Dwayne Stubblefield of Franklin used a muzzleloader to take this remarkable 15-point non-typical last year in Robertson County. The buck has a 21-inch inside spread and scores 176 4/8. Photo by Bill Cooper

In the gray twilight of early morning, a doe slowly meandered along the edge of a narrow hay field, stopping now and then to feed, or occasionally glance backward at her trailing companion. Several yards behind, a heavy-antlered 10-pointer hesitantly followed the doe across the open field. These were uncomfortable surroundings for the big whitetail, especially in daylight, but the time was early November and the lure of the doe was much stronger than the safety of cover.

The deer were not alone; 100 yards away, situated in a tree stand, a hunter watched their progression through the field. This was the first day of Tennessee's 2002 muzzleloading season and, as the deer neared a thicket along the field border, the hunter fired. Until that moment, the opening morning hunt scenario had played out to near perfection, but through the haze of blue smoke, the hunter watched the buck bound off, untouched.

This incident took place on a several hundred acre Robertson County hunting lease, headed up by Dwayne Stubblefield of Franklin. That evening, Stubblefield received a call from the somewhat frustrated hunter.

"Basically, he explained that due to a busy work schedule, he hadn't taken time before the season to check his rifle and make sure it was still properly sighted in," Stubblefield explained. "During our conversation, he accepted an offer to borrow my muzzleloader to hunt with the following morning."

As most avid whitetail hunters will quickly attest, the opportunity to take a trophy-class buck occurs very infrequently, and only on rare occasions does a buck ever give the hunter a second chance. Despite these odds, it is also important to remember that whitetails, especially big whitetails, are extremely unpredictable.

If ever there was a case of déjà vu, the hunter surely experienced it the following morning. Shortly after daybreak, at approximately the same time, a doe appeared in the hay field, with the same big 10-pointer trailing several yards behind.

Not about to question his luck, the hunter readied the borrowed rifle and watched the two deer slowly make their way through the field. Much like the previous morning, as the deer approached a thicket bordering the field, he waited until the buck provided a clear shot opportunity and pulled the trigger.

Once again, smoke from the shot made seeing rather difficult; however, in this instance, the hunter believed the buck reacted as though it had been hit. Unfortunately, an initial search of the site turned up no evidence.

"Later, I joined the search and, eventually, we managed to find a few small flecks of blood, but nothing more," Stubblefield noted. "While there was no doubt the buck had been hit, the nearly total lack of sign made me believe there was little chance of the wound being fatal."

Two weeks later, a trail camera substantiated Stubblefield's theory. The camera, located in a small stand of hardwoods, approximately 200 yards from the hay field, photographed the buck at night. Apparent in the photo, a scab near the elbow of the buck's left front leg was in all likelihood an indication of where the deer had been recently shot.

The buck was not seen again until the following November (2003) muzzleloading season, but this time the deer was not sighted by a hunter. The local conservation officer happened to be in the area and spotted the big whitetail, with a doe, near a pond on the lease, within 500 yards of the wood lot where the photo had been taken.