13-point buck was a surprise to the Thomasville hunter
If a 2020 trophy-buck story didn’t have a strange twist, it’d be the exception to the rule.
So here’s one with the only non-surprise that the deer was killed in Guilford County, which has cranked out plenty of big-rack bucks.
The final result was Nathan McGee’s 13-pointer with a green-scored gross non-typical rack that totaled 162 1/8 Pope&Young inches, arrowed Sept. 13, the second day of 2020 archery season. Joey Thompson, the state’s top P&Y scorer, put a tape on the buck’s antlers.
But the story of how McGee arrowed the 13-pointer isn’t mundane.
“I hadn’t set any trail cameras because I’d put in a lot of time at a new Person County lease,” the Thomasville, N.C. native said.
At that property in north-central N.C., McGee had killed several big eight-pointers and had hunting rights from the farmer-landowner.
“He told me (in 2019) the place where I planned to hunt again would be a soybean field,” the 40-year-old said. “But he planted tobacco.”
Moving to another hunting area led to 13-point buck
As a result, the fire-sprinkler service technician had to forget about his pre-season scouting notes and find another hunting area.
“I went back to my roots to hunt the same place I’d been going to in Guilford,” he said.
In effect, McGee had to play the hand of deuces he was dealt.
“When acorns started falling, I began seeing deer,” he said.
He placed a stand near a creek bottom with nearby white oaks, climbed into a tree and waited for events to unfold.
Starting at 5 p.m. on Sept. 13, two does and three small bucks intermittently visited McGee’s bait pile.
While watching a small five-point buck, the hunter noticed a large-bodied deer pacing in thick pines.
“I could see its hams, but not if it was a buck or doe,” McGee said. “Then it turned toward the corn and I saw the rack.”
Raising his Hoyt Pro Defiant compound bow, the archer saw a tree limb 15 yards from his arrow’s broadhead and 30 yards from the buck. When he put his sight pin behind the deer’s shoulder, it centered the limb.
“I had to squat down so my butt touched my ankles,” he said.
Hunter thought he missed the buck at first
But as the straining hunter attached his release to the bow string, the 13-point buck heard the click and jumped back.
“He was standing 30 yards away when I released the arrow,” he said. “It was about 5:15 p.m.”
The Easton FMJ, tipped with a Rage expandable two-blade business end, found its mark behind the buck’s left shoulder. But McGee was worried.
“I thought I’d missed him,” he said. “I hit him a little high and he ran toward the creek bottom.”
After waiting 30 minutes before descending, the hunter called his dad, Hank McGee, who arrived between 6:30 and 7 p.m. The elder McGee, with both hunters using flashlights, followed a small blood trail that looped around the hill 120 yards toward the buck’s bedding area where they found the expired deer lying in a grass cluster.
The rack’s left side has four major tines that match the right side, but a thick drop tine near its end and three unmatched abnormal points, while the left beam has six tines. The asymmetry contributed to 22 5/8 inches of deductions from the rack’s gross green score for a 139 4/8 net non-typical total.
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Bag-A-Buck
Congratulations to McGee, who is now entered in our Bag-A-Buck contest. This makes him eligible for a number of great prizes. That includes the grand prize, a two-day, two-man hunt at Cherokee Run Hunting Lodge. Click here to view the Bag-A-Buck gallery or to enter the contest yourself.
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