"He was so excited he called me at work, and he went on and on about how big this buck was," Dave said.

I told him he was probably exaggerating. Even if Lou was exaggerating, at least Dave knew that a real live dream buck was living there, and he committed to making more time for archery hunting in order to have a chance to score on this wide-racked monster.

A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
Dave isn't a hard-core advocate of using scents, but his wife Lisa has a coworker who raises deer, and Dave got some doe urine from him. He tried making a mock scrape in an area that showed heavy deer use. The spot wasn't suitable for Dave's ladder stand, so he put up a hang-on stand.

"It seemed like every time I was out, I saw either a scrape that was freshened up or a new rub. One tree about 7 to 8 inches in diameter was all torn up, and I knew it wasn't a little buck that did that."

Dave saw quite a few deer, including at least five different bucks. Most were half-racks or had broken racks, a good sign that "something was back there beating up on them."

Pennsylvania's antler restriction rules for the area Dave was hunting require that a buck have at least 4 points on a side. Because so many antlers were busted up, Dave didn't see anything he was sure might be a shooter until the last week of archery season, when a nice 7-pointer walked right under his stand. Thinking his dream buck might never show up, he decided to try for this one. Taking careful aim, he missed the deer clean!

Dave was upset about the miss, but he later found that his sight was off almost a foot. He remembered bumping it one day, and apparently that was the reason. In retrospect, he now says, "That was a blessing in disguise."

Archery season closed with a sense of frustration for Dave, and with gun season approaching, he knew hunting this giant buck was going to be a challenge. By that time, most of the neighbors had either seen the big buck or heard about it, and people were talking about it. To make matters worse, the area was full of reclaimed strip mines, and a natural gas pipeline cutting through the area offered easy access to other hunters.

THE 2008 FIREARMS SEASON
Opening day was windy, with sub-freezing temperatures. Apparently the deer were laying low because of high winds. Dave didn't see a single deer on opening day. Day 2, Dec. 2, started out as a carbon copy of the day before.

At about 10 a.m., Dave's dad called him on the radio. He said he was heading down to the house. Dave knew his day would be shortened too. At midafternoon he had to pick up his daughters, Taylor and Morgan, at their bus stop. By 10:30, he abandoned his tree stand and decided to walk. If the deer weren't moving, maybe he could walk up on something, he thought.

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