The stand was about two-thirds of the way up a hardwood ridge. I was overlooking a hillside bench that's one of my favorite deer travel corridors. The bench ran the perimeter of the rise, connecting a thick pine bedding area on my left to a white oak flat to my right.

It was the afternoon of opening day of bow season. I was glad to be back in the stand where I'd killed two deer on consecutive days the previous fall.

Today, a 15-mile-per-hour wind blew from the direction of the bedding area, making the sweet gum tree I was in sway back and forth. It also made white oak acorns thump down on the ground like hail.

With an hour of daylight left, I was hoping the weatherman's forecast would be correct. As if cued by my thought, the wind suddenly died.

This was the magic hour.

Minutes later, I heard water sloshing in a creek, just beyond my sight. A deer was crossing the creek and heading my way. I stood up in the stand, fastened the release to the bowstring, took a comfortable stance and waited.

Soon I saw movement -- a patch of brown, a hint of white and antlers!

My strategy was to let him pass by me on the trail and take the quartering-away shot as he headed for the acorn-bearing oaks. What I hadn't anticipated was that he would stop in front of me at 15 yards -- broadside.

I drew the bow, settled on a fluff of hair behind his shoulder and squeezed the release.

I watched in disbelief as my arrow ricocheted off a twig I hadn't seen before. With a loud crack! it slammed into a tree 10 feet behind the deer.

To my further amazement, the buck didn't even flinch. He never even paused to look up as I nocked another arrow, ducked below the twig this time, and put a broadhead on target.

To me, hunting the acorn crop is as good as deer hunting gets. For me, it has been as good as the rut, if not better. Deer get stupid over acorns, and when they're plentiful, you can count every deer in the woods having mast on its mind.

I've probably killed more deer that were feeding on acorns, or heading to acorns, than in any other situation.

That's why it always surprises me to hear hunters complain about "too many acorns." Throughout most of the South, 2007-08 was a banner year for acorns.

For me, it was the best year I've had for sighting numbers of deer.

And yet, I heard many hunters say that it was their worst year for deer sightings. Throughout the season and well into the post-season, I listened to hunters and read their posts on Internet message boards saying that the deer were just not moving. From what I could tell, for most hunters it was a feast or famine year.