A Brush with the Monarch - a Deer Hunting Story

The two does underneath my stand were acting uneasy. Could they smell me? I didn't think so, but you never know with deer. Actually I was expecting the wind out of the north, but based on the breath rising from my mouth it was clearly coming out of the southwest. The wind never blows out of the southwest! The does were looking first to the left then to the right. Something is about to happen. I scan the brush to the west of the deer. It has been my experience that the bucks come from the thicket about a hundred yards to the west of where the two does are now standing. Finally I see movement. I can make out a deer. The deer comes closer and I make out a large bodied deer with long main beams.

The does scatter as this restless brute charges their location grunting as he comes. To my disappointment the long main beams contain no tines at all. This deer is a spike with a fifteen inch spread! He charges under the fence shaking his head snorting and grunting. Tines or no tines this deer is going down! Just as I ready for the shot the freak spike comes to an abrupt halt. I glance in the direction the spike is now staring. Not fifty yards away is a doe, obviously in heat, and The Buck. A very large eight point. I can see the breath coming forth from his nostrils. Head held high and eyes riveted on the doe.

I first saw this buck on September 27th, the day before the opening of bow season. My brother Blake and I were scouting around in my truck when we noticed a large eight point buck curiously watching us as we passed. I was expecting to see a buck in this location, but I was really expecting to see a lopsided 10 point that I had observed here on previous occasions. Was this the new reigning Monarch? Whatever the case the doe must've seen me turn for she was staring directly at me. The eight point and the spike and I were all watching the doe. If the doe continued moving in the direction she was now facing she would pass my stand location at 20 yards and I would take the eight point of my dreams. She held all the cards now.