I could see some does feeding along the edge of the cut towards a ridge so that's where I headed, I used a little finger of trees to get downwind of them then snuck over to the trees, I heard a buck grunt a couple times but couldn't find him in my binoculars so I started to circle towards the does. I heard a deer blow further back in the woods, I knew I was busted and I thought it was a doe but I blew a couple of doe bleats anyways. I picked my way a little bit further towards where I had seen the doe's feeding when I heard a sound behind me, I looked over my shoulder and saw a buck angling down the ridge towards my back trail. When he was behind a tree I turned around just in time to see him stick his head out onto the trail and look at me from about 50 yards away. With split seconds to make a decision and take the shot I gave the antlers a quick once over, the tines were pretty tall, the spread was wider than his ears and the main beams curled right around to within 8" of eachother again, at which point they started to curl upwards.
I already had my rifle on him but a fallen tree obscured most of his vitals, I put the crosshairs where I figured his chest would be and slowly started to squat, as I saw his chest come into view under the tree I touched off the shot and he dropped. Typical of most bucks I've shot under this kind of pressure the buck wasn't as big as I thought, not a personal best and I didn't take him tracking, to be honest I think the buck I let walk 30 minuits before was actually bigger. He was the hardest drag out I've had though, about a mile through a cutblock full of slash and deadfall on bare ground, the bare frozen dirt grabbed his fur like Velcro, when I finally got him back to the truck the side I had dragged him on had several large bald patches!
He may not have been what you set out for, but that's a dandy buck, one to be proud of!
