Big 8-point buck goes down in Anson County, N.C.

Eric Nance killed this big 8-point buck with a rifle he got for Christmas last year.

Christmas rifle provides another present for Anson County hunter

Eric Nance, a 29-year-old electrician from Peachland, N.C., got a rifle for Christmas last year from his father, a Remington Model 700 in .30-06.

On Black Friday, Nov. 23, that rifle brought him a “present” that might be even better.

That morning, Nance squeezed the trigger of that .30-06 and dropped a fantastic Anson County buck, a 143 4/8-inch 8-pointer with a 20 1/2-inch inside spead and 13 1/2- and 10-inch tines.

“I had a couple of trail-camera pictures of him last year,” Nance said. “He was pretty big, tall, but not as big as he was this year, and he didn’t have any brow tines.

Nance’s buck measured 143 4/8 inches.

“But I hadn’t seen him since last year. I wondered if somebody else had killed him. In fact, that morning, I heard somebody shoot, very close, at about 8 o’clock, and then I heard a 4-wheeler crank. I figured they’d gone to get him.”

Luckily, Nance was incorrect

But 30 minutes later, Nance learned better. From a box blind overlooking a soybean field next to a cutover that was logged five years ago, he saw the buck again, at 30 yards.

“He was coming out, and he ran into the bean field, right along the edge,” he said. “He wasn’t there for just a minute. I didn’t have a long time to shoot.”

Nance dropped the hammer on the buck, which lurched forward and disappeared into a low spot he couldn’t see.

“He fell in a spot that I couldn’t see from the box. I was worried that he’d kept going,” he said. “I stayed in that box for an hour before I went out to look for him.”

Nance found the buck with no problem. He had shot it through the shoulder and the shoulder closest to Nance was shattered. The buck was dead, 30 yards from the spot of the shot.

Rifle wasn’t only present from dad

Nance joked that not only was his father responsible for giving him the rifle, he felt like he played an even bigger role.

“I had a corn pile out, and the day before when I hunted, I wasn’t going to put out any more corn. But my dad said I should put out some more corn. I did, and he’s taking credit for it,” Nance joked.

About Dan Kibler 887 Articles
Dan Kibler is the former managing editor of Carolina Sportsman Magazine. If every fish were a redfish and every big-game animal a wild turkey, he wouldn’t ever complain. His writing and photography skills have earned him numerous awards throughout his career.