Ive hunted alot in my life and filled countless tags, but believe it or not ive never killed a buck untill this one. Not even a button buck. Ive shot at a few, and clearly missed. But ive only shot at mature bucks. And mature does for that matter. I eat what I kill and I figure if im gunna put in the work to process the meat. I want the most meat yield possible. So i shoot the biggest ive got. I hunted this buck hard all bow season. I knew all the neighbors were looking for him too. My wife owns a little 8 acre slot where we usually hunt thats full of white pines and I knew the deer liked them for cover. I seen this buck once in the stand but it was to late in the evening to make a shot. Then after that night, I had him on camera 2 more times then This buck disappeared mid october so I thought someone got him. I still continued to hunt him cause just cause they aint on camera dont mean they aint in there, but either way, never seen him. I took my wife hunting up there on opening day of rifle season. She made me take my rifle too cause she told me she wouldn’t shoot that buck if it showed up cause she knew how hard I hunted it. We go, set from daylight till about 11am. Seen a few deer and some young bucks, went to stand up to go get some food and she said there’s a good buck coming from the pines. Me, halfway stood up from our makeshift ground blind on the bank of this valley, see that it was him. The last thing in there was a lone doe and she must have been hot cause he came in with that nose going crazy, down on the ground, up in the air licking his nose non stop. I reached down and grabbed the rifle threw it up on him and that was all she wrote. Got a amazing memory with my wife, and my 1st ever buck.
Hunter’s name: Blake Hicks
Newland NC
Avery, NC
11/2024
9-point buck
