The downside is that the last ten minutes of legal shooting light are pretty darn dim. I noted today that twelve minutes after sunset, rangefinders are useless because you can't see much and certainly can't read any numbers. I noticed last month while filming a small buck during the last fifteen minutes of shooting light that filming was pointless with a Tactacam 5 at that point. When I got home I had recorded nothing but sound with blackness.
Today sunset was at 6:21pm so shooting hours ended at 6:51pm. I started slowly prepping to climb down around 6:40pm. I put away my rangefinder and retrieved my quiver and put it back on my bow. I returned the shooting rail to its upright position and secured it in place. I mounted up my backpack and took one last look around. By then it was 6:45pm so I slowly began my decent down the climbing sticks carrying my bow.
As my luck would have it, about halfway down the stick I heard and then saw a deer moving to my back left. There he was. He had stopped about 20 yards away from the stand and was looking right at me. I contemplated the situation. I think I had enough light given the close distance, though I would need to turn on illumination. I didn't have an arrow loaded. I believe I could pull off a one-armed shot while hanging from a climbing stick, but it isn't something I've practiced. It was a big deer, likely a buck. But which one? Advantage: buck.
After what seemed like a minute long standoff, he wheeled around and trotted back the way he had came. Whew? That was close. I was beginning to think this was going to turn into a story that no one would believe, but in the end I was just another hunter busted while climbing out of his stand too early.
To add insult to my injured ego, as I quickly and quietly descended the mountain, one of my trail cameras about 80 yards away from my stand sent me some photos about five minutes after they would have been very useful. Ouch! It was #1 on the hit list.
To be continued another day...
Gotta love when stuff like that that happens, hopefully you will get another chance at him!
Second to that was a Macedonian wedding because the engagement dinner was just a lavish as the wedding dinner. Each of those weddings, the fathers told us "it's all about the money" 
. The guests were expected to be generous with their envelopes