I've got 2 that kind of stick out. The first was a doe. I got up on opener to see that it was snowing sideways. There was a field of standing corn that usually had deer going into one of the corners of it. I went to that corner and got far enough into it so that I could still see the ditch at the end of the field and leaned up against some corn stalks. It wasn't too long before I saw movement. I waited for the deer to pass behind some willows to shoulder my gun (12 gage 870 with a vent rib). Dropped the hammer at 14 paces. Don't think that the deer knew I was there.
The second was the biggest 3X3 I've ever seen. I set up on a river bank about 100 yards from where I got the aforementioned doe. It's never been a great hunting spot, but I've sat there a lot because you can see out into a neighbor's CRP that used to be the site of numerous deer soap operas before it came out. I was watching 3 does that looked like they might be heading towards our property, but in no hurry. They stopped for a while and appeared to be looking at something. A small bush in the direction that they were staring turned into a huge rack. I never got a count, but I'm pretty sure that it was at least 5X5. The does backed off as 2 smaller bucks approached. The bucks moved into a low spot where I could no longer see them, and I could hear a fight ensue. The large buck headed away from our fence line. More antlerless deer joined the group, or more likely they had been there the whole time and I hadn't seen them. One of the smaller bucks and 5 slicks jumped the fence and hit the afterburners. I didn't have good shot. I knew that there was at least one buck left, but not where he was, so I backed out had lunch and cut a couple of pickup loads of firewood. I came back later, and started working the willow choked ditch on our side of the fence line. I saw the buck at about 10 yards. I didn't have a shot because of the tall grass and willows. I froze; he didn't seem too concerned, but got up after a while to get a better look. I shot him at the base of the neck.
