Hunter filled bear tag to make room for big buck
It almost took the entire season for Person County’s Phillip Scott to have a face-to-face encounter with a monster 11-pointer donning a drop tine, but Scott finally killed the deer on Dec. 13 on an early afternoon hunt.
Throughout the season, every time Scott finally got the deer where he wanted him, something would go wrong, from deer hounds disrupting the woods to a massive black bear monopolizing his stand site.
From two weeks before the season started until judgment day, Scott and the 11-pointer played a cat-and-mouse game.
“When the season came in, he would show up on camera all over our property. He was bedding in three to four different locations around our property,” Scott said. “I kept an eye on him and would only hunt him depending on what he was doing. I didn’t want to put extra pressure on him and run him off.”
As soon as he started getting daylight photos of the deer, he would make plans to go after the deer. Then, something would go wrong.
“He disappeared for a couple of weeks after some hunting dogs got released on our property on the first Sunday evening of the gun season. Then, when he finally started showing back up on camera again during the day, a black bear showed up and ran him and all of our deer off,” Scott said.
Luckily, the bear season was in and Scott took action. He filled his bear tag, clearing the way for the buck’s return.
In short order, the drop tine buck started coming back during daylight hours. With only two weeks of the season left and a cold front coming through, Scott knew this was probably going to be his last shot.
“I took off a half day and checked my camera. He had been in there that morning, and I knew the afternoon would be a good time to hunt him,” Scott said.
Scott pulled out all the stops on this day to make it happen. The wind was not in his favor, but Scott used his Ozonics Scent Elimination System paired with Conquest Scents’ Rutting Buck attractant. And at 4:13 that afternoon, Scott drilled the drop tine buck from 30 yards out with his Tikka .30-06 rifle.
“He was trailing a doe down the ridge and the Rutting Buck attractant in front of my stand pulled him off the doe and brought him right to me,” he said.
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