Matt Ornes tells the story of the giant he arrowed in Adams County a few days ago. Excerpt:

Just down the trail, a big doe popped out in the open. My adrenaline now had me shaking bad. I had every intention of taking a shot at her but in the corner of my eye I noticed more movement behind her, further up the hill. I suddenly stopped shaking as I saw the bigger bodied deer coming towards the water. It walked slower and with more authority than any of the other deer I had seen that night. As it got closer I could see glimpses of antlers through the saplings. About fifteen yards out he finally cleared the saplings, and I could see tall beams. My body remained calm. I knew this was my chance. I got my late father-in-law’s bow in hand, drew back, lined up the sights on the deer, and as soon as he stepped towards the water, I let the arrow fly! I could see the arrow heading towards him and making impact. Oh my! What just happened?

After about a hundred yards of zig-zagging through the briars, we saw a massive deer lying right in front of us…. Everyone was speechless….We drug him out of the briars to a clearing to get a better look at his mass and count up the 21 points. We loaded the deer up to take to show the landowners. Everyone was smiling, beers were consumed, and I was still in shock of what had just happened.

Well, here’s what happened. Matt killed his first-ever buck with a bow, and the giant scored 200 2/8 green. To make it even more special, Matt shot the dream buck with his late father-in-law’s bow. Click here to read the entire story.

BTW, I predicted that 2016 could be the best rack year we’ve seen since 2010 across America. The Wisconsin September bow season is often a harbinger of things to come. I believe we are off and running to a major big-buck year! Good luck to everybody as you start to hunt.

Not temperature-wise, but when a spot is “buck hot.”

One afternoon a buddy drilled a 10-pointer with his bow from a lock-on near an alfalfa field. I drove our ATV over at dusk, and we looked around for 30 minutes. I was supposed to be looking for blood splatter, but I got big-eyed with all the trails and fresh shiny rubs (20 that I could see) in the grassy funnel between the bedding timber and the grain.

Steve hollered, “Here he is!” We weren’t quiet as we dragged his 10-pointer, loaded it, and rattled off across the field.

The next afternoon I stood in the same tree stand and drew an arrow on the third buck that slipped out of the bedding timber and tipped through the grass to me. The deer ran and fell about 30 yards from where my friend’s deer had expired, and I was happy.

The experts preach that after you or a buddy kill a buck, you ought to rest that stand for a few days or a week; let the woods and the deer settle down before hunting there again. Hmm, I believe I wrote that once or twice over the years!

But sometimes, especially in the early bow season when bucks are still nailed to a bed-to-feed pattern, it pays to go back to a hot tree stand as soon as you can. The deer are moving there for a reason—the feed or acorns are just right, one of the first does smells right, whatever. Bucks will often give you a second or even a third chance before your intrusion moves them to change their pattern and timing.

The key: There’s got to be a lot of deer sign in the area, and it’s got to be fresh and hot. There’s got to be a powerful draw that brings multiple deer and bucks past that stand for a few more days or a week.