2010 had been one of the craziest years of my life. My dad of 85 years, had severe complications from heart surgery that he had done in the spring. Aside from coding in front of my mom and I, he was in hospitals and rehabs for months, with every type of tube or machine on him. Paralleling my dads’ sickness, was the stress of my wife and I trying to conceive a child. After undergoing a tubal reversal, and a miscarriage, and a tubal removal due to an Ectopic pregnancy, we were told in January that we could not get pregnant, and that my wife’s remaining tube was blocked. By only the grace of God, a month later we somehow found ourselves pregnant.
 It was a long spring and summer, going through a pregnancy and caring for my dad. With a due date right in the middle of hunting season, I was not preparing to get much hunting in at all. The anticipation of becoming a father for the first time, and to a son at that, was greatly overshadowing the usual anticipation of the fall hunting season. Little did I know that it would be most incredible hunting season I had ever had. And little did I know, my unborn son would play a major part in me shooting the biggest buck of my life.
 With a pregnant wife at home I had planned to do most (if any) hunting right around my house. I figured that I would just get in what I could during the archery season. I had already planned not to go on my annual shotgun opener trip out to Western MA, and I had also planned on missing the annual rifle season up in VT, due to my son being due on November 14th, the day after the rifle opener. I also had not planned on doing much hunting in my favorite honey hole, near my cousins’ house, that we had been hunting religiously for many years. Even though I just shot the biggest buck of my life in those woods, in 2009, a 20” wide seven pointer.
 On October 21st, I had taken the day off so I could take my dad to a Dr.’s appointment. His appointment was not until the afternoon, so I decided to go to my favorite spot near my cousins’ house, for a morning hunt before I went to my dads. It was the opening week of archery season in MA, and my third time in a stand. At 7:30 a.m. I videoed a real nice 2 ½ year old eight point  buck making scrapes about 60 yards away. Two bleats later he walked right past my stand and I dropped him right in his tracks. It was my second kill that I had been able to capture on video. I don’t know if I was more excited or shocked. With a baby on the way in a few weeks, and possibly not much hunting in front of me, I had just shot a nice buck and was going to be able to fill the freezer. I was more than happy with my hunting season coming to a soon end now. I just didn’t know that it was just beginning.
 A few weeks had gone by and I did some hunting around my house, and had started to see the rut kicking in. At the beginning of the third week of November, I had taken some video of several bucks chasing does all around my tree stand behind my house. After seeing that, I thought maybe I should take one more stand over at my favorite spot near my cousin’s house. I was taking that Friday off, so I could go and do a few things for my father at his house. So I figured, why not go take a stand in the morning again. It worked last time.
 Due to the fact that my wife and I were going to go to the hospital to get induced on the following Monday, I knew this would possibly be my last time hunting that season. My unborn son was being stubborn and did not want to come out on his due date. Although my wife wasn’t happy about it, I will forever be grateful to him for it.
 The morning of  November 19th   was a bitter cold one. I had every piece of gear on that I owned. I had planned to stay in the stand possibly until noon. On my way into my stand through the dark, I sprayed a trail of Buck Bomb estrous all the way up the cart path, right to my stand. My next decision proved to be the smartest one I could ever make. I decided to spray a trail of estrous urine 40 yards out on the opposing side of my stand, incase a buck came up the other ridge out of bow range.
 As soon as I sat in my stand I heard a deer walking through the dark and across the bowl on the hill out in front of me. It was too dark to see, but it sounded like a buck on a mission, not the typical doe meandering through. Around 6:30 a.m., only 5 minutes after I had bleated, I watched as a small fork horn came sniffing down the hill from behind me, right to were I had sprayed the doe scent on the ground. As he stood broadside only 20 yards away, I can be heard on the video, saying “why can’t that be a big ten pointer”. Little did I know just how clairvoyant that statement was.
