Ehrhardt taxidermist kills monster buck in Colleton County

12-point buck green-scored 156 inches

Taxidermist Jeremy Bessinger of Ehrhardt, S.C., gets to see plenty of his customers’ big bucks, but he’s got an awfully enjoyable task ahead of him this fall — mounting a monster of his own.

Bessinger, who runs Three Mile Creek Taxidermy in his hometown, killed a Colleton County giant on Oct. 25, whistling the buck to a stop, then taking him with a 110-yard shot after he followed a yearling, a doe and another buck into a food plot.

Bessinger’s huge, main-frame 6×6 carried one kicker point, and with several tines longer than 10 inches, it green-scored 156 inches.

“I was invited to hunt with my friend, Carl Middleton, (last) Tuesday, after he sat on Monday and saw several deer, including a large buck that he couldn’t distinguish the size,” Bessinger said.

Middleton had trail-camera photos of the buck Bessinger killed for the past three years, but the buck was mostly nocturnal and was only caught on camera once last December.

“We knew he was going to be hard to find, but this buck was tops on our hit list.” Bessinger said.

“We got in our stands around 5:30 p.m. Around 6:30, I noticed a yearling come into the food plot,” he said. “A second or so later, a doe came trotting out, with an 8-point chasing her. The buck never presented a shot and chased her off into the creek bottom.

“I saw movement to my left in the edge of the pines I was sitting in. I glassed it with my binoculars and realized it was the buck Carl and I had trail-cam photos of.”

The buck was on the move as Bessinger put down his binoculars and picked up his rifle, so he whistled loudly, and the buck came to a halt.

One shot from his Winchester Model 70 in .270 WSM put an end to the three-year game of hide-and-seek, and Bessinger had his best buck ever.

“My previous best was a 10-point, 144-inch velvet buck I killed in 2008,” he said. “Originally, as many hunters, I started out just wanting to take a decent buck and dreaming of killing a true giant. As the years passed, my standards grew in search of more mature deer and the challenge of taking an old buck.”