My name is Jeffrey Dale. I am from Burke County, NC but currently live in South Florida. I drove the 12-hour drive to Caswell County on Wednesday November 9th to hunt for the weekend. I arrived very late due to traffic, so I unloaded my ATV, threw my bags in the cabin and went to sleep. In the days leading up to Thursday everyone in camp was seeing bucks and a few good bucks had already been taken so I was very optimistic for the hunt. I settle in the stand and not long after daylight I see a decent buck moving thru quickly and I cannot get a clear shot, so he gets a pass. Less than 5 minutes later I spot a doe running by about 60 yards thru the timber and not far behind is a buck. He stops behind a tree, and I can’t really get a good look at him, but I can tell that he is a shooter. I only have a small opening to make a shot so I settle my crosshairs and wait to see if he will step into the opening, a few moments later he does, and I squeeze the trigger of my CVA muzzleloader.
After a few minutes I go down to search for blood and have trouble finding sign that I made a hit and started feeling a little discouraged. After a few minutes I finally find blood and wait anxiously for help tracking. We track decent blood for maybe 40 yards and then it starts to dry up. We stand in the same place for what seemed like an eternity and finally I see antlers sticking up in some very tall grass. After a few moments of starring at each other in disbelief we snapped these pictures. I had NO idea how big this buck was when I shot. We had a few pictures of this buck on camera last year and I looked at them and said, “this is the buck of a lifetime”.
This is what hunting is to me: spending time enjoying creation and spending time with friends that turn into family along the way. I made the shot of a lifetime on the buck of a lifetime. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to be by my side when this happened. This was a morning I will remember and tell stories about the rest of my life!
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