Late start doesn’t stop hunter from killing biggest buck of his life
Glen Lampley of Cheraw was late getting in the stand on election day. Late enough that he heard another hunter shoot in the near distance. But that didn’t stop him from killing the biggest buck of his life, a 140-class 8-point buck with an 18-inch inside spread.
Just after getting into the stand, Lampley had deer to the left, deer to the right, and he said he began to feel like a bobblehead with trying to watch all the action around him. And before long, he got a text from a friend telling him he’d already killed a nice buck, which is the shot Lampley heard while walking to his stand.
Still, he didn’t see any shooters in the bunch, but all the action kept him interested and he remained hopeful.
Lampley almost didn’t get a shot at his trophy at all. With a “biggest doe” contest going on at his hunt club, he thought about pulling the trigger on a big doe before he saw the buck.
“I looked to my right and at 50 yards, a real nice doe was walking straight towards the stand. So I began to size her up for my club’s biggest doe contest. Then she stopped and looked behind her – a telltale sign that something is following her,” Lampley said.
Lampley’s had a clear view for 175 yards in the direction the doe had come from, so he took a look, and saw what he was there for.
“The biggest buck of my 36-year hunting career walked out. I’ve seen and killed some nice deer over my career, but I didn’t need binoculars to tell me that I was looking at a true buck of a lifetime,” he said.
But Lampley couldn’t resist taking a look with his binoculars, and that’s when something happened that he said hasn’t in a very long time.
“When I did look at him through the binoculars, I began to slightly shake, something I haven’t done in years,” he said.
Lampley began to worry the doe would blow his cover, or do something to alert the buck, but he felt better about shooting the buck at a closer distance than it currently was, so he was patient.
“I began to worry she would wind me, or make some sudden movement to blow the deal. The buck was very cautious. He was facing me straight on and began to move in my direction. He walked until he was at 75 yards. I thought for a moment I could take him with my Ruger Super Redhawk .44 mag, which I have killed several does with. It’s scoped with a 2×6 Bushnell and I felt confident I could take him with it,” he said.
But that would mean switching guns, which Lampley thought was too risky.
“I made the best decision to just slowly raise my .25-06, put the cross hairs on his lower neck, and slowly squeezed the trigger,” he said.
The buck dropped in its tracks, and Lampley took a moment to reflect on his hunt, and hunting career.
“I was sitting just upriver, maybe a mile, from the spot on the Great Pee Dee River in Chesterfield County where my hunting career started at 11 years old. And I was thinking, now at 47, I have just killed the biggest buck of my life,” he said.
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