13-year-old wins August Bag A Buck

8-point buck was in full velvet

Sarah Thompson of Florence, SC is the winner of the Carolina Sportsman Bag A Buck Contest for the month of August.

The 13-year-old shot the deer at 6:30 a.m., and the 8-point buck, which weighed 165 pounds, is her first deer ever. She killed it with a 90-yard shot from a 7mm-08 Mossberg while sitting in an elevated stand.

It wasn’t just any hunt. Although she comes from a hunting family and watched her great-grandfather, grandfather, uncle, mother and father go hunting in her early years, she was dealt a set of unfortunate cards.

At 5-years-old, Thompson’s mom passed away. Then at 11, she lost her father in an ATV accident. She was fortunate enough to hunt with her dad a handful of times before he died, but none of those hunts produced deer.

After having no interest in hunting for some time, she decided to go this year, with her adoptive mom’s boyfriend, John Howle. And the night before the hunt, Howle told her to ask God and her daddy to send her a buck.

Thompson wasn’t thrilled about waking up at 4 a.m. for the hunt, but she did it, and headed to the woods around 4:40. About a mile down the road, a thunderstorm began raging. She and Howle decided they would stick to the plan, and they sat in the truck waiting for the thunder and lightning to subside. They finally got in the stand at 6 a.m.

They quickly saw two bucks on the corn pile, and at 6:38, they were calling Sarah’s mom, Anna.

“They said she shot and hit, but the deer ran,” said Anna. “They went looking for the deer. John said each deer ran opposite ways. He walked to an old logging path and found the deer. Sure enough, her daddy was looking out for her, and sent a buck she’ll always remember,” she said.