[Widowmaker]

Ok, Ole' "Picket" that I had nicknamed after a picket fence 1st made his debut back on Sept. 02 and was in on me for two and a half days,with several pics of him,mostly at night.He disapperaed for 4 weeks afterwards,and never saw hide nor hair of him until tuesday- two weeks ago,and he made his daytime appearances,with his latest being in for almost an hour on camera - In early morning shooting hours!
wednesday was predicting the wind to be in the wrong direction for my treestand set-up,so I opted out of sitting it,for fear of educating them,and blowing my chance at this guy.I saw several doe's that morning,with no signs of any bucks at all making an appearance.
I was supposed to make a wedding reception that evening,and missed the eve hunt,and opted out of making the reception,knowing that If I indulged too much with buds over there,that I would almost certainly miss the morning hunt.I got all my gear together wednesday evening and had it all loaded in the truck,impatiently waiting for thursday morning!
I got in there earlier than normal,and was sitting in my stand at 4:15,lol.......But prepared and Ready!
After a small 2 -1/2 hour wait,the sun finally started breaking and movement was already taking place! The very 1st thing that happened was a doe and her yearling coming in from a different direction,and ultimately winding me,with the signature blow job,and stomping her foot for a few seconds,before moving back off into the mesquites away from me.
I thought to myself; "dang this hunt is all over with for this morning".
Just about a minute later and I spotted movement through the treelimbs working closer in my direction,sorta zigzagging through the mesquites,coming in off the finger creek! I pulled up my binocs and verified that it was indeed ole' "Picket",and stood up,got my bow into position,clipped on my release to the string and then was subjected to approximately 12-14 minutes of pure H#!l while having to watch him move in and out,and around the patch of trees which I am perched up in ,only to get brief chances at him stopping in a shooting lane,Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!
I got almost halfway to full draw once,only to have to let it back down as he pushed off a smaller buck in front of him.There were 7 doe's in there with him,with a batchelor group of younger 8 points skirting in and around him amongst the patch of trees that I am in. Finally he stepped into a lane,and I get back to full draw without getting busted by anything else,only to have him bolt around in a wide circle(must've heard me pull back),and as he comes back through the shooting lane quartering away slightly more that I prefer,and at a steady "on alert" pace,I figure this is gonna be my last opportunity,and settle my pin in behind the front shoulder and let it fly.After hearing the all-to-familiar "Thwaaaccckkk",I settled back into my stand, while my nervous system broke down once again!
After a 45 min.wait,I got down,went and surveyed the point of impact,and began blood trailing him.When he left out-he tore through the biggest,baddest,thickest briar thicket alonside the creek bed,and sounde like a D9 Dozer plowing throught the brush!
I trailed him approx. 150 yds on the other side of the creekbed,and found him piled up at the edge of the mesquite flats! I said a prayer of thanks to the maker,and began the procession of phone calls and texts to all of my buddies.