Upon arrival I indeed noted our young Lad was well prepped, and good to withstand quite the chill.
As I strode up, he informed both me & his Pa: "
I have a rather strong feeling tonight is THE night"!
That brought grins from all of us, and I concurred with the Lad that I shared the exact same feeling.
As we made our way to the hunting grounds, we went over the various hand signals, the need to aim carefully with such a tight choked scattergun, and how our season had progressed thus far. Again he reiterated his instincts were suggesting we might have a chance today, and I still strongly felt the same.
Upon arrival at the blind, we settled into the task of holding perfectly still while absorbing all that nature surrounded us with.
As the time wandered by, I wasn't at first concerned -
This is going to happen...
But at about 15 minutes to go to dark, without even a doe, I began to question that...
Could the Lad's & my intuition be so far off?
Has the shirt finally lost it's magic?
As I pondered these things, I began to prepare the "
sometimes they simply don't show up" speech in my mind...
Then, a subtle movement in the far left corner of my eye.
A doe. Not just any doe, but the
Matriarch Doe.
Her body is as big as any bucks, and she has been around more than long enough to know the ropes.
And she was right there at 30 yards - staring right at me.
Damn.
But she did not appear overly concerned, and slowly started down the path that would lead her through our shooting window, pausing only long enough to glance back behind her...
TO GLANCE BACK BEHIND HER!!!
Straining I could just make out the swaggering gait of another big body 30 yards behind and farther out than her.
Then the head cleared the brush.
HOLY CHIT!!! 
I ever so slowly leaned over and in a barely audible whisper said
Get your gun ready - there is a GOOD Buck coming...
The gun went up, slowly as practiced. No noise.
When the hammer went back, the doe
FREAKED!
Stiff legged walking for a few seconds, then broke into a trot.
Dammit! If the buck follows suit it will present a pretty difficult shot!
Deciding to back my Young Gun up, I eased Ol' Betsy into play.
Just then I noticed the end of the Lad's barrel was trembling a bit.
Don't blame him a bit I thought...
However as the buck strutted into the edge of our shooting window, the trembling ceased, and the gun was rock steady.
The Big Buck continued his strut, knowing full well he was the King of these parts, and royally showing that off.
Suddenly the shotgun beside me roared, to be following immediately by the sound of buckshot hitting a hard target.
WHACK!
I swung my barrel back and forth, finding no sign of the buck.
Where the hell did he go??
Then, a little flicker of a tail, right where I had last seen him!
I think I knocked him right off his feet said my little Buddy!
aYup! Looks like!
We sat for a few minutes, while I held Betsy on him in case he tried to get up.
Wasn't happening.
I had the Young Gun reload, and hold his gun on the buck while I cleared the blind.
He ain't going to get up he suggested, but still held tight.
Then I did the same while he joined me.
During our quiet stalk over to where he lay, I stayed poised in case of a sudden recovery.
And while doing so kept wondering if there was going to be any "
ground shrinkage" between what I thought I saw, and what now lay before us.
There wasn't!
A huge dominant Roman-Nosed four by four with most excellent brow tines!
In fact one of the best Blacktails I have even been in on, and certainly better than any I have taken to date!!
The War Cries broke forth, we hugged and did The Dance of Joy!!
The Young Gun was simply beaming, and I felt as proud of any Man I ever had for this fine young fellow's accomplishment!
WELL DONE!!! 