Opening morning indiana bow season I was sitting in a brand new stand on a new property. I've never hunted it before but the sign was there. I was pumped to get in a tree. I got into the stand and it wasn't long before i had the first deer right underneath my stand crunching on acorns. After about an hour of hand feeding acorns down to the yearling I heard another deer moving my direction out of the CRP field. First deer I saw was about a 2 1/2 yr old 8 pointer. Right behind him was approximately a 140" deer. It was a real tall 10 pointer with palmation on the mainbeams. Talk about a holy crap moment. Was not expecting that an hour into season. He made his way to about 35 yds and stopped broadside to eat the acorns. I had told my self before I went out there that it had to be a big mature deer in order for me to take it. I knew there were about 3 170" deer on our other property. I studied him long and hard and decided to pass on him. I judged him to be a about 3 1/2 maybe 4 1/2 at the most. One more year and he is gonna be a monster but wow what a way to start the season!

Sounds like a great morning indeed... He would have been tough to pass...

What a way to begin a season.

passed on a nice one like that one year,,lived out the whole season regreting it..never saw a decent buck the rest of the season until the 3rd day after season closed and i got to see a big ole' 12 poiith 3 does still with him..my wife was with me and the deer was about 50 yards away(all 4 of them) and she was brave enough to ask me ,,could you take that big one from here

Now thats a good way to start a season. Props to you for being able to hold off on such a nice deer.

Sounds like a good spot

Wow, I'll say thats a start! He'd be hanging in my garage for sure, you must have some really nice bucks to pass that up. Hope you see one of those 170's!

I can understand the struggle with tagging out early but man o' man I would have been lobbing some arrows.

I sometimes tell myself that I am going to let the Doe's feed awhile to see if any Buck's follow. But the more I watch those Doe's the more my mouth waters. And there is nothing better in the world to eat on a cold day than a big ole pot of sloppy doe's.

I hope you get a crack at a big one!

I don't think I would have been able to resist either. Fair play to you from fellow Hoosier.