Rabbit hunt was stroke of luck that put Person County hunter on huge buck

Craig Hester's huge 10-point buck fell on Nov. 27, just four days after he hung a stand to take advantage of sign he'd discovered while rabbit hunting.

Tremendous 10-point buck may score in low 160s

A rabbit hunt turned out to be one of the best days ever spent afield for Craig Hester of Person County, because it put him in the right spot to kill a huge 10-point buck on Nov. 25 that may score in the low 160s.

“I went hunting with some friends opening day of rabbit season (Nov. 22),” he said. “We went into a cutover on the back side of the property that had three or four draws I’d scouted (for deer) a couple weeks earlier and hadn’t seen any tracks. But when we were rabbit hunting, I found two white oaks and reds oaks that’d dropped a bunch of acorns, and I also saw some wrist-size rubs.”

The next day, Hester and his sons, Carson and Hayden, attached a climbing stand to a sweet gum tree near the rub line.

On a windy Nov. 27, Hester returned, ratcheted his stand 20 feet up the trunk of the tree and sat down about 3:30 p.m.

“When I walked in, I blew out several deer I couldn’t see, but I said, ‘What the heck, I’m going to the stand anyway,’” Hester said.

Forty-five minutes later, a 5-point buck chased three does in front of him. The buck kept looking to its right, up a hill. A few seconds later, two does came down the hill, and one ran through an opening in a blow down.

“The buck was after her, and I just had time to get my rifle (a Remington .25-06) aimed at the hole when he stepped through 50 yards away, and I shot him in the boiler,” Hester said.

The buck’s antlers, an almost perfect 5×5 mainframe, featured 4-inch circumferences from the base to the G3s. The G2s were 11 inches long, with the G3s at 10 ½ inches.

 “It’s my second-best deer, after a 214-inch non-typical I got in Ohio,” Hester said.

About Craig Holt 1382 Articles
Craig Holt of Snow Camp has been an outdoor writer for almost 40 years, working for several newspapers, then serving as managing editor for North Carolina Sportsman and South Carolina Sportsman before becoming a full-time free-lancer in 2009.