11-point, 150-class buck goes down to Angier hunter

Hunter had missed a nice buck two days earlier

After a string of tough breaks, Dale Morgan of Angier, NC kept his nose to the grindstone and it paid off on Nov. 10, when he mounted the tripod where he had missed a big buck two days before and redeemed himself by dropping a 205-pound Harnett County 11-point that scored 153 ¾ inches.

“My wife said, ‘You’re gonna have a tough time living this week down,’” said Morgan.

Morgan’s situation started off harmless enough. He shot two does at fairly close range recently, and even though they both dropped his shots were uncharacteristically high on both deer.

A few days later — carrying the same Remington .30-06 — he took a shot at a nice buck at 120 yards. He missed completely. Convinced the scope was off, Morgan swapped it for another 30-06 that happened to be about 4 inches shorter. Not a big deal, except that Morgan was used to his rifle protruding from the window of this box stand when he shot. The shorter barrel rested the muzzle in the center of the sill and when he angled down to shoot at another doe, the bullet grazed the wood. Another miss.

Down, but not out, Morgan went back to the bean field on the 10th where he had missed the big buck a few days prior, hoping the deer was following a pattern. This time he swapped his .30-06 for a Remington .260.

“I got in the stand around 11:20,” said Morgan. “One o’clock came and went and I hadn’t seen anything. About 45 minutes til dark, I looked up as the buck was coming out of the woods, and I could see on the other side of him that he was coming out after a doe. I bumped the pole on the tripod I was sitting in and he looked, but didn’t pay much attention to it. He just went back to following that doe. I got my shooting stick and rifle up. When I got my scope on him, I grunted to stop him, and when he stopped, I shot.”

This time, Morgan’s 140-grain Remington Core-Lokt bullet found the meat as the buck paused broadside. It ran about 60 yards back to the edge of the woods before pausing again. Morgan shucked in another shell, but the buck fell as he pulled the trigger a second time.

Hunting nearby, Morgan’s wife, Mary and his son Jessie Wise came after dark to help with the load up.

Morgan’s buck carried an inside spread of 18½ inches, with the longest tine reaching 8 inches. The left side of the rack totaled considerably more inches than the left. This, a mangled right hoof, and a right shoulder that had grown more bone than meat lead Morgan to believe the buck had been hit by a car a few years prior.