We had trail camera photos of this buck in early September but he moved out of that area fairly quickly. The buck was not seen again until 11/13 on a trail camera roughly 3/4 of mile from where we originally discovered the buck in September. The trail camera was on a mock scrape in a very thick hardwood drainage ditch. The area has produced pictures of cruising bucks for multiple years. The thick habitat and topography make this location difficult to hunt. On the morning of the 19th the wind was forecasted out of the East. My permanent stands in that area are not set up for an East wind so I took my climber into the thinned planted pines that I have not hunted in the past. This section of pines but up to the think drainage ditch where I had gotten pictures of the buck. I found a tree pretty quickly that had good cover to my back. The habitat to my left was thick. To my right a different hardwood drainage than I previously spoke of ends roughly 40 yards from me. The sun starts to come up and reveal the scenery that will be looking at for the morning. Luckily I picked a good spot. I was looking into a slight uphill slope of thinned planted pines. There was plenty of thick places and plenty of clear spots for a shot. The morning progressed very slowly by 8:30 no deer had been spotted. I had started to regret my decision to hunt that area. I contemplated getting down to change areas but ultimately decided to stay put. Right at 9 am I caught movement and a doe appeared from my right. She walked across the pines and headed for the thick drainage. I thanked the Lord for allowing me to see a deer and sat back content with my hunt. A few moments later I caught movement from the same area the doe appeared from it was a buck. I grabbed my binoculars and saw that it was a 3.5-year-old 4-point. This buck has been all over our property this year and I said to myself I'll make an appointment with you next year if you're still a 4-point. The buck followed the same path the doe did with his nose to the ground. A short time after he had disappeared I caught movement from the same area again. It was a bigger buck. I looked at the buck in my binoculars and knew it was the deer we had pictures of. I transitioned to my rifle and began to get ready to shoot. He was also following the same trail the doe was on. The buck had traveled a little more than halfway across the pines I was looking at and he finally stopped. I took aim and fired. The buck jumped up in the air and started to run. He ran around 70 yards and went down in my sight. As I thanked the Lord for my harvest I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. Those text messages were other guys asking if that was me who shot. Those texts were at 9:18. Within 18 minutes my hunt went from bad to blessing.
