Hey Tmayer. It was crazy about when and how I found him. I was actually walking in to put a trail cam near that area last year on September 29th (2 days before bow opener) because I wanted to let it soak in that area for 3-4 months because I had very limited intel from that specific spot. I wasn't in total stealth mode as I approached that small patch but there is lots of woods surrounding that little area. As I took a couple steps around the last corner I stopped dead in my tracks. There he was, at 3:45 pm in broad daylight, his head was down eating green grass out at about 50-70 yards. I about died, I could see he was preoccupied so I slowly backed up and got behind some trees and took a couple shots with my phone. Couldn't get a total bead on his rack but it looked like a lot of bone and his body size looked like he was a tank. Thankfully, I had the wind in my face but I learned a big lesson from that day. I checked the wind before heading in and it was blowing from the SE. He was standing directly north of me but the wind was blowing directly into my face, coming from the north. I believe when the SE wind that was blowing over the tops of trees hit that small CRP parcel the wind would dive down into the area of the CRP and create a whirlpool effect. That SE wind would hit another wall on the north side of the CRP and force it to go west and then when it hit the NW corner of the CRP it forced the wind to turn to the south. I believe he was set up on that NW corner of the field so he could take advantage of that whirlpool effect to his back and he had a good visual out in front of him. I came into the corner of that area after the wind had turned to the south. Having a small open area in the middle of trees sure did create a whirlpool effect with the wind. Amazing intel for later use. As it turned out, I shot my buck very early so I'll be heading up there this year.
