Friday the 13th was plenty lucky for Asheboro hunter

Hunter gets lucky in cow pasture with huge 10-point buck

A lot of people consider Friday the 13th an unlucky day, but don’t sell that superstition to Cody Caviness of Asheboro. On Friday, Dec. 13, the 22-year-old construction superintendent bagged his career-best whitetail. It has a nearly-perfect 5×5 rack that’s been scored at 1691/8 inches by Denton taxidermist Tommy Freeman.

The Caviness family leases a 364-acre farm where they hunt deer each fall and winter.

“I was hunting a cow pasture,” Caviness said. “I noticed deer coming out of a creek bottom to eat pasture grass, so I put a stand in a tree in the pasture.”

That would prove noteworthy, because some of the cows and a donkey behind him attracted the attention of a huge buck that day.

“He came out of the woods and was standing at the edge lookin’ right at me, but he was paying attention to the cows and the donkey and didn’t know I was there,” Caviness said. “I had an awesome shot.”

The buck was only 50 yards from Caviness, who was 15 feet high in a ladder stand propped against an oak tree. He raised his dad’s .30-06 and shot the buck in the neck; it fell in its tracks.

The big buck had brow tines that were 7½ inches long, while the longest tines were 13½ and 13 inches long with sweeping main beams of 25½ and 25 inches that nearly touch at the tips.

Considering the day, Caviness only could shake his head.

“Friday the 13th,” he said. “My luck usually runs the other way.”