The evening of December 5th I ran my trail cams one more time just to get some sad confirmation that a buck I was wanting to shoot just wasn't returning. He had vanished off my cams since 10/23 and I had not seen him since. He is either dead.......or simply moved out of my hunting location........and Muzzy Season started in the morning. I decided to "move on"...and try to find another buck to take. If my #1 buck returned later......I would just have a monster to hunt next year. I was at peace with that.

The morning of Muzzy Opener found me in a stand that I had not hunted in for 4 years. I picked this stand due to the wind direction......a large corn field that had just come down adjacent to it.......and massive bedding all over the place.

At 7:45am I spotted a very nice white rack up against a fence row that split the two bedding areas. I ranged him at 258 yards.......too far to shoot with my .50 cal Encore. I started grunting to him......he responded and started working towards me along the fenceline. When he got to 167 yards on the range finder.......I pulled the gun up...... but I thought "he's come this far, let's see if I can get him closer". So I let out another sequence of grunts........and he turned and walked right at me. There was one little pot-hole of weeds and some little trees between me and him.......and he walked right into that pot hole of crap that was now just 100 yards from me.

I got the gun ready as I knew he was going to pop out the other side within minutes.......He had entered the pot hole at 8am. By 8:30am......he still had not come out. 9am.....nothing. 10am nothing. Now I knew he was bedded in there. 11am nothing still......he's just locked in there like a tic.

I had forgot my cell phone in the truck that morning......and I knew people were going to start wondering where I was at. So at 11:30am.......I snuck out of my stand........and headed to the truck. Actually.........I RAN to the truck. Got my phone and headed back to the stand....crossing my fingers he had not left the pot-hole. Got back up in the stand......all seemed good.

At 1:00pm......3 does walked into the same pot-hole....and then came out quickly looking back often at the pot-hole. He did not follow......but their behavior confirmed he was still in there......and they wanted NOTHING to do with another male in their lives after the last 4 weeks of crap they have had to put up with them in November. LOL!!

2pm.......Nothing. 3pm.....Nothing.

I text one of my friends that know what is happening and told him....."he's been in there a long time, I bet he gets up with plenty of daylight left". He agreed...and I knew as it got close to 4pm......it could happen at any moment.

At 4pm I got a text from another friend that was teasing me and it said...."want me to bring you a sandwich?".......I read the text.........looked up.......and the buck was coming out of the pot-hole walking straight away from me. I stuck the phone in my pocket.......waited till he got up on the side of the swale so I could let out a loud "Maaaaa!!" to get him to turn and look at me. When he heard me "Maaaaa!!!" He wheeled completely broadside looking back at me 122 yards away........and I "turned the pigeons loose" on that Encore.
He was hit hard......and took off like a bullet.

Within 30 yards he started running sideways.......but then gathered himself again and REALLY turned on the afterburners. He is now running WIDE FRIGGIN OPEN ......and collided with the fence in the fence row. He hit it so hard..........he broke the post.........and it flipped him completely upside down as he was now 5-6 feet in the air with feet straight up......and landed with a THUD on the other side. I thought I saw dust flying .....but later discovered it was just buckets of hair that were floating down in the air around him after he had hit that fence that sent him airborn. It looked like a dune buggy wipeout you seen on ESPN bloopers where the whole car is upside down during the crash.

And it was over.

8 hours of "standoff" with this buck in his pot-hole.........I'm tired from being tense all day......but I just had the hunt of my life. I just sat there and had a silly little grin....

10 pointer......... 20 inches inside spread. It's now time to crack some does.

Good luck to all of you that are still chasing your dreams out there. May your shots be true and straight....

Congrats Dew.

Great deer Dew, congrats !!

Nice deer Dew! Love the replay of your long stand-off!

Congrats, another very impressive whitetail down!

congrats..

Another great buck Dew. Cool story as well. Congrats.

Yikes ... another toad. Congrats Tim.

Awesome buck and way to stick it out but knowing he was in there made the sit a little easier

congrats Tim great deer!

Congrats!!

Congrats.

Nice bucky Tim!!! Congrats!

Great buck and story! Video worthy

Congrats......

Awesome deer. Congrats to you.

well done man, awesome story!!!!

Congrats!

Very nice buck Tim... Congrats!!!!

Nice one.

Congrats on a DANDY buck and great story