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We've seen the giant bucks and we've seen the dinks. Now let's see the deer that holds a lasting place in your hunter's heart.


This is the one for me. He is an old 7 point (4x3 for those westerners that can only count one side at a time. ) I killed in Mid-November 2007 on my great grandfather's old farmstead in Ashe County NC.

I had originally planned to walk to a big cut over where you can see a lot of country and have shots out to 500 + yards so I was carrying my heavy barrel .30/06 topped with a 4.5-14 Nikon with target knobs and a mil-dot reticle. It was loaded with a super accurate load of VV N140 and the 155 grain AMAX.

My plan got thrown off when I discovered that a timber cutting crew had decided to work that day on the backside of the mountain across from the cut over and they drove two trucks and a skidder right thru the middle of where I was going to hunt to get to the cutting ground.


Undaunted, I went to my fall back position. I walked up the ridge behind my great grandfather's old house and took up a position at the base of a big white oak that jutted out of a mountain overhang.

What the overhang created was essentially a natural tree stand like position. From the base of that white oak you could watch the convergence of five well used deer trails.

I had no more than got settled and caught my breath from climbing the near 10% grade up the ridge when six does came boiling out of a laurel thicket at the head of the holler. They were running nose to tail with their ears laid back like a pack of greyhounds. No chance of a shot on that bunch.

About 15 minutes later I heard something snuffling around in the acorns just over top of a small draw about 60 yards above and to the front of me.

The snuffling kept getting louder and I heard a buck start grunting so I double checked the scope to make sure it was turned down to low power and brought the rifle up to the port arms position.

A few seconds later the buck just seemed to materialize at the head of the draw 60 or so yards away. He was staring straight at me.

I immediately froze and tried my best to stay absolutely motionless. After what seemed like 15 minutes (actually more like 30-45 seconds) he turned back to the left and put his head down to look for acorns.

I began slowly moving the rifle into firing position. About halfway through the process the buck looked back around and started staring me down again. I had to freeze again. Holding a 10 lb rifle completely still 3/4 of the way to your shoulder is a chore I do not care to repeat.

After staring my way for what seemed like another 15 minutes, the buck again went back to looking for his breakfast acorns.

I finished shouldering the rifle and started to bring the crosshairs into position when the critter looked my way again so I was forced to do the freeze one more time. This time it felt like he stared me down for 45 minutes before going back to his acorns.

Once his head was down and away I settled the scope behind his onside shoulder, clicked the safety off and squeezed the trigger.

At the crack of the gun he lurched forward and went down on his knees in front and his hind end started to sag toward the ground. I expected him to just roll over and die but amazingly the buck caught himself and went lurching up the hill with the off side shoulder freely flailing and his tail down.

I was just mesmerized by the way he caught himself and took off and it never occurred to me at the time to shoot again.

Just as he crossed the ridge out of sight I heard a crash like a 57 Buick hitting a concrete wall. I found him tangled in the remains of an old fence about 30 yards down the backside of the ridge.

There was a blood trail Ray Charles could have followed.

The shot had been perfectly placed. All the deer plumbing was wrecked in the chest cavity and the 155 AMax had still had enough integrity and steam to break the off shoulder and exit. The buck probably weighed 175-180 lbs on the hoof.

I mounted his rack to one of the Cabela's horn mounting plaques and hung it over my bedroom closet door.

His antlers are one of the last things I see before going to sleep at night and I will always remember the day our trails crossed.