Day started with a 800 yard hike to my climber followed by a swig of steel reserve. The wind had picked up and was swaying the stand slightly side to side keeping me aware of the half rotted pines surrounding me. About one hour into the hunt I found myself thinking of a spot in the adjacent bottom I had scouted earlier the previous day. Needless to say ten minutes went by and I was already halfway to the new location. Found a solid Pine near a couple beaten down trails and started my way up.

Took somewhat longer than expected to scale twenty five feet up and more racket than any hunter would like to take responsibility for. Firmly in place i took my backpack and sat it in the seat. It was now 2:00pm and the north wind was dying down. I was about to take a seat and enjoy my brew when I heard footsteps to my left. Slowly I turned my head a head to see a small but decent sized eight headed my way and only fifty yards from the base of my Pine. While raising my rifle slowly he directed his eyes to mine. I was frozen thinking of my options only to watch him leap to his left coming to a stop behind two pines.
Looking through my scope i had thrown up while watching this unfold, I could see a small five inch gap between the two trees. without hesitating I put my 243. to action drilling him through the middle of the neck right in front of his left shoulder. After hitting the ground I let out a sigh of relief knowing that my single shot bull barrel probably wouldn't have gotten a second shot off if needed. This buck may have been rutting or just curios, but i think the tree stand had a direct impact of me seeing this buck. It was not even 60 seconds after I had stopped climbing that he had walked almost underneath my climber.
Was the biggest buck of my life and the shortest hunt.