Minus-5 degrees would not have been terribly bad, but the wind-chill factor dropped the count by another 20 degrees.

The end of the season was near, so whatever conditions Mother Nature dished out, it was time for Andy Newton and his 13-year-old son, Adam, to get serious. This particular winter was making up for previous mild ones. The rural landscape was covered with knee-deep snow, and drifts in many farm fields were waist-deep.

For the Newtons, however, the stage was set. Andy had left a couple acres of standing soybeans and plowed tractor-width paths through the snow to field-edge tree stands. These cleared trails looked like deer highways in the soybeans.

The Newtons climbed their stands about a half-hour before does and fawns would start parading from a nearby bedding area. Layered thick with inner clothing, father and son wore insulated canvas Carharts to cut the wind's penetrating bite.

Adam's stand was close to where deer exited the timber. Andy was only 150 yards across a field corner from his son. He hoped this was the afternoon Adam would tag his first trophy bow buck. By the time deer showed up, Adam was already feeling winter's unforgiving wrath. There were more than a dozen does and fawns in front of Adam before bucks began entering the food plot.

Even at age 13, Adam knew within inches what each buck scored as they stepped into the field. Five bucks in all, two were less than Pope and Young, one was borderline, one would score about 130 inches, and the fifth was a no-brainer -- scoring at least 30 inches more than low-book. Andy could feel Adam's anxiety as the bigger buck inched toward the fledgling bowhunter.

There was only 20 minutes of legal shooting time when the typical 8-pointer fed within 50 yards of Adam. He needed the buck 30 yards closer. Shaking profusely from cold and nerves, the young archer knew he couldn't make the shot even if this great deer closed the gap. It also didn't seem possible the buck would reach his dad before quitting time. He elected to exit the stand in the hope the 8-pointer would spook and head across the field corner.

The execution went as planned. Noise from Adam's descent caused instant alert and panic of the deer. Tails high, brown forms bound down the plowed trail straight for Andy. The path of least resistance led directly to a waiting broadhead for the bigger buck. Andy drew, slightly led the buck's shoulder area and let fly when the buck slowed at 15 feet. A double-lung shot dropped the grand whitetail within sight. Jubilant beyond description, bitter cold was no longer an issue for father and son. They trudged a 100-yard path through the snow-covered oak timber to the fallen trophy. The buck netted 163 typical inches and change.

Were the Newtons lucky? Maybe a little. Was this a well-planned late-season hunt by this father and son? No doubt about it!

The annual continental odds of an archer killing a Pope and Young deer are about 15,000-to-1. A bowhunter will increase those odds to less than 1,000-to-1 by hunting in a well-managed region. Hunting hard during the rut on quality deer management (QDM) property will lower odds to 100-to-1. Those who fall in the 10-to-1 fraternity do not rely on the rut and pre-plan a late-season assault.

Preparation and persistence is the difference between an average and better than average trophy-deer hunter -- with bow or gun. This feature article will focus on two categories of bowhunters: those having control of their hunting property, and those who hunt public areas.