After meeting up with Jeremy, the boys went to grab some lunch and talk about the morning hunt. They decided to start their afternoon hunt around 3 p.m. or so.

The hunters exchanged their “Good luck”s and made their way back into the woods.

Justin climbed a tree next to the creek crossing that he had found earlier that morning.

Settling in for the afternoon hunt, he thought back on his morning miss and became a little drowsy from an already long day. But something told him to stay with it and make the most of his trip.

He called occasionally and watched for movement, but the only things moving were squirrels and birds.

An hour or so before dark, Justin hit The Can call a few times, and a doe came running out of the woods on the other side of the creek.

Acting sort of jittery, the doe ran off and came back a few minutes later, acting like she was being pushed.

Justin stood up and got ready, thinking a buck might pop out where the doe was.

But -- as they always seem to do -- the buck appeared in a different spot, some 40 yards away on the same side of the creek that Justin was on.

The buck started walking down the creek toward Justin. At about 25 yards, the buck slowed and hesitated in an opening. Already at full draw, Justin settled his pin on the buck’s vital area and let fly.

The arrow hit the buck, and the deer ran toward Justin and past the tree he was sitting in. At this point, he didn’t know how big the buck was; only that it was definitely a “shooter.”

To Justin’s disbelief, the buck fell only 30 yards from his tree. That’s when he realized the buck wasn’t just big -- he was huge!

Taking a deep breath and trying to calm himself, Justin climbed down to check out his deer.

He could not believe what just happened, all in the blink of an eye. Justin stood there staring at the biggest typical buck he’d ever seen.