Little did I know that my first glimpse of this great Nebraska buck would lead me on a four-season quest that would end with an eye-to-eye encounter on the ground.

Pussyfooting through a thin strip of timber that bordered the edge of a big cornfield, I emerged from the cedars and cottonwoods and promptly made out the back of a deer just 20 yards away. As the deer raised its head and looked right at me, I focused my binoculars -- and gasped. This was not just a very good buck. It was him!

The first time I had laid eyes on him, I just couldn't get over the size of his second points, the G-2s. In my neck of the eastern Nebraska woods, I've grown accustomed to seeing some nice, but non-spectacular, racks. With a rifle season held during the rut, and most of the state's hunters crammed into the riverbottoms, Nebraska doesn't grow an excess of bucks that reach the magical ages that produce huge racks. This buck looked young, but he already had an impressive frame.

In 2003, I saw him twice before gun season, and three times after. He never offered me a shot and always seemed to have a knack for doing things backwards, appearing in the most unexpected places. On November 1, he responded to a rattling session from the east but hung up out of range. When I tried a snort-wheeze to pull him closer, he rewarded me with the sight of a white tail bouncing into the distance.

As he pranced back the way he'd come, little did I know that a four-season quest had begun that would keep me guessing until the end. In 2004, I saw him twice. The first was on October 2, and instead of following several bucks that walked within bow range, he again did things backwards, blazing a trail of his own, 45 yards from my stand. I saw him again on November 7, at about the same range, and again, he left me shaking my head.

During the season, I never saw him again, and I wasn't sure he'd made it through the nine-day rifle and 31-day blackpowder seasons. Then, on February 4, 2005, I found his left antler, and 14 days later, I found its mate over a half-mile away. I felt like we were destined to cross paths again. But the wait was to be a long one.

In late summer 2005, he showed up a couple times on my digital CamTrakker, and I was pleased to find that his right antler had sprouted a standing fourth tine, while the opposite side showed a sticker protruding from the G-2. Antler symmetry is no big deal to me, and I value any "extras" to be just that -- bonus bone that adds character.

During the 2005 season, he was as elusive as ever. In fact, I saw him just twice. On November 8, I caught a glimpse of him 60 yards away as he trailed a doe right toward my stand -- one I had second-guessed myself out of sitting in.

The very next evening, I climbed a tree near a pinch that connects the main timber -- ever-increasing in size as it goes farther to the east -- with a sparsely vegetated upland area to the west that gets pounded at night by deer. With less than two hours to hunt, I opted not to go too deep into the woods, hoping an adventurous buck would emerge for a walkabout to check for does.