Novembers Trophy Buck

The mornings dawned, clear and cool on November 1^st, 2011. Thousands of tiny diamond-like droplets still cling to the colorful autumn foliage from a hard rain the night before.

I had taken the day off from work with the express purpose of trying to get a shot at a nice buck. By daylight I had my Summit climbing stand situated overlooking an old logging road in the woods near the Cape Fear River in Harnett County, North Carolina.

Noticing a scrape nearby, I freshened it up by sprinkling some doe in heat lure in it. Then I walked about 30 yards down my shooting lane and made an artificial scrape and doctored it generously with some “Tink Stink”

By 9:00 AM I still hadn’t seen one single deer! The squirrels scampering around kept me from getting totally bored.

I stood to stretch my legs and check out the woods behind my stand back toward the creek. Suddenly about 70 yards away I caught a glimpse of a big deer passing between two trees. Immediately on full alert, I scanned the thick woods for more movement! There it was again a big body moving quickly through the thick stuff up the hill by my stand. I thought I caught a brief flash of another in the morning sun then it disappeared. All was quiet, leaving me wondering if I had just imagined all that.

Disappointed and determined to make something happen I begin to make several series of loud doe bleats and buck grunts. I sat looking and listening for about ten minutes when down the shooting lane appeared a big doe or so I thought until I put my scope on it. I realize then it had antlers! As it began walking toward me down the shooting lane I realized it was a “shooter buck” with at least eight points! By now I began to get nervous and mentally told myself to calm down. The buck walked straight to my false scrape and put his nose to the dirt and stood sniffing. Already standing with the safety off on my Rouger 30-06 I watched him at thirty yards through the scope, waiting for him to turn broadside. Fearing he might lift his head, see me and bolt suddenly, I settled the cross hares on his neck where it joins his shoulders and squeezed the trigger. He dropped to the ground like a sack of hammers right on top of the false scrape, kicked a few times and expired! Needless to say, I was excited when I found he was a respectable nine point about sixteen inches wide and weighing approximately 185 lbs. Even with the help of several friends I had a tough time getting him out of the woods.

God said; “Every animal of the forest is Mine…I know every bird in the mountains and the creatures of the field are Mine.” Psalm 50:10-11

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him” Psalm 34:8

By Ted McKinney