I wasn’t even planning to go hunting that day, but I’m sure glad I changed my mind. The wind was perfect, the woods were still, and everything just felt right.
I was sitting there with my daddy’s Christensen Arms .308 with a Schmidt & Bender — the same one he carried before he passed in August of ’24. Just me, the quiet, and that gun that still feels like his hands are on it.
I was halfway scrolling on my phone, looking up every now and then, when out of nowhere — there he stood. A solid 10-point, 150 pound buck. I waited, watched him settle, and when the moment lined up just right — I laid him down with a neck shot at 100 yards.
He dropped next to the corn pile like time stopped. Fifteen minutes later, four does walked out like nothing had happened.
It was calm. Peaceful. Like Daddy was right there beside me. I know he’d be proud.
Hunter’s name: Natalie Packer
Lake View South Carolina
Dillon
10-9-2025
10-point buck
