SaddleReaper's Link
That might have been the first year in a while that we didn't have a NY meatpole! I had arrowed a buck and 2 does before dec 20th. The final week- Holiday hunt- had me scrambling to put together a final opportunity. Problem was, I was always thinking I would have an encounter with 1 of 3 remaining (smaller racked but mature) shooters I would have happily ended my season on, and then down to the last day or 2 couldn't seem to even get a doe to cooperate.
Doesn't help that we never had consistent cold or measurable snow.
Regardless, I was fortunate to accomplish what I did taking the buck I was most interested in killing even though he was far from the biggest. All the other big ones on my radar who I'd have focused on after him got killed before December .... 1 of which I learned of by word of mouth at Christmas, and also that same week I stumbled across pictures of 2 others on social media which were killed by people I don't know but apparently hunted in the same general area.
I wrote up the story of my buck on the main forum (check out the link). It started as just sharing a cool set of pictures, but little did I know I'd connect the next morning!
