I was doing an outfitted six-day archery hunt in southeast Kansas over the Thanksgiving week. First morning I was directed to a well situated ladder stand overlooking a small foodplot surrounded by timber. It had been described to me but in the hour before shooting light I could only imagine what it looked like. I got situated in the stand, my crossbow readied, and could still see a few stars in the sky. Coyotes howled nearby. It was cool but not a comfort factor one way or the other. There was small amount of air movement and occasionally could detect some swirls on the back of my neck that caused me concern.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness as I settled in waiting for light. Every couple minutes I could detect a degree more light, or perhaps less darkness. I became aware of a dark shape on the edge of the foodplot. I blinked a couple times and it was still there. Brought up my binoculars (Leica 8x32) and could make out the shape of a deer. With my naked eyes it was nothing more than a dark shape but with the binos it was identifiable and had a 'rack'.

With each minute more details could be made out. It was hard to judge the distance but I put it at 35 yards. I could start making out tines and length. The direction of the air movement concerned me as I felt it again on my neck. I figured any second the buck would alert and be gone. Around the breakfast table there was a lot of talk of '150' deer in the area and I knew this wasn't anywhere close to that, but it was a decent buck by my very modest archery hunting experience.

As the minutes rolled by I studied the buck and decided that when shooting light came and if he presented a proper angle to me, I'd take the shot. The buck was still facing me direct on and that is not a shot in my catalog. About five minutes out from shooting light he started turning a little. Two minutes out he was quartering and then moved a little more broadside. I shifted slowly in the seat and got into a suitable shooting postion. Gave him one more good study in the binos and made the decision.

Somewhere between 20-30 minutes had gone by since seeing him in the binos and I decided I was now within one minute of shooting light. I mounted the crossbow and slowly counted to 60. Around '35' I slipped the safety off. At '55' I aligned the crosshairs and at '60' the bolt was OTW.

I have Luminocks but didn't see the streaking red dot. I heard the bolt strike and the buck reacted instantly by streaking straight into the timber. I heard a couple seconds of noise and a 'crash' followed by silence. Instinct told me the buck was down.

Waiting the next 20 minutes in the stand made me go over everything that had happened in my minds eye. I started worrying about a good hit, tracking, recovery, etc.

Bottom line is the buck had only gone 40 yards. The 'crash' I heard was him running into a good size tree. He did a '180' and was dead right there. The Rage mechanical broadhead had sliced going in and coming out. It hit a rib, quartered past it and deflected somewhat down and back doing a lot of damage to lots of things. The bolt was found laying underneath him (with the Luminock glowing), apparently hung up in the fletching on the off side until he slammed down.

He had some interesting 'character' points about his bases.

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...r2A.jpg?t=1353980571
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...t3A.jpg?t=1353980549
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...rsA.jpg?t=1353980554

I was using a Darton crossbow along with the aforemention Rage broadheads.

The outfitter was Jeff Brondige of Hickory Creek Outfitters (www.hunthickorycreek.com) 586 337 3169. They did right by me and I'm going to hunt with them again.

Awesome buck - congratulations!

Really nice, Matt!

Great buck. Maybe if you had waited a bit you could have gotten a bigger one.
Congratulations, some people are just shot with luck.

+1