By 5:30 a.m. my wife and I were in a doubleman ladder stand near a food plot with Imperial Whitetail Clover. By first light the rut seemed to be in full swing. We spotted several midsize bucks chasing does and we were hoping to see one of the hogs I had seen several times between 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. the day before. At 7:50 a.m. we watched a big ten-point working his way towards us from 300 yards before he disappeared into the woods. At 8:15 a.m. I was observing a creek bottom to the north when she whispered anxiously, “there he is.” I said, “which field,” to which she replied, “right in front of us, he’s looking at us.” I slowly glanced to the south and saw a huge buck staring directly at us from 60 yards. I whispered, “don’t move.” Immediately the buck started to travel parallel to us towards the right. I said, “Get ready, I’ll stop him and you’ll only have a couple seconds to shoot.” She positioned her shotgun and informed me she was ready. I hit the grunt and he put on the brakes, looking back at us from 65 yards and broadside. Two seconds later the gun went off and I saw the impact right behind the front leg. Looked like a perfect hit. As the buck ran away to the right my wife told me she thought she saw a drop tine. I agreed and told her, “You just shot a monster!” My wife replied, “I’m seeing stars, I think I’m gonna pass out!” We heard the buck crash about 75 yards away and could not stand sitting in the stand more than a minute or two. We had to check it out. After tracking the blood trail we found her deer. What a monster! I counted 27 points and a drop tine. Stickers all over. This is what it is all about. My dream has always been to shoot a drop-tine buck, but seeing the reaction my wife had after scoring this trophy, I wouldn’t have it any other way. This meant much more to me than it would have if I had taken it myself.
