The next morning at the break of day, I was sitting in the stand. However, the big boy did not show, although two 11?2-year-old bucks did. The next morning I again saw the two young bucks plus a doe with her fawn. I was not discouraged, I knew I was set up right and I would continue to pay my dues. I would hunt this stand one more morning; a day predicted to be very cold for this time of year. After tomorrow's hunt I would give both stands a five-day break before alternating between stands again. As it turned out, planning beyond tomorrow's hunt (October 29) was not necessary.

Bobby Worthington repaired the tip of the Monarch's main beam, adding a symmetrical six inches to what was believed to be missing. The deer survived many seasons in this mountainous terrain of eastern Tennessee despite long seasons and heavy hunting pressure.

And so there I was, face to face with the old monarch. I didn't dare blink an eye as he stood 21 yards away scanning the woods for the deer he had heard. He stood there for about 40 or 50 seconds, then he turned his head to the left to check out a mock scrape I had made the evening I had hung my stand. As soon as he started to move I drew my bow. He was moving from my left to my right. By the time he had taken two steps I was drawn and settled in on his chest just behind his shoulder. As he paused for one last glance at the scrape my arrow was on its way.

At the shot the buck bolted. I did not see my arrow in flight. However, from all indications, the shot was true. First of all I knew I was on him when I released. Second, when the arrow hit the sound I heard was that familiar thump of a chest-hit deer. Also, when the buck went out of sight I heard him stop and then I heard a crashing sound. All were indications of a fatal hit. Without having seen where the arrow hit, I decided to stay in my stand for one hour. After all it was a clear, frosty morning and another six hours before I had to be at work. So I sat back and enjoyed the excitement of this cold October morning. After a full hour's wait, I descended from my tree stand and walked over to where the buck stood when I shot. After a few minutes of looking around, I began to become concerned. I could find no blood sign at all. I started working back and forth in the direction the buck had fled. I had walked about 25 yards from the spot where I found half of the fletching-end of my shaft. There was blood and brown hair at the break. That somewhat increased my confidence, but I still could not find a blood trail. I followed, kicking up leaves to a dim road, then that sign stopped too. I searched the road, still no blood.

I stood in the road and thought the situation over. Many of my bow-killed deer that were chest shot close to the shoulder or just behind the shoulder left no blood sign for the first one hundred yards or so. This was especially true if there was no exit wound. In the case of a hit like this, the working back and forth of the shoulder might keep the entry hole closed, not allowing blood to escape. As I thought over the situation I came to believe this conclusion. Because there was no tree at the location of the broken shaft, the working of the shoulder had to have broken the arrow. The more I thought it over the more my confidence returned. I finally said to myself, "I know the shot was true; I know I heard him go down; and I am going to find my buck."

I walked right up on the fallen monarch. It was hard to believe how far off the ground the right beam extended. It reminded me of a mature fallow deer's high and wide rack. As I grabbed the beam and lifted the deer's head I was somewhat disappointed to see approximately six inches of his left beam broken. Even considering this, his headgear was spectacular.

The rack was a 4x5 with two three-quarter-inch matching stickers points on each massive base. If his left beam had matched the right side he was a basic five-by-five before the break. The height and spread of the old monarch's rack was overwhelming. His main beams swept upward extending high over his head. I do not believe I have ever seen a whitetail buck with beams that set this high over his head. The spread is what was most impressive. He had an inside spread of 262?8 inches, and an outside spread just short of 28 inches. It was obvious from the way his beams continually widened that his spread would have been even wider if not for the broken left beam.

After quite a bit of pondering and talking to other hunters, I decided to rebuild the missing section of the left beam. Because it was impossible to know for sure what the end of the left beam looked like, I rebuilt it to match his right side. Now, after the repair, his inside spread measures 28 inches and his outside spread measures 296?8 inches. Because there was only about six inches of horn to replace, I feel this is very close to the spread he carried before he broke his beam.

When I pried his jaw open to check his teeth, I found his jaw teeth worn to the bone. The old monarch had run these ridges and gulfs for many years. Several things make this deer one of my most cherished trophies. First, very few whitetails will grow a rack this impressive. The spread, height, and mass are a rare combination that makes him one in a million whitetails. Also the fact that I was hunting this particular buck means a lot to me. It only takes a glance at the shed to know it was from the same buck. The shed has the same two sticker points on the base that the buck I killed has on both bases. The deer is also a special trophy because of his age and the fact that he was able to live to old age while being constantly pursued by a large number of hunters and thieves. Very few bucks will live over five-and-a-half years, especially where there is a long firearms season. If a buck does make it to old age he will nearly always die from natural causes.

Last, but not least, I harvested him in my home state of Tennessee. It means a lot to me to harvest any mature buck in my home state. Very few bucks this impressive have ever been taken in Tennessee or anywhere in the South for that matter. His inside spread is one of the widest, if not the widest, of any whitetail ever harvested in the Volunteer State. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to hunt such a magnificent whitetail.