It's 7:55:45 and I am back in my stand. I have been here since 5:45:00 but I had to wait for the sun to come up so I could pull out my handy little notepad and start jotting down the big news!!
At about 16:50:00 an 8 pt buck came down the trail towards my stand. I was so nervous and my heart was beating out of my chest. I wasn't nervous about shooting him I was just nervous about getting a good shot or him seeing me or smelling me and taking off.
It seemed like forever as he came towards me a few feet at a time. He would stop and sniff the air and then look around and take a few more steps.... I hoped he would stay on the trail and just held my bow aimed right where he would cross my view.
He made it to just in front of me stepped down off the trail right toward the stand! If he came straight at me I wouldn't feel secure enough to shoot because I wanted a side shot for the lungs. Just then he turned broadside in front of me about 25 -30 feet away. I pulled the trigger on the crossbow and held as steady as I could.
He took off full speed back down the trail the way he came in...

I didn't know till later that Matt's could see him retreating from his stand 100 yards above me on the hill. I stayed right where I was. You never want to 'push' an injured deer any further if they have laid down.

What Matt saw that I didn't was that the buck ran about 50 feet down the trail full speed and then just fell over.
Matt came down aroound to my left opposite the downed deer and came by to tell me that it was OK to move.

I was pretty pleased. Not only was it a decent little 8 pt but it was a great clean shot straight through both lungs and he expired very quickly.
We tagged him, drove to a check station and then dropped him at the processor. There were some huge bucks 'caped' out there, waiting to be taken to the taxidermist to be mounted. The base of their antlers were as thick as my wrist almost. Beautiful animals.
Mine wasn't nearly big enough to invest in the cost of a head mount but I'm tickled to pieces. Someday I will get one big enough to spend the $ on a mounting.

You'd think Matt just gave birth to his first child he was so excited. He was beaming. I think he's pretty proud of his silly wife.

Well, now the sun is just peeking over the hill in front of me.. I wish it was actually shining on me... Brrrrr...

I had a bowl of instant cream of wheat at 4:30:00 and I am wishing that I remembered to grab a banana...
Matt is supposed to come by to collect me about 11:00 so we will throw together some turkey sandwiches out of the cooler and fill the deer feeders.

My toes are freezing!! I just took my hand warmers and shoved them down into my boots.

I don't really know how to count exercise on days like today. Just some hiking and general labor so I give myself about 100 cal. for effort

10:45:00 That's it. I've gotta pee and I'm going to get closer to the sun beams that are teasing me down here in the dense pines... I'll meet up with Matty at the truck