I got into my hilltop blind that overlooks about a half acre of wheat that is surrounded on 3 sides by thicket about 3:30pm. The distance to the edge of the wheat field from my blind is about 50yds. I had been seeing some smaller 8 and 6 pointers chasing does around but I hadn’t seen any shooters nor had I seen any nice deer on my trail cams. I have a good herd of does and they were cycling into season so I had been keeping an eye on them. Around 4:pm a small doe walked out into the middle of the wheat patch and started grazing, I didn’t think much of it. After about 10 minutes she started walking around in a small circle waving her flag around and looking back into the thicket from the direction she entered the field. It wasn’t long before I spotted the buck moving through the thicket at he back of the field to my left and entering a hollow. I could tell he had some nice tines but I couldn’t see him very well in the thicket. I got my gun positioned where I thought he might come out on the left side of the field if he moved towards the doe. I also had a shooting lane to my left at the top of the hollow he had entered so I was having to watch the shooting lane along with the field. I caught some movement in the trees near the shooting lane to my left but it ended up being a squirrel. When I looked back down the hill the buck had stepped out about a body length into the field and was looking at the doe. I made up my mind to shoot him as my scope was coming up but before I could get the crosshair on him he turned and was stepping back into the woods going just about straight away from me. Several thoughts of “he’s gonna get away” ran through my head during the 3 or 4 seconds I had before he disappeared into the woods but then my crosshair settled on the back of his neck at the base of his spine and I touched the shot off from my Remington Model 700 bolt action 7mm-08 Buckmaster edition on my ballistic pillow rest. The buck disappeared when I shot and I was like what happened but then I saw his rump in the leaves on the edge of the field, he had pretty much dropped in his tracks. I hurried down to the deer who was moving his head a little and wasn’t dead so I dispatched him with another shot. The deer was 75 yards from me when I took the shot. The next day I pulled the cards from my trail cams all around the farm and couldn’t believe that buck did not show up on a single camera. It just goes to show you that during the rut a nice buck can pop out at anytime whether you think he is there or not.
Hunter’s name: Dennis Paschal
Wentworth North Carolina
Rockingham County, NC
11-17-29
10-point buck
