My 2008 Buck

I am new on this site but I have really enjoyed a lot of the stories you all have shared. I thought it might be time for me to chime in. God smiled upon me on Saturday the 22nd. On the 21st I was at a small farm in Connersville. I have a ladder stand that is about 10 yards into the woods just off a cut corn field. The stand faces down into the woods and overlooks a small cedar thicket. It's mainly used for archery but I decided to stand backwards in the stand and look out into the corn field. I had a couple nice doe come into the field just before dark but passed because I had no fuel in my lantern. I was by myself and just didn't feel like tracking a deer with just my head lamp. The next day (the 22nd) I decided to go back to the farm and take one of the doe… if they came back. I was still by myself but my lantern now had fuel and I was ready to take one. I don't hear well at all and at about 5:20 it happened. I don't know what made me turn around and look but when I did a buck was standing there. He was about 35-40 yards. He put his head down I turned shouldered my gun, pulled the hammer back, found his shoulder in my scope and pulled the trigger. He jumped and ran down into the woods. I heard him running/crashing through the woods/thicket then everything went quiet. I was confident he was down. The entire episode took maybe 15 seconds and all I knew is that he was a shooter and he had an old grey face. I called a buddy while still in the stand and let him know I shot a buck then immediately climbed out of the stand and went right to the hit site. After looking for a few moments (finding nothing but kick marks in the dirt) I decided to look down along the bottom. I figured for sure he would be bleeding by then. I still found nothing. I was starting to get a little worried. With dark coming quickly I decided just to look in the area I thought that he had gone down. After looking for just a few minutes there he was about 40 yards out in front of me. All I could see was antler sticking up. When I got to him I was beside myself. I thanked the Lord and then the excitement really kicked in. This is the best buck I have ever taken. I guess I did not have time to get the big adrenaline shot in the stand and about 5-10 minutes after finding him I started to get sick to my stomach. Not the feeling I'm used to... Dragging him out by myself, in the dark, though a thicket is another story. He ended up having 20 ½ inch inside spread with his longest tines being his G-3s at 10 and 11 inches long. I went to take a doe and ended up taking my best buck. You never know what's going to happen when hunting. I guess that is one reason I keep doing it…