Hunting over a new cutover that borders a swamp in Surry Virginia At 5:08 I heard a bunch of leaves crunch and then what sounded like an attack on a small sapling that had dry leaves still attached, boy was it loud. I said to myself that sounds like a big buck and lo and behold 190 yards away stepped out this big boy. He stood proud with his chest puffed out scanning the cutover to his left and right. As I fumbled for my binoculars to make sure he was in fact a shooter he started to step to his left. He slowly skirted the edge and stopped at 180 yards slightly quartering toward me. I had to get my breathing under control and doing so made me go in and out of my scope trying to calm down. This buck graciously stayed put for what seemed like hours but was most likely less than 2 minutes. I finally got him into the scope of my Vortex Viper and slowly pulled the trigger of my CVA Paramount muzzleloader with the 380 grain round and 105 grains of loose 209 powder. Dropped that buck dead in his tracks at 180 yards!!
