The buck was standing at 22 yards! I couldn’t believe that the stalk actually worked out! All I had to do was put the 20 yard pin on his chest and squeeze the release-it seemed to good to be true.

The morning of October 24 dawned cold and crisp. My plan was to set up on a funnel route in one of my favorite tree stands. I packed all my hunting and camera gear in, as I was filming myself for an episode of Wildlife Pursuit TV. I got there with plenty of time and was ready to hunt at day break. After a few rattling and grunting sessions, all I saw was a few whitetail does. I decided I would sit in the stand until 11 A.M. as this was the start of the pre-rut and the bucks should be fighting and starting to chase does. I rattled and called for an hour or so more and looked to the North and all I could see were antlers coming around the hill. It was a huge mule deer! I watched him for awhile more, and he bedded down 150 yards away on a ridge that I could easily traverse and get close to him. After deciding there was no way I could get this on film-I left the camera in the tree. I never in a million years thought this deer would stay put during my stalk. I crawled out of the stand and took my boots off-I made the stalk and came to full draw before getting over the top of the ridge. He was now standing at 20 or so yards!!! I put the 20 yard sight pin on his chest and squeezed the trigger. The arrow went completely through the buck and bounced down the hill. The buck turned and ran down to the deepest ravine on the farm. I started shaking so bad I had to sit down. I gave the buck about 15 minutes before going to take a look-he was HUGE-even bigger than I thought he was! It took 3 of us to get him out of the creek bottom. The buck scores 160 4/8 Pope and Young and now graces a special spot in my trophy room. He is one of my all time favorite mounts and one of my favorite hunts-every once in awhile a plan comes together and works out!