Pittsburgh Buck

I finally got a buck after hunting for all these years. I had killed a small mule deer buck a few years back but never a whitetail buck. This is my first one! Ya Baby! We have a number of stands set up on the property we hunt near my house here in Pittsburgh. Today I decided to sit in a stand that is on the back of the property near train tracks. You have to walk up a draw to get to the stand and it sits on the side of a big hill. The stand is in a perfect location because it is right on a funnel the deer have to travel through. Right behind the stand is a large, dense thicket and 10 yards in front of the stand is a cliff that drops off so the deer only have one trail to walk down if they want to traverse the ridge.
At 7:05 am I started to hear something rustling in the leaves off to my right. It was dark enough still that I couldn't see very far away. Then I saw the big boy walking down the trail right toward me. I got my crossbow up and ready and waited for the buck to come into my shooting lane. When he was about 5 yards from me he froze and looked straight up at me. I don't know if he got wind of me or saw me, but he turned around and took a couple of quick steps back in the direction he came in. Luckily, he stopped and looked back up at me. I released my arrow and it struck right behind and above the right shoulder and exited underneath the left shoulder and stuck in the ground. He sprinted off about 40 yards or so up the hill, stopped, and then I heard him crash and roll about 20 yards down the hill until his rack hung up on small sappling. That's when I knew I had him. I waited about twenty minutes and then went over to check out my buck. He had a bigger body than I thought but his rack was just average size. I had seen two much bigger bucks the year before and my buddy Ryan Gebfert shot at a bigger racked 8 pointer the week before, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity before me. Especially since I am battling with the baby deadline of November 29th.
Well, to say the least, I was ecstatic with the hunt. I was only in my stand for an hour, it was 5 minutes past legal shooting time, and I got the deer back home before Keri had even gotten out of bed. Now the pressure is on Leroy (Kenny) to earn back the right of "the deer slayer". I do believe that this buck is bigger than Kenny's "miniature" baby buck from last year. HA!!!!!
Good luck to the rest of you this deer season!
Get R' Done,
Bryant