I once again sent Don a message; he replied to keep a close eye on the buck. Light was fading fast, but I saw the buck lie down in the corn field. Don soon sent me a text and said to quietly back out. After waiting until it was dark, I climbed out of my tree and made my way out of the woods as quietly as possible. I waited for Don to pick me up. After discussing what had happened, we decided to leave the trophy buck alone and wait until the next day to pick up where we left off.

The next day we were both excited that we would find my deer lying in the cut corn field where I had last seen him. To our disappointment, my buck was not there. We began backtracking the blood trail to see what had really happened. We found good blood all the way out to where he had lain down. We were in disbelief; there wasn't more sign anywhere. The only thing Don said we could do was to keep searching. For three hours, we looked everywhere that we thought the buck might have gone, but still we found nothing. Now feeling frustrated and disappointed, I looked to Don and said, "Now what?"

He thought for a minute and said there's only one thing left to do and that was to check the creek in the opposite direction from where we were looking. From his years of experience, he thought the buck might have headed to water.

After a short search, I could not believe my eyes! There the buck, my buck, was lying in the creek bed. My big 8-point buck! Don and I were both in shock. With only two weeks of learning how to shoot a bow and being out only seven times, I had harvested both a big doe and a Pope and Young (P&Y) buck. No one could believe it, and neither could I. This experience is something I will never forget. I can hardly wait until next year. Then again, Don said he's not showing me where any other of his hot stands are located. We'll have to see about that!

* * *

Indiana may not be known for big deer like our neighboring state of Illinois, but they are out there. It's just a matter of doing your homework, so to speak -- getting out and asking for permission to hunt a piece of land, rigging tree stands and raking out paths to the stands long before the season begins and lots of patience.

I've learned first-hand how much patience it takes to harvest a nice deer and how lucky I was to have taken such a beautiful animal. It's a lot of being in the right place at the right time. Taking the time to learn a little about the habits of the deer, such as knowing the areas they might bed in and how to approach the stand without being noticed is also of vital importance.

Other things to take into consideration on hunts include wind direction and knowing what stands are better hunted in the mornings as opposed to the evenings. Also, the one-buck rule that Indiana went to has been receiving plenty of positive talk from our hunters. Hunters agree that they are seeing and taking bigger deer. The one-buck rule has meant many hunters are letting smaller bucks mature. With our Illinois and Ohio neighbors taking big deer, there is no reason, if we all learn to manage our herds, we couldn't harvest big deer as well.