Week 2 Over!!

    Well, my second week of time off is over. The week was pretty slow, a nor-easter rolled through on Wednesday and Thursday stirring up some pretty good winds, and making hunting tough. Friday (Nov. 9th), following the storm things started to happen around the area. A couple friends were able to shoot a real nice 9 pointer 205lbs. They were filming the hunt and I will try and get a copy on here for everyone to see.
    On Saturday I jumped into a stand that I had just put up on the day of the storm. The stand is off the edge of a thick swamp and is also in-line with a finger of land that runs between two swamps. At 8am I finally heard the sound of foot-steps, and I was sure it was a deer. At 40yds I got my first glimpse and realized that it was a decent 8-pointer. He was going to pass in front of me at approximately 20yds. At 25yds he was quartering toward me slightly when he walked through wide open shooting lane. He was going to pass behind two huge pines that are just 5 yards in front of my stand. I figured I would use that as my opportunity to draw, and I did.
     As he began to clear the trees he was in the brush and he spotted a mock scrape I made when I set the stand. He went over to the scrape, the problem was he was still in the brush, and as he approached the scrape he became nervous. I'm not sure if he smelled me from a few days ago or what. I felt like I needed to make it happen now because he took a step backwards and appeared to be ready to bolt.There was a tiny hole between a small sapling and his front shoulder, and there was a piece of mountain laurel that i needed to shoot under. I took aim and released, I made it under the laurel, but I was about 1 inch right...and hit the sapling. So....no deer, hopefully things are picking up and maybe I can get a second opportunity. I believe we have the buck's picture several times and a couple videos of him, i've included one below.