Jerry Thompson writes, "After many scouting trips, I had found the buck I was after. I had high hopes for opening day of muzzle loader season. That morning, being in place well before day break, I was full of anticipation as the day light began to lighten up the crisp morning sky.

I sat and glassed my surroundings hoping to find my buck that I was in pursuit of. Off in the not so far distance I spotted several does that just crested a ridge and they seemed to be looking behind them. With hopes of the buck on his way, I put the stalk on only to find a small 2x2 buck with them.

I kept trying to locate the buck through out the day and passed on several nice bucks and finally at dusk I spotted the buck I was looking for, but it was too dark to get a shot off. I had to watch him once again without being able to pull the trigger.

The next morning I once again found myself in place waiting for the sun to rise, but this morning was a foggy one and I could only see about 20 yards. I waited as long as I could stand for the fog to burn off and decided to see if the buck had bedded down where I had last seen him the night before.

The first place I went, I did not find him and my hopes were not as high, but I knew there was a little brush thicket not far away.
As I walked thru the thicket I saw nothing and when I got to the end I was thinking that the morning was a bust. Then, all the sudden out of the weeds in front of me stood my buck only a short 9 yards away. With that, I took more of what seemed as a shot gun point and shoot rather then aiming, but with one shot my buck laid there in front of me and I knew my efforts had paided off and I now have a trophy to be proud of."