I made my way several hundred yards down the nearly vertical slope until I thought I would be in a good position for a shot. Unfortunately, once I got into this new position, I could no longer see the buck. Fortunately, even though I couldn't see the big buck, I quickly spotted another bachelor group of five bucks, including the monster 5x5 from the opening morning! Unfortunately, the bucks were out of range and just steps away from disappearing into a nasty tangle of dark timber. Fortunately, rather than feeding out of my life for good, the bucks slowly fed towards me. You can call it luck if you want?like I say, I make my own luck?but sure enough, I found myself in a familiar situation. I was perfectly concealed in a thicket of stunted pines and the wind was in my favor. The buck of my dreams was almost in range and if my luck held out, I would soon be staring down my barrel at him. Time seemed to drag on for hours as I continued to range the bucks as they closed the distance. 220 yards, 200 yards, 185 yards, 180 yards. Unfortunately, they just had one more ravine to feed through before they would be in my no questions asked kill zone. Fortunately, they made their way into the ravine. Unfortunately, when they did so, they disappeared from sight and I began to panic. Fortunately, they quickly reappeared on my side and the rangefinder indicated the big 5x5 was only 130 yards away almost directly below me. Unfortunately, the wind was now carrying my scent directly towards them and the 5x5 went on full alert. He froze and stared up the hill in my direction. I knew this was the moment. It was now or never. I leveled my gun and positioned the pin on my open sights just behind his shoulder and slowly squeezed the trigger. KA-BOOM! Fortunately, my gun didn't betray me this morning. Unfortunately, the monster buck bounded away with the rest of the bucks as if nothing had happened. Fortunately, after running full-speed for about 50 yards he missed a step. Then, as the rest of the bucks disappeared around the edge of the basin, the big buck stumbled for another step or two and then tumbled head over heals down the hill.