On the morning of Nov. 19, 2020, I was wide awake from pain in my hand from a recent injury. I was thinking about the two biggest deer I was lucky enough to have captured on camera, especially one in particular — “BadEye.” The first buck named “Crab Claw” had a split G3 and was one of the regulars on camera. He was my 6-year-old son’s favorite from all the trail camera pictures we had been working on.
I got up early and slipped into my Primos double-bull blind and waited in the dark. I seen Crab Claw about 7 a.m. appear out of the right side of the blind and he went into thick undergrowth. And I followed him with the borrowed Remington 700 in .308 from my best friend. I wasn’t 100% confident in my own rifle’s accuracy, and I didn’t want to risk any shots since I have not had a lot of time to sight it in from working all the time.
Crab Claw appeared back again, nose to the ground and I squeezed off the trigger and got him. I had to get my wife to help me drag him out of the woods due to my hand injury. I returned back that afternoon in high hopes of seeing the “Bad Eye buck.” On all the trail camera pictures, this big 8-pointer’s right eye was swollen up where I think him and the stout Crab Claw had been fighting earlier that year and caused damage.
Soon as my son Ayden got out of online schooling, we started getting ready, spraying down all our clothing. We slipped into the blind, and Ayden went to sleep for a solid hour. I woke him up around 4:30 and set him up in his chair, praying “Bad Eye” would come in.
We both sat super still, listening to the squirrels. I seen a glimpse of something coming in very slowly in the thicket about 40 yards from the blind, super quiet. And I seen it was him with his nose to the ground, smelling for does. He backed out and went around the thicket and started working his way through the hardwoods shaking his rack. But he was still quiet…no loud leaves, no twigs breaking.
I told my son he came back, so I re-positioned the shooting stick and my heart started pumping hard. And every time it did, my hand did too. Soon as the buck came into a little opening, I squeezed off the trigger and he folded right there.
Me and my son hugged each other in the pure excitement. I called my buddy to drag the deer out that let me borrow his rifle and I knew we had multiple pictures of the deer but had no idea he was that big until we seen him in person.
If it wasn’t for my son asking everyday all summer “daddy when are we gonna catch a buck,” it would have not happened. Between all the cameras in Orange and Person counties we had been running weeks prior every weekend, the Person County property paid off for us.
I wanted to make sure my son could “catch his buck” as he says. I am so happy Ayden got to witness that day and it will be something me and him will remember forever. He loves the outdoors hunting & fishing more than anything, and I want him to catch the fever so it will continue. The buck was 20 inches wide and rough-scored around 150+ gross.
Thomas Lunsford, Hurdle Mills, N.C.
Be the first to comment