Carl Taylor displays the rack of this mammoth buck after the velvet had been removed. Photo courtesy of Carl Taylor

Oct. 1, 2004, started out like every other opening day of the Mississippi archery season: The alarm clock went off at 3:30 a.m., and by 4:00 I was headed out to hunt some public land in Washington County, about 30 miles from my home in Greenwood. You have to get into the woods early when hunting this land, so I made it there by 4:40 a.m. Getting out of the truck, I was met by a swarm of mosquitoes, so I hurriedly sprayed on some repellent.

After settling in my tree stand and waiting for daybreak to come, I could hear vehicles off in the distance; they were slowly approaching my position. As fellow hunters started entering the woods, I could see the flashlights as they made their way to their stands. I could also hear deer moving around in the darkness.

I was also very discouraged by the number of hunters walking around near my stand, and figured that all the deer in this section of woods would be long gone by daybreak. When it came, all I saw were several raccoons and squirrels.

After climbing out of my tree at 9:00 a.m., I still had time to drive to some private land in Issaquena County and set up for a hunt. On arriving at the new location, I saw several tractors out on the fields; the farmer who owned the place was picking cotton. That particular property isn't that big, so I assumed I wouldn't have any luck there, either.

At first I decided to give up, but having taken the day off from work, I figured that I might as well hunt somewhere. So I headed to another piece of private land that I had permission to hunt. I had never hunted it before, but it was only about three miles away.

I drove to this new location with the idea of doing some scouting. By then it was after 11:00 o'clock, and I almost left my archery equipment in the truck. Fortunately, I decided instead to gather my gear and carry it along as I headed for the woods.

I walked about 150 yards, mostly in an open field, and still hadn't made it to the woods in which I planned to look for a spot to hang my stand. As I was passing a small thicket out in the middle of the field, I heard what might have been leaves rustling. The moment I heard the sound, I looked in that direction -- and there was a buck, looking at me!

He was bedded down, and I must have startled him enough that he didn't know what to do. It appeared as if he was getting ready to run, but he chose to stay put and let me walk by. When I made eye contact with him, though, he got up and started to trot off.

When the deer was about 30 to 35 yards away, he turned broadside in front of me and headed for the big section of woods across the field. He didn't seem to be too alarmed, and wasn't running all that fast, so I quickly decided to try taking a shot. I use a Whiskey Biscuit arrow rest, so I didn't have to worry about holding my arrow in place.

Everything happened pretty fast after that -- I don't even remember drawing back my bow and releasing my arrow. I do remember hearing the arrow hit, but I wasn't sure exactly where. The buck flinched when the arrow made contact, ran about another 40 or 50 yards into another small thicket, and didn't come out. Knowing that he was still in there, I decided to wait about an hour to let my 100-grain broadhead do its job.