The short version:

We saw LOTs of deer when up there scouting two weeks earlier (mainly on the roads in fields). We had in total (3 of us) seen a total of 7 deer in 3 days prior to me killing this buck. This was the one and only deer I saw.

Saturday was a complete washout, so we decided to try some places further north in the county to avoid the army of hunters. It was a section of the Forrest that was mainly fields (non ag) with a few wood lots. I decided to settle in a corner of a wood lot between two fields. I moved from my original spot "choice" because I saw some thickness at the top of the hill/fence line that surrounded the field north of me.

I was hunting from a tree seat that attaches to the side of the tree. After 10 minutes in, I decided to turn around on the tree facing the direction I came in. From this direction the wind was across my face left to right. I could see two ridges/draws heading down to the south field. I figured what the heck, the view was prettier and had more shooting lanes. I did hit the can once and the grunt tube before day broke. Around 6:30, I caught some movement to my left. This buck walked right up to the fence and stopped. He stared at me, but small cedar trees helped conceal me. I didnt have a shot, so I waited. As I hoped, he finally jumped the fence to what I thought was going to be a walk in front of me down the ridge. Instead, when he hit the ground he stopped cold turkey. He KNEW something was wrong and he was staring right at me. I still had no shot due to cover.

All of the sudden, with two bounces he jumped back over the fence into the field he came from. As soon as he moved I stood up and swung on him. He ran 40 yards and did a J hook and stopped broadside RIGHT in an opening looking at me. I put the cross hairs on the shoulder and yanked (being honest) the trigger.

I saw him flop. The number of things that had to happen for me to kill this deer was just fate. He ran up high enough in the field that my shot would clear the fence/brush with no problems.

I about killed myself trying to get thru the barbed wire fence too fast!

I would highly recommend that place if you bow hunt. The gun hunts are tricky, but as you see with me they can pay off. We had a blast.