But he didn't. Instead, he turned and slowly moved into the thicket, snatching an acorn for good measure before he disappeared. I had to sit down to recover. I felt as if I had just run the mile! James looked at me and said "Dad, we're losing daylight. We've got to keep moving."

"No," I said. "What if he reappears?"

"He's not coming out, Dad. Let's try to pick him up from the other side of the field."

MAKING SOMETHING HAPPEN
We jumped into a depression and slowly started working our way toward the other edge of this multi-field grocery store for whitetails. James was way ahead of me. He took on a life of his own at this point in the hunt and he seemingly cut the cord. He was on a mission! From 40 yards ahead of me, James spotted more deer, and then more deer. His hand signals said it all -- we were in deer heaven as the light quickly faded. I figured we had 10 to 12 more minutes of shooting light remaining at best. I quickly glassed the field as we changed perspective. Two young bucks were all that I could see. These small bucks had suddenly become nothing more than an impediment, an unwanted distraction! I caught up with James as he stopped to look.

Then it happened! Standing broadside 100 yards ahead of us was "the buck." How we got that close without getting busted will forever remain a mystery to me. We weren't positive that it was the same deer at the time because the light had faded to the point that making out the details of his rack against the dark background was impossible. But we could see enough to know that this was a giant whitetail.

James set up on his shooting sticks and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened! "Oops, on safety!" He set up again and the shot rang out. I followed the deer as he cantered around some cover and out of sight.

THE SHOT OF A LIFETIME
When James' eyes met mine, I knew that he was confident that he had made a good shot. Still there was enough doubt, and this deer was such a monarch, that we (okay, I) wanted to leave nothing to chance. Either we would recover this deer from that shot, or we missed him. It was that simple. Nothing in between and no far-fetched second chances. Our shooting light was all but gone. Against James' wishes and objections, we backed out.

The next few hours were agonizing yet beautiful. We knew we had given it our all. James had made the most responsible stalk and shot on a trophy deer that any reasonable person could have expected. We headed for home to wait it out. Then 2 1/2 hours later we returned to the spot. It was nerve-racking and I wondered how it would all unfold. It felt as if we were "destiny's darling" on this special night.

My spirit quickly dropped when we looked but could find no blood at the point of impact. However, impetuous James headed straight for the last place we had seen the buck before he disappeared.

"Dad, an antler!" he yelled. "Dad, here he is!"

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