Here I am pictured with a real nice six point buck taken in Stokes county North Carolina on Thanksgiving morning 1996. The Saturday before I took this deer I was in the same stand on the last day of Black powder season, I had only shot my Thompson 50 cal. Renegade a couple of times and wasn't sure what to expect. I had reached my stand about 1 hour before sun-up, it was a very cold morning around 8 degrees so I kind of expected to see some movement. So as I sat in my stand sun-up came and went with nothing happening, 7, 8, 9 and still nothing. At this point I was pretty discouraged and decided to take a smoke break. It was 9:30 am, I had just lit my cigarettes when I saw movement in the creek down below me. I could see this was a large bodied deer with long spikes, nearly a foot long. I watched this deer walk to the end of the sand bar and take a drink, as he was drinking I put my cigarette out, when I looked back I couldn't see him anymore, so I stood up to get a better look down into the creek, as I did the buck was coming up the bank 30yds below me. The deer stopped broadside right below me, with only one problem a large bush. I could clearly see his back and the top of his rib cage but his heart and lung area were completely covered by the bush. I saw this deer was getting impatient and new he would not be around much longer. I decided to draw a bead on his spine just above his shoulders, took a deep breath and squeezed, the 50cal. Renegade went off almost instantly as the hammer fell, only one problem there was so much smoke I couldn't see if I had hit the deer or not. As the smoke began to clear I saw a little movement, the buck was down, hit just where I had been aiming. I began to drag the deer off when my good friend Edwin, who heard the shot , came over to take a look. He said," It's not a wall hanger but a nice deer". I said just wait next week I will get my wall hanger. So that following thursday morning I was back in the same spot, this time Edwin was only about 100yds. further up the creek from me. We got in about 1 hour before sun-up again, the temperature was a little warmer, around 18 degrees with a slight breeze out of the southwest. It was around 7:30 when I heard some movement behind me, I really didn't pay to much attention, but as I turned around I saw 3 does walking down the ridge from behind, they were very close, around 15yds. I decided to let them pass and wait for a buck. Well after that every time I heard a noise behind me I would look, those dame squirrels sure do make a lot of noise. I hadn't seen anything for awhile, it was around 9:30 again so I decided to take my smoke break. I had just taken my second drag when I heard something bigger moving behind me, as I looked I saw horns, I didn't even have time to put out my smoke, I let it fall from my mouth as I looked through the scope on my .270, he was so close all I could see was hair. When he was completely sideways I squeezed the trigger, that buck took off like crazy, I scrambled to my feet and shot again, he was in the creek now and just starting up the other side. I took aim and shot one more time as he was just about out of sight. Just then I heard some rustling of leaves and saw that big 6 point falling back down the hill into the creek. I couldn't believe it I had gotten my wall hanger, there was only one problem, it was 18 degrees and he was laying on the wrong side of the creek. As I wadded across the creek my buddie Edwin was laughing at me saying if I had shot straight he wouldn't have run, I didn't really care because I had a deer and he didn't. Later when we looked at the deer to see where the shots hit the deer we found all three shots had hit there mark, there was only small pieces of the deers heart remaining when we field dressed the buck, the deer had been running on pure adrenaline after the first shot, and so was I.