After several minutes, the huge whitetail turned and slowly made its way along the hillside to where the woods sloped downward to a small creek, and eventually walked out of sight.

"There was no problem with the wind direction that evening, but the deer obviously sensed something was wrong," Dobbs noted. "It's hard to understand, but there are times when mature bucks seem to have a sixth sense not shared by other deer."

The following afternoon, Dobbs returned to the location. But instead of hunting near the fence line, he moved several yards up the hillside and climbed a tree within shooting distance of the trail the buck had used. Amazingly, the hunter spotted the big whitetail again; unfortunately, the deer remained well out of bow range. It followed a flat bench along the upper hillside before finally angling down toward the creek bottom.

Due to work responsibilities, the hunter's next opportunity to hunt was the following weekend. Choosing to try a slightly different strategy, Dobbs left home well before daybreak and used a four-wheeler to travel a series of hilltop ridges and reach the location from the opposite direction.

"After walking in from the top of the hill, I climbed a tree on the grown-up flat where the old homesite was located," he said. "The plan worked really well. In fact, the buck passed within 30 yards of my stand, but there was simply no possibility of getting an arrow through the thick brush and saplings where the deer was walking. It was a difficult and frustrating situation, but I wasn't about to take any unnecessary chances with a buck of that size."

The following morning, Dobbs repeated his approach plan. But before climbing into position, he moved the stand several yards to a slightly more open area. Once again, the big buck appeared, but never quite came within bow range.

Another week would pass before the hunter could return, and Dobbs was well aware that the season was rapidly running out.

"One good thing about the weekend was the buck seemed to be following a consistent movement pattern. I felt confident that I had not disturbed the deer in any way," Dobbs said. "With that in mind, I decided to stick with the same hunt strategy on my next trip."