I threaded the needle between a couple of trees and piled him up. Turns out both shots hit him about 2 inches apart.

Was a great hunt and my best buck to date. Look forward to next year on that lease.