Mainframe 10-point Granville County trophy buck green-scored 140 inches
Hayden Laws of Creedmoor, N.C. killed his personal best whitetail buck on Nov. 2. The mainframe 10-point buck has been green-scored at 140 inches and had a nearly-perfect rack.
Laws killed the deer during a morning hunt with his muzzleloader from a Summit Climber tree stand on an oak ridge covered in acorns near a 40-acre hayfield. He sweetened the spot up by regularly spreading fresh corn on the ground.
“I was hunting some hilly terrain at a 200-acre property that was half cattle farm. I’d been putting 250 pounds of corn on the ground every two weeks and checking my trail cameras,” he said. “But I’d stayed away because the rut was coming.”
Laws estimated he had “probably close to 1000 total trail cam photos of the Granville County trophy buck during the last two years at different locations on the farm.”
This year, the deer began showing up on his trail cams starting in June. The perfectly symmetrical rack had caught Laws’ attention and allowed him to identify the deer’s trail cam photos.
“He also had a knot at the end of his left G3 that looked like a bullet hole,” he said. “(The buck) usually was with a big 8-pointer I killed during bow season. That buck’s rack scored 135 inches.”
Laws picked the perfect day to hunt the big buck
With the rut heating up, and the weather and moon phase favorable, Laws knew Nov. 2 would be a prime day to head for his stand.
“The weather was going to be cold (at night) and put bucks on the move. I had a good wind. And there was a full moon,” he said. “With the cold and moon phase, (deer) would be on their feet, moving and rutting.”
Laws could barely sleep Sunday night, awoke at 4:30 a.m., and was at his oak woods stand by 5 a.m. Monday.
“I sat in the dark for one hour before it got light,” Laws said.
At 8 a.m., he began a grunt-call sequence. A few minutes later, a doe walked past his stand on the left.
“I looked down through the woods and saw horns coming through branches,” he said. “(The deer) came in alert, his ears perked forward like he knew another deer was nearby. He walked right around my trail camera but kept his eyes on the doe.”
He shot the buck with a .50-caliber muzzleloader
At 8:30 a.m., the hunter aimed through a Simmons scope atop his .50-caliber Thompson/Center Bone Collector smoke pole. Then he pulled the trigger, sending a 250-grain bullet toward the buck standing 80 yards away.
“He jumped and mule-kicked,” Laws said. “He favored his front shoulder when he ran away.”
The deer only covered about 50 yards into the hay field and fell.
Laws ratcheted his stand to the forest floor. He called his father and girlfriend. Then he walked to the field where the buck’s white belly shined in the stubble.
“I was excited and thanked the Lord for the opportunity,” he said. “I’d put a lot of time and work into that deer. It didn’t feel like it was real, but he was.”
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Bag-A-Buck
Congratulations to Laws, who is now entered in our Bag-A-Buck contest, making him eligible for a number of great prizes. That includes the grand prize, a two-day, two-man hunt at Cherokee Run Hunting Lodge. Click here to view the Bag-A-Buck gallery or to enter the contest yourself.
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