THE ETHICS ADVANTAGE
The monster buck emerged from the thicket and stood just 40 yards from my stand watching the handful of does and fawns that fed under me. There wasn’t a blade of grass between me and the buck I had waited my whole life to see. There he stood, so close yet so far away.
For many bowhunters, the 40-yard shot would not have caused a moment’s hesitation. That’s not the case with me, however. You see, my self-imposed shooting limit is 30 yards, and that doesn’t change with the size of the buck in front of me. I played the hand I was dealt and stood stone-still, hoping the does would feed past my stand and the giant buck would follow.
It didn’t happen. The does and fawns turned and fed back into the brush, and the monster buck quickly followed.
As I sat, my heart rate returned to normal, and I contemplated what had just happened. This was, without a doubt, the biggest buck I had ever seen from a treestand. I am normally quick to size up a buck’s rack and count points, but this one had me scratching my head. I thought he would score more than 200 inches but really had