 About 30 minutes later I bleated in another small 6 point buck. After he walked on off, I texted my nephew Jeff, that I had called in two small bucks, but was thinking maybe the big boys were all held up with does. As soon as I pressed send on my phone, I heard something walking right behind me up the hill, were the fork horn had come from. It was only about 50 yards away, and when I got a good look at what was coming my way, I almost fell out of the tree. It was the biggest buck I had ever seen in the woods. Absolute instant panic took me over. I was trying to grab my bow, get my camera turned on, get my range finder out of my pocket, and keep an eye on the deer all at the same time. This huge buck was directly down wind of me, and it took no time to realize that he was trying to hone in on the estrous spray I had laid out. I started to draw on him at one moment, because I thought he was going to walk broadside around 35 yards out, but just as I did, with his nose to the ground, he changed his angle to come right down at me.
 I knew now something was going to happen, and it was going to happen fast. As he came straight at me, I drew my bow back when he was behind a tree at about 20 yards. I was hoping he would smell the puddle of Buck Bomb that I sprayed at 15 yards away from my stand, and then cut down the hill and give me a broadside shot. That is exactly what he did. At full draw with my heart pounding out of my chest, and every muscle in my body shaking. I watched him walk broadside at around 12 yards right to the puddle. I had to grunt at him to make him stop, when I did, the luckiest thing happened. His front right leg stepped forward, opening up the whole heart area. As I tried to take a deep breath and just make a smooth pull of the release trigger I said to myself, “just aim a little lower”. Seconds after he stopped and looked right up at me, I put the pin right behind his leg, squeezed the release, and made the best shot of my life…..right through his heart.
 His hind legs kicked up and he bolted straight away from me, towards the swamp. I could see my arrow sticking out of him. At about 50 yards away, he stopped, and I thought for sure he was about to fall over, but he then took off over the rock wall. I marked the last spot I saw him,  hung up my bow and camera, sat down and almost fell apart at the seems. I could not believe that had just happened. I didn’t know how many points the deer had, but I knew he was real wide, and heavy. I was in absolute total disbelief of what had just taken place. I could not stop shaking. I had never been so shook up from a deer in my life. I texted everyone I could, that I had just shot a monster. Little did I realize that it had only been 7 minutes since I had texted my nephew that I thought “all the big boys were locked up”. Needless to say he texted me back that I was full of it. I quickly called him and told him that I had just shot a monster buck. It didn’t take long for him to realize that I was totally serious.
 After about 30 minutes of shaking, I got down from my stand to see if there was any blood. I could see that there was a lot of blood, so I backed out, and went to my truck. Fortunately for me, my cousins Stevie and David, were around to come and help me track this beast. We all watched the video and it seemed like a good hit, but I was a little worried that it was too low.
After about an hour or so, we went in to track him. About thirty yards down the trail, we found the arrow which had gone half way in and had good blood on it. About another fifteen yards away were the deer had stopped there was a huge pile of blood. As we followed the blood trail over the wall another ten yards or so, my cousin Stevie said “there he is”. Words I never thought would have such meaning. I looked over and there was the white belly of a huge ten point buck. It was indescribably surreal. I couldn’t believe the size of the deer. His body and his rack were huge. Even as I write this, the whole experience seems so surreal to me. I was about to have my first child in three days, and I was standing over the biggest buck I had ever seen in the woods.
 The deer dressed out at 191 pounds. My cousin and I roughly Green scored it in the 140’s. The inside spread was 20 ½ inches. It was truly my buck of a lifetime.
 After a long day and night in the hospital, only four days later, on November 23rd ,  my son Chase (which means hunter) was born via emergency C-section, eight days after his due date. It will probably be the only time in his life that I will thank him for being late.
 Although the birth of my son trumped the ten pointer, after such a long stressful year, I had just experienced two moments that I had dreamt about many, many, times, both within 4 days of each other. Two experiences that I never thought I would ever be blessed with.