Dedicated Carolina Sportsman Magazine reader pops 163-inch giant buck

Hunter gave buck plenty of space until the time was right

For over four decades, David Andrews of Alamance County, N.C. has beaten the bushes after good bucks. While he has taken dozens of respectable bucks over his hunting career, nothing compares to the 163-inch, 12-point giant he drilled at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 26. And he credits his recent success to an article he and his son Tyler Carrick read in Carolina Sportsman Magazine.

“My son, Tyler and I have started letting them walk until they mature,” Andrews said. “But, I read a recent article in the Sportsman Magazine about controlling scent when a big buck is around.”

Andrews is referring to “Keep Bucks in the Dark,” an article written by Jeff Burleson in the September 2017 issue of Carolina Sportsman Magazine explaining how Hartsville’s TC Lloyd never sits on a recently discovered big deer until the wind was favorable. Lloyd also explained his extreme scent control measures like waiting to don his hunting clothes and boots until he gets in the woods. And that is exactly what Andrews did, but it took most of the season for a favorable wind to become available where Andrews could pursue a certain big buck he had on camera.

“Tyler and I had this deer on camera early in the season and I didn’t hunt the stand all year because I didn’t have a northwest wind. Then, my wife, (Georgia Andrews) told me they were calling for a northwest wind and I would finally get a chance to go after this buck.”

Andrews wasn’t entirely sure the deer was still frequenting the spot because he hadn’t gone back in there to check his camera for quite some time. But, he and his son felt good about the next morning due to the time of the year.

“The rut was in and we felt the deer would be moving good the next morning,” Andrews said.

Overlooking a white oak forest where large acorns were piled up all over the ground, Andrews knew the does would be in there feeding, giving this buck a good reason to show up. And at 8:30 that morning, the buck came out trailing a doe, and making a fatal stop 30 yards from Andrews’ ladder stand. Andrews pulled up his Remington 700 .30-06 and dropped the 12-point buck in his tracks.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime buck and a dream come true. Tyler told me right after we got him on camera that if we killed that deer, it would be in the Sportsman Magazine,” he said.

Levi Tussey of Driftwood Taxidermy green scored Andrews’ buck at 163 3/8 inches with an 18 4/8-inch inside spread.

“I have been hunting all my life and I am 52-years-old. The magazine articles have changed the way we hunt. It’s still about being in the right place at the right time, but the information we gather from the magazine makes my hunts better,” he said.