The 5×5 mainframe buck green-scored 157 4/8 inches
Cody Triplett of Sparta, N.C. killed a huge Alleghany County monster buck on Nov. 6. The mainframe 5×5 buck has been green-scored at 157 4/8 inches. Triplett killed the buck from a tree stand 35 feet above the ground in a 200-year-old oak tree with his Mathews VXR compound bow.
The hunter took vacation for the final week of bow season in North Carolina’s Northwestern Zone. Up until Nov. 6, he’d seen several better-than-average 8-pointers. But strange incidents kept him from releasing an arrow on any of them.
“To start my vacation Oct. 30, I rattled in the (big) buck. But he was looking for a fight, didn’t see anything, and pushed off 50 yards past me into a bedding area,” he said. “I didn’t see him again until Friday (Nov. 6).
“I spent the week watching bucks chase does through a pasture between two V-shape ridges, both with edges that were bedding areas. I decided to hang a Hawk Loc-On stand at the edge of a bedding area. But I bumped a fawn, and also didn’t like I couldn’t put the stand higher than 8 feet off the ground.”
At another stand, he passed up a problematic shot at an 8-point buck. The next evening, he watched a bigger 8-point buck chase does 70 yards from him. Friday morning, he was ready to release an arrow at the same deer when his bow rubbed against the tree, making a sound that spooked the whitetail.
Alleghany County monster shows up again
Frustrated, Triplett decided to try again the ancient oak he’d hunted from on Oct. 30.
“Deer travel ridge tops to find what acorns are left,” he said.
He found a good spot for his stand, 35 feet up, but by 5 p.m., he hadn’t seen as much as a squirrel. The weather was hot, and he texted a buddy, saying he was ready to end the hunt.
“He told me to hang on five more minutes,” he said.
And at 5:10, the hunt took a 180-degree turn.
When he saw movement down the ridge’s west slope, Triplett raised his binoculars and saw the same deer that’d walked by him Oct. 30. This time, the buck followed a trail toward him, headed for the pasture below the ridge’s east side.
“I’d already packed my stuff to leave,” he said. “I was digging through my bag, looking for my range-finder, making lots of noise. But the buck didn’t hear or scent me because of the west wind.”
Twenty-five yards from Triplett’s perch, a fallen locust tree had crunched a cattle fence line. He knew the deer would cross there.
When the buck reached that spot, Triplett released an Apollo Archery carbon arrow, tipped with a B3 ExoSkeletal Destrukt broadhead. It passed through both the buck’s lungs.
“As soon as he crossed the fence, he caught my ground scent and stopped,” the hunter said.
But the arrow was already on its way.
“It was game over then,” he said. “He ran 25 yards back up the trail and fell.”
________________________
Bag-A-Buck
Congratulations to Triplett, who is now entered in our Bag-A-Buck contest, making 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.
Be the first to comment