“Antelope buck” was killed on Upper Roanoke River Game Lands
Neal Collie of Nashville, N.C. knows that antelope don’t live in the Carolinas, but after he killed a 4-point buck with a unique rack during a trip to the Upper Roanoke River Game Lands, he was almost convinced otherwise. The “Antelope Buck” he killed while on a guy’s getaway looked strikingly similar to the popular western game animal.
“Even the tips of his antlers were white. It’s obviously not an antelope, but it sure is one of the more unique looking deer I’ve ever killed. I’ve killed bigger bucks with bigger racks over the years, but this is a different kind of trophy and I’m glad to have been able to kill it,” said Collie.
Collie and some friends were camping on the property as part of an annual trip. They like to set up camp, cook out, and do some scouting on the first day of each trip, and he found a spot he liked about a mile from their campsite.
The next morning, Nov. 2, Collie went back to his spot and climbed about 25 feet up a tree with his Summit Viper climbing stand, then settled in for the hunt in an open bottom near a swamp. That was the week of the full moon, and he saw no movement until about 10 a.m. when a doe appeared.
“The doe was moving around, and a buck came in and bumped her, but the buck was moving at a brisk trot the whole time. I didn’t get a clean shot at it. I was a little bit bummed, but pretty soon I saw some more movement,” he said.
Then Collie saw a 4-point buck appear. It grunted, stopped, and looked around. When the buck was 100 yards away, Collie prepared to take a shot, but it took a minute for the deer to offer him a good one.
“He came towards my stand, and when it got about 80 yards away, it quartered to me, so I took the shot. It did a big back kick, then ran my way into the trees and crashed about 10 yards away from me,” he said.
That saved Collie from having to track the deer, but he was still a mile away from camp, and being on the public game land, he had no vehicle to help him haul the deer out, so he recruited some help from his buddies.
“It was a really big deer. Much bigger than the earlier buck that bumped the doe away. When I first saw the rack, I thought it was broken off, but when I got a good look, I saw that it’s just a really unique, four point rack. I could tell it was a really old deer. It weighed about 200 pounds,” he said.
Collie shot the deer with a Browning .300 Win Mag and a Remington 180-grain Core-Lokt bullet, and lured the buck in with an Extinguisher Grunt Call.
The buck was at least 7-year-old, and the rack had a 17-inch inside spread. The bases were 6 inches around, and the main beams were 18 inches long. Collie is doing his own Euro mount to commemorate the hunt.
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