Buck tricked the hunter one too many times
For Jacob Miles of Statesville, N.C., a chilly December morning brought him the perfect conditions and the biggest buck of his life, a 159-inch mainframe 9-pointer. For years, Miles has hunted Iredell County always hoping for a big buck to show up on his stand and just after the opening day of the N.C.’s Northwestern Deer Archery Season, the massive buck appeared.
“He showed up on camera in early bow season,” Miles said. “He was by far the biggest buck I had ever seen on my hunting land.”
Miles hunted every chance he got, but never saw the buck during daylight, and neither did his trail camera until Dec. 3 when Miles decided to work instead of sitting in the tree stand.
“He came in at 7:45 a.m. that morning when I was at work, and I was mad,” he said.
After putting in countless hours, only to have the deer finally show up on a day he wasn’t there, had Miles frustrated and upset. But it caused him to make a decision that led to him killing the buck.
“After I got that picture of him that morning, I told myself that I was going to hunt him every chance I got and I hoped he would make that same mistake again,” he said.
On Dec. 1, Miles checked his camera, which had captured a few photos of the buck on his stand with a doe just before the crack of day. The next morning, he was ready.
Miles slipped in the stand just a few minutes after daybreak on Dec. 2. It was just light enough he could see, and the corn pile was empty. After sitting in the stand for 20 minutes, something caught Miles’ attention out of the corner of his eye.
“It was him, but it was too thick to shoot,” he said.
Fortunately the deer was working his way down heading to the corn pile. And when the deer finally got into the clear at 30 yards, Miles grunted to stop him.
“When I grunted, he looked right at me and I shot him right in the shoulder,” he said.
The Remington Model 770 .308 did the trick and brought the deer down after a 50-yard dash through thick brush.
“He is the biggest buck I have ever shot by far, and I was glad to have gotten him,” he said.
James Tomberlin, N.C. WRC District 7 Mgmt. Biologist, preliminarily-scored Miles’ deer at 159 inches.
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