I woke up at 530am on a Friday with a cough and I wanted to go hunting. As I’m walking out the door my son who is 5 wanted to go as well. I said no to him because I don’t have a stand he can sit with me and he cried. I had to work at 9 am so I only wanted to sit for 1 hour. I got up in my favorite stand and clicked the safety off on my crossbow immediately because it’s loud and I’m right in the deer trail. I also hold my crossbow in my lap and get ready for the deer. I was in a huge pine tree facing west on a small ridge . The wind was blowing from the south where the swamp is and that’s where most of the deer come from. At 7:35 I see a buck come out of swamp and he comes right up the ridge towards me. I couldn’t get a shot because of his breast plate was facing me. So I waited for him to get close and turn. When he did. He turned behind me a few steps then he stopped and turned right under my ladder stand The pine tree branches were blocking any shot so I moved my crossbow a little bit and he saw me. He was at 8 yards maybe. He turned away and walked at 15 yards and I flung the arrow. I didn’t make a great shot but it went in his left hip and came out his front right shoulder. He grunted and kicked and then ran into swamp. I saw my arrow and I just waited a few minutes. Then walked back to the house to let him die and sit. After 30 minutes I asked my wife to come help me track it. It’s her first time and it starts raining hard. We tracked it down to leaf and puddles of small blood with water. We lost the trail and it only had about blood every 10 yards. My heart sank as I thought I lost the biggest buck I’ve shot. Then my wife thought he ran down into swamp so we found him laying down about 100 yards from where I shot. him. Without her I wouldn’t have found him she had a fresh mindset.