Young girl makes two perfect shots on the monster buck during deer drive.
Rabbit hunters count on their beagles to run bunnies in a big circle, with their quarry eventually returning to the area from which it was originally flushed.
When Pelion’s Liz Richburg killed a beautiful 10-point buck on the last day of the season (Jan. 1), it was sort of the same deal. The beagles were replaced by relatives driving the deer, and the 140-class buck she killed returned to the spot it was first observed – 10 weeks later.
“On our family land in Newberry, man drives are an annual end-of-deer-season event,” the 14-year-old Liz Richburg said. “Usually in the morning we still-hunt, and then do the drive afterwards.”
Liz Richburg still-hunted overlooking a trail through some thick woods where her uncle Eddie Richburg had gotten some trail-camera photos of a large 10-point buck in October.
“We never got any other photos, saw any tracks or ever saw this deer,” Eddie Richburg said.
When mid-morning arrived and Liz, her father Scott, cousin Marshall, Eddie and grandfather Ed started driving, Marshall took two does on the first drive.
For the second drive, Liz Richburg was back on the stand she’d hunted that morning, within shouting distance of her grandfather. Her cousin and father had driving duty, with her uncle taking a stand.
“I dropped Liz off in the middle of the two worn-down paths,” Scott Richburg said. “She was standing in a small road that was grown up on both sides to her left. In front of her, it was no more than 10 yards to the wood line, with pines and thick undergrowth.
“Those paths were narrow coming out of that thick brush; I told her if a deer came down those paths to aim down them and start shooting.”
It didn’t take long for the action to begin.
Marshall Richburg bumped a couple of deer, and they first ran past his father, who killed a doe but didn’t get a good-enough look at the buck that turned and headed through the woods away from him – directly toward Liz.
Carrying a 12-gauge Remington 870 pump shotgun with 3-inch buckshot loads, Liz heard the chase and looked up to see the big buck right in front of her.
“He was coming from my left and going to my right,” she said. “He was running, then stopping and looking around. He got to the path on my right and stopped again.
“When he got to the path and stopped, I could see his rack. Through the narrow path he looked like a 6-point.”
The buck seemed unconcerned, although apparently was aware of Liz’s presence.
“He stopped and was staring right at me,” Liz explained. “I took off the safety, aimed at his chest and shot.
“He turned and started to run back to my left. He only got a couple of yards, and then I shot my second shot. He stumbled and only went about 10 more yards.”
Liz got out her cell phone and called her father, and just about the same time, her cousin arrived, took a look at the buck and knew it was the big one from the trail-cam photos. He called Scott Richburg on his walkie-talkie and gave him the good news.
“I heard my Daddy running as fast as he could; I never saw him run that fast in my whole life,” Liz Richburg said. “With the biggest smile on his face, he got to the deer before I could.
“He said he was about to have a heart attack he was so excited. He was so happy that he tried to take a picture with the walkie-talkie.”
There was good reason for Scott Richburg’s excitement. The buck, which fell 50 yards from the spot where it had posed for trail-cam photos back in October, weighed 170 pounds and carried a 10-point rack with a 21-inch inside spread.
Taxidermist Danny Miller of Monetta green scored the buck at 140 inches gross and 134 inches net, well above the minimum for inclusion in the South Carolina record books.
“Not only was this Liz’s first buck, but horn-wise it was the biggest deer ever taken on this farm and the biggest deer ever taken by any of us,” Eddie Richburg said.
Scott Richburg was an obviously proud papa.
“Liz had shown more and more interest in hunting (this year),” he said. “Earlier in the season, Liz and I stalked up some hogs and she took a 100-pound boar at my hunting club in Eastover. Every other weekend, Liz would hunt with me, and as the season went on, she seemed to grow more and more as a hunter. I started letting her sit by herself.
“I am proud of Liz, and not just for her big buck. She made not one, but two perfect shots on the deer. She stayed where I put her until someone got there. She unloaded her weapon and made sure the safety was on. She did everything right on this hunt, and it paid off with an awesome buck.”
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