"Although there was never a problem seeing deer in the river bottom fields, we decided to establish a wildlife opening in one of the hollows well away from the river," Bertram said. "Basically, we planted approximately two acres in a mixture of milo, clover, and beans."

Not surprisingly, this new supplemental food source was an immediate hit with the local whitetails. From the hunters' standpoint, the opening became an excellent additional location to scout and observe deer in late summer and early fall.

"During the summer of 2005, a bachelor group of three large bucks began using the opening," Bertram noted. "The biggest buck in the group was the easiest to identify, due to the presence of a long drop tine on the left beam. Unfortunately, none of us saw the buck that fall while we were hunting."

Although they sighted a couple of big deer in midsummer of 2006, the buck's antler growth had not advanced to the point of developing an identifiable drop tine. After the buck remained a no-show through the remainder of summer and the first several weeks of the early-fall bow season, the hunters began to believe that something must have happened to it.

Another very realistic possibility was that the drop tine could have been a one-time event. The deer might not have regrown that particular antler characteristic.

But in mid-October, Bertram's father-in-law quickly ended all of those theories.

On a Friday scouting trip, prior to the opening of the two-day early muzzleloading season, he was making his way along a narrow creek bottom when suddenly a giant buck bolted from a nearby cane thicket.

Only yards away, the hunter had a clear view of the deer's massive rack, which happened to include a long drop tine.

Realizing that the buck had never been sighted during the 2005 hunting season, Bertram had no reason to believe that 2006 would be any different. Nevertheless, just knowing the big deer was somewhere in the area greatly heightened his anticipation of the November gun season!

For opening weekend, Bertram had invited a young local hunter, 16-year-old James Dyer, to camp out and hunt with the group. James' dad, a longtime family friend, had unfortunately lost his battle with cancer the previous year.

Well before dawn on opening morning, Bertram and James climbed into a two-man ladder stand, positioned along the woods line bordering the wildlife food plot. During the night, a steady rain had begun falling, triggered by a strong cold front moving through, which also drastically dropped temperatures.

Sitting in the early-morning darkness, the hunters felt the rain droplets intermittently changing to sleet.

"The weather was absolutely miserable, but on the other hand, it makes for great hunting," Bertram said.

"Just before daybreak, we heard a deer on the opposite hillside, apparently heading in our direction. Eventually, the deer walked close enough for us to hear it breathing, before trotting on up the ridge. The deer was obviously big-bodied, judging from its dark outline in the opening.

"I hated that James didn't have a chance to see it in daylight."

After continuing to sit in the cold, wet weather until 10 a.m., the hunters decided to return to camp to warm up and have something to eat.

Around noon, after James opted to do some still-hunting with one of the Pickens brothers, Bertram walked to a stand he had located earlier along a high hardwood ridge.

Positioned in a large cedar, 30 yards out from the crest of the ridge, the hunter had an excellent view of the hillside, plus two saddles along the ridgetop. In the hollow directly below his location, 300 yards away, was the wildlife opening where he and James had sat that morning.

Although the earlier steady rain had now tapered off to a drizzle, strong north to northwesterly winds made the chilly temperatures seem a great deal colder.