The first day of deer season I decided I was going to try to find a new spot to hunt on my property. I wasn't unhappy with my normal spot, I just wanted to take some pressure off my favorite spot. I mushed into the woods at 6am, an hour before sunrise and picked out a tree that I thought was straight enough to get up with my climbing tree stand. I was wrong.

Turns out there was a knot on the side the tree that I hadn't noticed which only allowed me to get about 9 feet up the tree. I wasn't overly happy with the height, but I had a good view of at least 3 game trails, so I decided I would stay put and strap in for the day. Around 12 that day I noticed a buck looking at me from the brush about 30 yards away.

I raised my trusty Remington 870 to my shoulder and waited to the buck to show me it's vitals. It looked around, tested the air, and then started to walk behind an out building I was by. The moment, I though, that he poked out from behind the building, he would be out of the brush and I could squeeze a round off into his now unprotected kill zone.

It never happened.

Instead of heading across the wood line I was sitting in, he traveled down the brush line, disappearing behind the outbuilding. He would be the only deer that I would see opening day and I climbed down from my tree stand at 3 to head home.

The following day I arrived at my property at 6 again, having woken up at 4 for the past two days I was fairly tired. Today, I figured, I would head back to my trusted lucky spot in which I had seen 4 bucks roaming around during archery season. Why I hadn't chosen this spot the day before, I don't know. There are numerous scrapes and rubs in the area, and a heavily traveled game trail behind it.

I got up my tree at about 6:30 and strapped in for the day. I was all set, I laid out a sent trail in front of me and waited and hoped that a deer would find it's way down my fake hot doe trail. For the next 2 and a half hours I would fight off sleep to make sure I wouldn't miss anything. At 9am I heard a slight crunching noise coming from the game trail behind me. I looked over my left shoulder and saw a decent medium sized buck. The only problem was I was facing the wrong way. I shouldered my 870 and pivoted in my seat slowly, wrapping my right foot around the edge of my stand floor for stability and resting my left forearm up against the tree. I was now facing backwards as the deer stepped behind a tree. I raised the 870 and looked down the scope at the head which was now sticking out. A few more steps and I would have a clear shot at it's chest. The shot would have to be a good one, as if I were to try to turn anymore I would probably fall out of my stand. The shoulder appeared from behind the tree and I gently squeezed off a shot.

The deer crouched and took off at a dead run. All I could do was watch and hope the shot was good. It slipped at about 20 yards from the shot but continued at a dead run. After another 40 yards his pace slowed to a slow walk. He staggered to his left, then staggered to the right and fell to the ground. The bullet had entered right behind the deer's left shoulder, hitting the top of the heart and severing the arteries. The buck is an 8 pointer weighing in at about 120-130 dressed, and was 3 ½ years old.