Rich Saunders

I was slowly getting my stuff packed up as the night was ending. Cell phone put away and the camera arm l use for it; quiver on the bow, arrow in the quiver… and then, out of the corner of my eye, here he came.
He was headed to an area I prepped and seeded with a mixture of winter wheat, forage oats, turnips, brassicas, and radishes, this late summer.
I could tell where he was going to come through, at 30yds, and so, I drew (dial pin was already set) then “psst, psst” stopped him (the evening before Thanksgiving I had a HUGE buck come through a fallow alfalfa field at about 38yds and when I “meh” stopped him he TOOK OFF; lesson learned).
The shot ended up slightly back, some inches right of my aim, and I hit the back of one lung and ALL liver. He only ran 10yds after the shot and stopped, stood unmoving for about 10min, then barely made it 3 or 4 steps and bedded down in the food plot lane I planted, about 40yds from my stand (10yds from the initial shot location).
I snuck down the tree and backed out the opposite direction to let him lay. When my son and I returned the next morning, Saturday, he was dead in that same bed I left him in. He was stiff and cold on the inside (mid-20’s overnight) so, likely dead a while.
I named him “Deuces” because his left brow tine looks like someone throwing up the ✌️
There were two bigger bucks running around, but I had my eye on this guy since mid-July. I LOVED his antler character!!!