8 pointer opening morning

[Dstark5625]

My stand is right on the edge of a clearcut where it goes into a swamp.  The clear cut os a big hill and I am more or less right at the bottom of it.  My stand sits in a small patch of pines, enough to conceal me but not too much to block my shooting.  Opening morning I get out there probably about 20 mins. after legal shooting starts (that's another story though).  There's no where else in the world I'd rather be at that time.  The woods were fairly quiet, the sun was coming out and there weren't really any critters around me making noise.  My plan this year was to use my can call quite a bit, thinking the more the better chance I'd have at catching a passing by deer.  Every 10 mins. or so I'd turn it over to let out the sound that every horny buck is waiting to hear.  As I am sitting there wondering if this'll be the year, I hear some leaves crunching behind me in the clear cut.  It had been atleast 10-15 mins. since my last can call.  I look behind me to try and see anything through the pines and suddenly I make out the unmistakable sight of a deer face.  My heart is pounding so hard and I am moving slowly trying to quietly get in position to make the shot.  As I'm getting situated it is walking closer and getting nearer to my shooting lane on my left side.  It stops a couple times as I must have been just a bit too noisy moving.  I play it cool and he keeps coming.  I have my rifle against my shoulder, safety off and am wondering if I'm going to let it pass if it's a yearling or if brown is down.  Until then I had never shot a deer opening morning so I was thinking brown is going down.  As it got into my opening I saw a golden mass on its head.  I immediately looked away not wanting to catch buck fever.  I was just concentrating on making a killing shot.  I had my scope cranked up to 8 power and the deer was about 20 yds. away.  When I got it in the scope all i saw was shoulder and chest.  He was steadily walking and once I got the crosshairs on the vitals, KABOOM!  He started running and went to go uphill only to run into a couple small pine trees.  He turned around and ran about 10 ft. before he dropped in his tracks.  As I was gutting it out later I found out that my bullet went right through its heart.  No meat ruined at all.  It was the first time I shot a deer right through the heart and it was also the biggest deer I've shot so far.  Buck or doe.  It turned out to be an 8 pointer.  It had one very small brow tine and the other side looked broken off.  Not the most impressive rack but a trophy to me.  It must be the genetics because over the years there have been a handful of bucks from that area that have had small or no brow tines.  We figured it to be a 2 1/2 yr old.  Nice big body, didn't weigh it though.  We hunt up on the range, just south of Tower.  The racks on the deer don't seem to get huge.  We have shot some nice bucks over the years but nothing compared to monsters from farmlands and such.  I'm sure they're out there, just very hard to come by.  It was one hell of a drag in the 50+ degree weather but well worth it.

[Realtree]

Congrats Dan, nice buck!

[dakids]

Good job Dan.

[deadeye]

Way to go Dan, Nice buck, and good story.

[Dstark5625]

Thanks guys.  It was a day I'm sure I'll never forget.  We'll have to see what happens this weekend.

[mnnate]

Nice looking buck there! 

[22lex]

Nice trophy! Congrats on the great opener!