After 76 hunts, 33 of those being mornings my persistence finally paid off. I shot this 162 4/8 10pt. Thursday December 17th. He is a mainframe 9pt. with a sticker on his Left burr. He is 21 4/8 wide.
I got a picture of him at 5:00 a.m. on the last day of gun season 40yds in front of one of my stands and had him pegged to be a 160+ 10pt. Well I hunted every morning and evening I could the first week of muzzleloader season and never saw a sign of this deer. The second week of muzzleloader season I took off work and hunted every morning and evening. He finally presented himself with a shot the second Thursday and I made good on it.
I have always thought if a guy could just hold on to his buck tag until muzzleloader season he could be rewarded big time. The last 2 years in a row my state buck tag has been filled during the last week of muzzleloader season. In my opinion this is the best time of year to kill a mature deer. You can set your watch by them this time of year. Find where they are feeding then camp out close to it.
I passed a lot of really good deer this year hoping for this one chance and it paid off. This season I saw 256 deer from the stand and had passed 105 shots before taking this stud. Several of the deer I saw and passed would have been put on the wall any other year but I set my goal this year at 150”gross, and man am I glad I did.
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Just kiddin' 
