3rd Time…Is a Charm

3rd Time…Is a Charm
By Greg Anderson

This was my third year hunting the Southeastern Region with one of my best friends, Scott Murray, and his son Todd. The hunt was scheduled to begin at the end of September, but I was only one week into my recovery from back surgery and I felt it was too soon to take on the deer hunt. The hunt was rescheduled for the end of October.

October was a long wait. I arrived at our hunting camp a day early and, after putting my gear away, I went out scouting. Scott was planning to arrive the next day. I soon discovered that I wasn’t seeing as many bucks as I had earlier in the hunt. I spent the first three days just trying to locate some better deer.

The fourth morning of the hunt, I spotted a few nice bucks coming out of an area. The bucks were following a fence line and feeding down towards me. So, the fifth day, I positioned myself closer to the fence line and waited for two hours – I didn’t see a single deer. I decided to go for a walk into the area I had seen the deer the day before. I was about 100 yards into this area when a group of does came feeding right towards me. I thought that I was nailed, but they came within fifty feet of me and then turned and went the other way. I started walking again and found an elk shed, so I picked it up and put it on my shoulder. I had only taken a few steps when I noticed some deer coming from below and behind me. I stopped and watched as they walked from behind me and then around in front of me at about 250 yards. As they moved sideways, I saw what I thought were two deer walking close together through the trees and brush. I stood there with the elk horn on one shoulder and my rifle on the other as I looked through my binoculars. I was so mesmerized by the amount of antler this buck had that by the time I was ready to think about shooting the deer he had taken off. Todd said that he saw the deer run into some thick cedar trees. We decided not to hunt this area until the next day.

Back at camp, I told everyone about the buck and found out that a man named Jim Giles had seen this deer in the same area weeks before. The next day, I was more mentally prepared should I encounter the buck again. I decided to go back to the area where I had encountered the deer the day before, but cut the distance in half of what I thought was his escape route because he had not been shot at when he took off the day before. I hoped that the buck might take this same route again, so I made the decision to wait there. I got into position before light. I was full of anticipation, but all was quiet. The sun had been up for about an hour when I spotted some movement coming from the same direction as the day before. I put up my binoculars, but the brush was so tall that all I could see was a wave of antlers. At the back of the herd was a deer with a lot of points. I decided to get ready. This was the deer that I was going to take; I just hoped that it was the same buck that I had seen the day before. A few minutes passed before the deer came into view. I kept watching, but the deer I wanted was not to be found. Suddenly, like a ghost, there he was. However, he was in such thick cover that I did not have a clear shot. This was not a good thing, as I waited, my excitement began to mount. Finally, the buck walked forward and I took a shot. He just stood there looking around, so I shot again with the same results. On the fourth shot, the buck spun and started trotting towards me. By this time, he was broadside at forty yards. I carefully took aim and squeezed the trigger. I was ready to see the buck go down and all I heard was “click.” Panicked, I grabbed my extra clip, shuffled in another shell, turned and shot. The deer was still standing there just looking around. I later found that I had shot him through the ear and took a chunk out of the right horn. I quickly chambered another round, shot and the buck went down. I chambered another round and when I went forward on my pump 760, the handgrip came off the slide bar and left me holding my rifle in one hand and the slide in the other. Luckily, the deer was not moving. I went up to the buck and just stood and looked at it to make sure it was real.

Before leaving to go on this year’s hunt, my son-in-law, Jason Barnes, asked me if I was going to shoot a buck this year since I didn’t get one last year. Jason was unable to go with us this year and I told him that I was going to try and take something different, maybe a buck with a little trash. So, just to make him feel better, I sent him a picture of my buck on my cell phone and got a nice reply back. I then called Scott and Todd and told them that I had taken a deer. I didn’t tell them how big the buck was – they were going to have to see this buck to believe it. The official Boone & Crockett score was gross 227 5/8 with a final score of 223 2/8 – right side 8 points, left side 13 points.