“This is gonna work!” were the words Nick whispered to me as he finally saw antler tips over the milo stalks.  At this point a series of lucky and hard earned circumstances put us in position to do something we have never done.  To stalk a mature whitetail in the wide open.

This successul hunt would not have happened without everyones help and I gotta say I feel that we became closer as brothers because of it.  Scott is to credit for putting the wheels in motion.  After Nick and Scott spotted a big frame buck at dusk with a doe in a milo field Scott decided to be up early the next morning and see if he could pin them down.  After glassing the field the next day the only deer he saw was a lone doe bedded down in a waterway.  That obviously did not make sense for a lone doe to be there and Scott assumed that he just could not see the buck.  So when the afternoon came around Scott and I decided to go hunt a stand but thought we should probably go back and glass that waterway one more time before we climbed into the set that was 4 miles away.  Man I’m glad we did because it took only two minutes to not only find the doe but the buck that we knew had to be there.  A quick phone call to Nick and all three of us were ready to make an attempt at this thing.  I was to go with Nick and stay in his hip pocket running the camera and Scott knew where he could film from another vantage point.

With little wind and absolutely no cover other than two foot milo stalks we kinda had a bad feeling but you’ll never know if you don’t try.   The stalk went as you could imagine with burning muscles and muddy knees.  Now back to “This is gonna work!”

When we knew we were within 60 yds Nick knocked an arrow and decided to get a little closer.  Nick took off at a snails pace we had been going when I looked up and the buck decided to stand.  Neither Nick nor the buck knew where each other were and I was trying to beam NICK HES STANDING!!! from my head to Nicks.  Finally I just had to loudly whisper at Nick which got both their attentions.  Nick quickly drew and and put an arrow through the twelve ring before the buck could figure out what we were.  100 yds later the buck piled up and the celebration was on!  Late November in lockdown can provide hunters with unique opportunities and Nick made good on his.  Matt W.