Back in his tree on Jan. 2, Cachot saw a deer at 5 p.m; then he spotted another. Presently, two others walked past. "Four does walked out into a clearing," he said. "To be honest, I was just glad to know deer still lived in the area. Rubs and scrapes are one thing, but to actually see a living, breathing deer -- I was a little excited."

That feeling was about to intensify about a hundredfold: Cachot's big buck walked into the clearing. "Apparently he was chasing those four does," the bowhunter surmised, "because all of a sudden he stepped out in that clearing with the does about 30 yards from my stand. It happened that quick. All of a sudden -- I mean -- there he was!"

Of course, the story can't end there. It's never that easy, is it? "Unfortunately, no," Cachot said. "He was within 30 yards, but I didn't have a clear shot. The four does and the buck were in that clearing, and I had no shooting lane."

So as he had done for so many hours over so many weeks and months, Cachot remained patient in his stand -- waiting.

"Eventually, the four does got bored and moved away," the hunter recounted. "When they were walking off, I was worried about what he was going to do. If he went with them, I wouldn't get a shot. But my stand was right over one of his scrapes. And when the does started leaving, he turned and headed right toward me. I couldn't believe it. The wind was right. He was coming and I was ready."

The big buck walked into a shooting lane just 10 yards from Cachot's tree. Then, as if the hunting gods were repaying the hunter for his patience, the buck stopped and turned broadside. "I had a perfect shot at his vitals from 10 yards," Cachot marveled. "Ten yards!"

The shot was perfect; the arrow did its job and put the big deer down not far from where he had been standing. Neither trailing nor finding it was difficult.

Cachot's buck, ruled a 15-pointer, measured a fraction over 199 6/8 inches and scored 187 3/8 Pope & Young Club points after deductions. It ranks as the No. 5 non-typical buck taken in Mississippi by an archer.

"It had nearly a 25-inch inside spread," Cachot said. "And as impressive as that was, and as impressive as the points were, neither was its greatest asset. What it really had was mass: tremendous mass -- starting with 5 7/8-inch bases that grew to over 8 inches farther out." A true Yazoo trophy!

"The secret to that buck was patience," Cachot emphasized. "All I do is bowhunt, and I have been hunting that deer, or at least a Yazoo trophy like it, for three years. All those hours, days, weeks and months I spent in that stand were worth it. That may have been the only mistake he was ever going to make, and the key was not giving up and being there when he made it."

Not all Yazoo trophies are as difficult to come by. Consider the story of Johnny Luke, of Louisville, who came upon his huge buck exactly one month earlier by just the opposite technique -- which Luke called pure luck.

"There's nothing else you can call it," he said. "About the only skill involved was pulling off the shot when I had the chance."

Luke's chance came on Dec. 2 during the limited draw primitive-weapons hunt. "I went online last summer and registered with my friend Gabe Watts," he began, "but we gave up when we hadn't heard from Yazoo by the first week of October. Wouldn't you know it? A couple of days later we got a letter saying we'd been drawn for Dec. 1-2."

Knowing that being drawn for the hunt provided an opportunity at a trophy buck, Luke and Watts decided to make the most of it, and so planned a scouting trip a week before Thanksgiving.

"We found what we called a hot area full of good sign," Luke recalled. "We found a pretty good bit of buck sign, and it looked like there was at least one big buck working that area. We felt pretty confident when we were headed home."

Neither that confidence nor the expectation of a possible trophy was enough to get Luke and Watts out of bed on Dec. 1, however. "The night before our hunt, a strong cold front came through with some really cold air and strong winds," Luke said. "We awoke to temperatures in the teens and a wind chill in single digits. We didn't have a lot of 'want-to,' so we slept in and went late."