Through the years, I have harvested some pretty nice bucks. In my mind, the trophy may not even be the deer. You would likely be surprised what I consider a trophy.

This year could be considered my worst deer season ever. I have never seen such a lack of big buck movement. This is my first season in 21 years that I didn't see a racked buck. I passed up several small bucks, but never saw what I was looking for. It seems I wasn't the only one in this boat. The reports that I've received from other hunters have been dismal at best. Most say they didn't see much, and if they did get a nice one, it was likely more luck than skill. Only a few people have said their plan worked flawlessly and were able to harvest a nice one.

My freezer was looking pretty hungry and something had to give. I mentioned changing tactics last week and set out to move some deer. On my first walk, I was fortunate to come across a doe. I am a meat hunter first and take does when the chance presents itself. I had walked through a small thicket and made as fast an approach possible to their escape routes. As I entered the wood line, I slowly crept through the trees. As typically happens, my heart jumped when I saw her staring me down. It was a freehand shot at just over 100 yards. I raised the gun and adjusted my scope from four to 12 power.

I walk with my scope on four power for close-range shots. I have found it is much less likely that you will be able to power down the scope at close range and make a shot. At longer range, you typically have plenty of time to power up. I popped the safety and settled on her vitals. I slowly built pressure on the trigger and upon the shot saw the deer drop.

I use what is called a shoulder spine shot, or a drop zone shot to instantly down game. I recovered my deer and headed home. Upon skinning, I noticed something pretty cool. I was shooting a .308 with a 150 grain bullet. The velocity coupled with a heavy bullet typically pass through the animal and is lost in the woods. Upon discovering there was no exit wound, I became optimistic that I may recover it.