I figured I would share the encounter I had last night with everyone. I had only been in the woods and set up for about 15 minutes when I look north of my position and all I can see is the sun reflecting off of antlers bouncing through the thick brush. I instantly knew this wasn't a small buck and my heart started pounding as he was coming right to me on a game trail I had set up off of.
He gets closer, at this point I realize this deer is a giant.his body looked like a horse and he had a perfect typical 10pt rack with bases the size of pop cans. As he is working to me I think to myself "god,are you really gonna let my first shot opportunity with traditional equipment be on the biggest buck I've ever encountered hunting?!"
He worked down the game trail towards me and then much to my disappointment he veers off on another game trail that makes a large circle around my position. For about 2 minutes I had this deer at 30 yds before he walked away. If I had a compound or a gun this story would have gone different, but I'm OK with that. I beat myself up for not taking a shot for the rest of the hunt but at that moment and time I knew better. I knew that 30yds was outside of my personal range for an ethical shot.
I do remember a huge smile on my face once this was all over and how great it was to have this encounter hunting on the ground.
I think gods response was, "not today, today will be a lesson in patience".