A close friend of mine, Kris Larson had found a set of cool non-typical Sitka blacktail sheds in the spring of 2013. That fall, he put up trail cameras near this spot in hopes of getting an image of the buck and told me where they were. I had not really started using trail cameras yet, only having a couple to experiment with. Kris lives in Ketchikan and works for Fish and Game and does not get out here often enough. I asked him if I could check his cameras for him. He obliged. Holy Cow! The first time I checked his camera there were 90 images of several bucks on one of them. He had a sequence of a nice 5 x 5 coming through the small opening every day between noon and dark. He had found this bucks sheds from the year before. I asked him if I could hunt that buck, I wanted to try a tree stand...I am no a lover of tree stand hunting, it truly tries my patience. However...on 11/02/2013 at about 10:30 I hiked into "the spot" with an old tree stand and hung it. It was about 46 degrees and I worked up a sweat. About 11:00 I began my sit. The temperature was dropping to freezing. I had sweated and I was not dressed for freezing temperatures. I got cold. At about 2:00 pm I decided to get down and go back to the truck and come in dressed for all day in the morning. At 2:18 pm the big buck pushed a doe and a fawn past the stand (see the first image). I was back at 8:50 the next morning dressed for an all day sit. It was 29 degrees. I checked the trail camera and saw he had passed about 20 minutes after I left. Go figure. I climbed into the stand, I was not going to budge today. Nothing but one Golden Crowned Kinglet stirred until a doe stepped into the opening at about 3:28 pm...she followed my tracks to the stand, smelled my pack, smelled were I had peed, mouthed the rope I had pulled the rifle up with and walked off. I cocked the rifle and swung towards where she had come out of the woods. Into the opening the buck ran shaking his head. He passed right by my trail camera setting off a three shot burst. I had no idea you could see me in my stand in the background. He passes the camera, I mouth grunt him to a stop, I fire and he dies just out of the last frame. Check out the images below. This is one of the coolest hunting sequences ever (my opinion)...I wish I could say I set it up but I'm not that good...my first time using trail cameras and tree stands for Sitka blacktail….other than the LONG moments of boredom followed by a few split seconds of bliss it is great. And worth it all..I love these deer.