The Pennsylvania deer hunting season is upon us and nearly 1 million hunters will hit the woods Monday morning to seek the elusive whitetail buck.

About one in seven hunters will harvest a deer and the rest will be wistful about the missed opportunities.

Pennsylvania traditionally has its season opener on the Monday following Thanksgiving while many of our neighboring states start a week earlier. As many of my fellow hunters know, that creates a longer season for those willing to travel for new hunting options.

A group of us meet each year for a tune-up hunt in West Virginia, which boasts a healthy population of deer.

I arrived at our meeting place full of anticipation for a successful hunt and the chance at some nice bucks our host had been scouting with trail cams for the past few weeks.

Robbie Gilbert has been in the turkey and whitetail deer business since his college days at Waynesburg College. When I first met Robbie, he was a college kid with a lot of ideas who now hosts a show called "Outdoor Insights" on the Pursuit Channel.

He told us that we might find a trophy buck during our three-day hunt in the mountainous terrain of West Virginia. That caught all of our attention and we listened intently on his findings of what we might expect to see if we got some cooperative weather, used good deer hunting skills and landed a little luck.

The opening day was cold and the threat of rain or snow was in the air. I was up in a 15-foot, two-man ladder stand that was an impressive tool for this hunt.

Sitting in the dark, I thought of all the possible routes I knew that deer used in this area and I would have to be alert lest I let deer slip past me.

Early on, I saw some bucks and I let some small-rack bucks pass, hoping to see a trophy deer. Soon, the weather turned and so did my luck. A wet day ended with me empty-handed and wondering about my decisions to let deer pass by.

Day two found me switching stands with another hunter who watched a crab apple thicket. It was a bad choice. I saw no bucks, but he thought he saw the trophy buck in one of the heavily wooded draws at my previous spot.

The final day brought me back to the previous stand. Snow had fallen and was hanging from many of the branches, limiting visibility.

A crunch of snow and leaves caught my attention, and I saw a solitary deer slipping through the greenbriers.

Yes, he was a rack buck but how big?

Before I could answer, he slipped behind some deadfalls and stood still. His head was behind cover, but he did present a clear shot. Could I clear the brush and make my shot count?

It was now or never, and my hunt was coming to an end, I took the shot and the deer disappeared in the thick cover. My heart was pounding as I climbed down to check for the deer.

I couldn't see it and I felt mounting disappointment.

Had I missed after all?

I went to the point where I first saw the buck and began tracking. I followed slowly, looking ahead for the deer, but nothing resembling a deer could be seen.

When I stopped to step over a log, I saw brown. There was my buck. He had dropped into a depression left by a downed tree from long ago.

The deer wasn't the monster buck we all hoped to see, but he was a fine 8-point and a nice trophy on the last day of my West Virginia tune-up hunt.

I guess I'll have to wait for my trophy buck Monday morning as the sun rises on the Pennsylvania buck season opener.