Nov 29, 2014 4 min read

The big day arrives tomorrow and the nerves start tonight.

A hunter who stayed at home and intends to hunt locally will lie in bed until midnight before falling asleep. I hope I don’t sleep in past my 5 a.m. alarm. The rifle is sighted in and the clothes are out of storage.

There are other things to make me nervous. I hope no one is sitting in my No. 1 stand. Or, that big buck lying headless along the berm of the highway could be the one I have been watching during October and November.

Actually, I tend to look at the necessities first and make sure they are with my hunting stuff.

One must have a rifle or perhaps an accurate handgun or muzzle loader. Another needed item and one that is forgotten more than any other is ammunition for the rifle. I know more than one person that has forgotten his ammo and a few that took along the wrong ammo.

Those who hand load must be careful and sure that reloads will not only fit the rifle chamber but the magazine as well.

When target shooting, many times the rifle is fired as a single shot and now the reloader finds himself in the field with ammo that is too long for the rifle magazine or clip. That is a good reason to take an extra rifle as a backup. Better yet, before leaving home, run every round through the magazine of the rifle.

I learned that lesson long ago. No, it wasn’t me that had to hunt with a single shot, but it did happen to a hunting partner. Actually, most rifles faced with that problem can hold two rounds – one in the chamber and one right under it in the magazine. I would be willing to bet that more than one person has forgotten a rope, a knife or binoculars.

It is tonight that will find some hunters wide awake and staring at the ceiling. Their sleep is disrupted by visions of huge 10-point bucks dancing around in their heads. It’s like Christmas is to children.

Many wives think we are looney and add insults to our restlessness. When morning comes, we are lucky if we slept more than a couple of hours.

I was lucky. My wife hunted with me.

Eileen was as capable as any man and better than most when it came to deer hunting. The only problem we had was that she was picky. I would bust my butt moving through the thickest cover. As far as a hunting partner goes, she was on time in the morning and worked as hard as any man. In some circumstances, she did her share of dragging out her buck or mine.

I have been criticized more than once for being blasé about a photo of a large-antlered buck pictured on someone’s phone. They expect me to be excited about the new state record buck.

I have but one question for them. Has it been measured officially and accepted by Boone & Crockett, the state, or Pope & Young as a new state record? If not I am skeptical.

I see pictures of new record-book bucks every year, and most don’t make book for a variety of reasons. Some were taken out of state and are being passed off as taken in Pennsylvania. Some are penned deer.

The front of a score sheet is the part showing the score but the back of the sheet is of equal importance. The back of a Boone & Crockett sheet holds the fair chase statement. There are a number of bucks that meet the numbers criteria but importantly fail when it comes to the fair chase.

I often wonder if some of the bucks I measure belong to those headless bucks seen dead along the highway.

One thing to remember if you are a serious trophy hunter you must save your tag and not shoot a small buck. I have found that to be the most difficult part of seeking a huge buck.

Secondly, look for a high rack. High means long points. High helps more than wide.

Get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow will be a very busy day. If your boss asked you to work that hard you would turn him or her into the union or national labor relations board.

Geoge H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.