First-year hunter kills the Beast
This is my son Eli Cox’s first year of deer hunting. Before the season began we prepped the area we were going to hunt in Randolph County, N.C. Shortly after putting up trail cameras we started seeing this tall 9-pointer and Eli named him the “Beast.”
On opening day of gun season, Eli shot his first deer which was a heavy-horned 7-pointer. Eli said that his goal was still to take down the beast. We continued to see him on the trail cameras but never laid eyes on him. Then the weekend of Thanksgiving, we saw him for the first time. Before Eli could get a clear shot he was spooked off by a passing coyote.
He returned that evening but due to low light conditions Eli said that he couldn’t make a confident shot. So he decided to pass on him. The next morning we spotted him across the wheat field at about 200 yards. He had his nose to the ground on the trail of a doe. Despite our best efforts to pull him off of her trail we were unsuccessful. We continued to hunt that area with only trail camera picture sightings.
But on Dec. 12 all that would change
That afternoon we got back in the box stand that is in the edge of the woods overlooking a wheat field. As the afternoon went on, three does came out into the edge of the field. We looked across the field and spotted the “Beast” at about 200 yards. Where he was at, Eli was not able to shoot. He seemed to show no interest in coming any closer until a young 6-pointer, that the “Beast” had been fighting with on camera, joined the does.
When the mature 9-pointer saw him he came charging across the field to run the younger buck out of his territory. That brought him right into Eli’s crosshairs at approximately 20 yards. I was in the stand just telling Eli to stay calm and breathe. I said when you get the crosshairs on him take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger. When the 30-30 echoed in the shooting house, the buck kicked like a mule and ran across the field behind us and we lost sight of him.
Eli said “Oh I know I hit him; I had the crosshairs dead on him.” He was overwhelmed with excitement but the first thing he had to do was call his mom. When we came down out of the stand we immediately found blood at the spot he was shot.
We followed the trail of blood for just a few steps when we could see the deer laying in the field. When Eli got his hands on him he let out a scream of pure joy. We hugged and high-fived until his mom and our good friend (also the land owner) showed up to help us haul Eli’s trophy to the truck. As Eli’s dad, being able to see his hard work and dedication at achieving his goal, I couldn’t be more proud of my son. Another good friend of ours green-scored the deer at 142 5/8.
–Eric Cox, Asheboro, N.C.
Bag-A-Buck
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