When my beautiful wife, Allison, introduced me to bowhunting back in 1993 (see "From the Rubble" Jan/Feb 2003), I never would have imagined the joy and excitement the bow and arrow would bring to my life. And I certainly never dreamed I would ever apply the sports term "hat trick" to my bowhunting career.

This Illinois buck was my first Pope and Young-class deer in 2007 -- and only the second of my life.

My hopes were flying high for the 2007 season in my home state of New Jersey because my summer scouting had produced trail cam photos of an 8-point buck that had all the looks of a Pope and Young-class deer. I promised myself to hunt and harvest this particular deer or not fill my buck tag at all -- a promise I hoped would not come back to haunt me.

To make the challenge even tougher than normal, I had already booked hunts in Illinois and Maryland. I would not be able to hunt the New Jersey buck until late October or early November.

In mid-october, my buddy Frank Pazos and I packed our bows and arrows and headed out to Illinois to hunt with my good friend Jesse Moats. Jesse was with me when I took my very first Pope and Young buck in Colorado in 2003.

We arrived in Riverton, Illinois, on October 22. After we'd caught up on family, Jesse filled us in on the plan for the week. We would hunt near his home that evening and the next morning. If we had not tagged a buck by then, we would head south the following afternoon to his farm in the famous Pike County.

As the first evening's shadows fell over the woods, a doe came from my right. Following her were two bucks -- a 6-pointer and a very handsome 8-pointer -- and the two bucks sparred only 20 yards in front of me as the doe stood nearby. Once the bucks broke off, the 8-point stood perfectly broadside to me, tempting me to shoot him. He stood there for several minutes, and it took everything in me not to pull back on him. I told myself that even though this was a nice buck, tomorrow evening I would be in Pike County with a chance at a real monster.

When we arrived at Jesse's farm in Pike County, Jesse gave us a quick tour. My stand sat near a huge cut cornfield. Jesse said the deer probably would come from that direction.

I'd been on stand for no more than 20 minutes when a spike buck came from the cornfield and right under my stand. This would be the first of many bucks and does to come my way that evening.

About 6:15 p.m., I heard deer behind me. Turning to look, I saw a large-bodied buck sporting a heavy left main beam. Jesse had always told me that when you see a shooter, you just know it. Well, this was a shooter!