18-point buck goes down before the hunt even started

McLaurin Quick of Bennettsville, S.C. killed this big buck before he even started hunting on Nov. 8, 2018.

Mainframe 8-pointer had lots of stickers and kickers

McLaurin Quick of Bennettsville, S.C. was planning on getting into the woods a little early on Nov. 8 to work on a stand before hunting that evening, but he never made it out of his driveway before killing a mainframe 8-point buck that had a total of 18 scoreable points.

“I was trying to go hunting, but I never made it,” he said.

Quick and a friend were heading out of his driveway at 3:30 p.m. to do a little deer stand maintenance before hunting another part of his 200 acre farm when they saw what appeared to be a big buck standing several hundred yards away in the open field next to his house. They stopped and got out of the truck.

“My gun was in the back so I just grabbed my buddy’s which was closer. Plus, he’s made some pretty long distance shots with it, so I thought it would be a better choice,” said Quick, who eased his way to a tractor in his yard and used its front weight rack to prop the rifle on.

“I was kind of nervous because I’d never shot at such a nice deer, or at any deer from that distance, but I calmed down and put the crosshairs above the deer’s back and pulled the trigger. I clean missed it. It just stood there. It wasn’t bothered by the sound at all. A doe was standing right there with him, and she didn’t move either,” said Quick.

“I calmed myself down again and this time I put the crosshairs right on the deer’s back and fired. I missed it again, and the deer still didn’t move. This time, I put the crosshairs right on the deer and as soon as I pulled the trigger, you could hear it hit. My buddy said ‘you got him,’ and the deer dropped immediately.

“Then it jumped up, ran about 20 yards, and fell dead. When we got to it, the doe was bedded down right there with it. She jumped up and ran off when we got there,” he said.

They measured the distance of Quick’s shot at 325 yards with a rangefinder. And even though Quick had never encountered this deer while hunting before, he did capture a trail camera photo of it last year.

“You can tell his rack gained a lot of mass since last year. The rack is big and thick, but it’s got a lot of deductions. I mean a whole lot. It’s got 18 total points, but it’s got kickers and stickers all over it, and a lot of it is all knobby especially around the base. The taxidermist Heath Rayfield green-scored it at 137 with the deductions. I’m happy with that. I’ve killed some decent deer, but I’ve never killed a deer like this before and probably never will again,” he said.

Quick believes the rut has a lot to do with his success at killing this deer.

“You’re not going to see a deer like that, standing in a wide open field in the middle of the day unless he’s after a doe. But it just goes to show that no matter how smart they are, they’re going to slip up and make a mistake one day. You’ve just got to take advantage of it when it happens, because it doesn’t happen often.”

About Brian Cope 2726 Articles
Brian Cope is the editor of Carolina Sportsman. He has won numerous awards for his writing, photography, and videography. He is a retired Air Force combat communications technician, and has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of South Carolina. You can reach him at brianc@sportsmannetwork.com.

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