Everett Reemes, a 63-year-old semi-retired cattle farmer, owns about 100 head of cows he tends at his Buncombe County farm north of Asheville.
He also usually takes time each year to hunt deer with his son, Jimmy, who is a taxidermist.
Reemes’ son has prepared mounts of animals “from all over the U.S. and other countries,” he said.
But Jimmy Reemes also said he didn’t expect he’d be working on a shoulder mount for a deer killed by his dad this past season, a buck that surpasses any whitetail he’s ever mounted, even those from Canada.
The date was Nov. 22, and the weather was warm in the mountains for that time of year, with the temperature in the 60s.
“I was hunting on one side of a mountain from where Jimmy was at,” said the elder Reemes, a former logger and carpenter. “He was on the top of the hill, and I was down in the valley, hunting the edge of a pasture.”
Everett Reemes, who has never been in a tree stand and always hunts from the ground, said he’d seen a small 4-pointer that morning but, “we don’t shoot anything small, so I had walked back to my truck and had put my gun (a 40-year-old, .30-06 Remington pump rifle) in his truck,” he said.
“I could see Jimmy up on the side of the ridge in a pasture about 400 to 500 yards away. He was coming out, too, because it was about 11:30 a.m., but I think he might have spooked the doe and the buck when he started walking toward his truck. I don’t think he could see them, but I know I could. I could see the buck had a good rack on his head, even just eye-balling him (no binoculars).”
Reemes said he first saw the buck “a far piece up on the side of the mountain, chasing a doe. I watched him breed her twice before he got close enough to me (to shoot).”
At a distance of about 200 yards – “or a little more” – Reemes said, he took aim with his rifle, looking through the Redfield 3×9 scope mounted on top. Then he pulled the trigger.
“I didn’t get excited,” he said. “I thought I’d done missed that buck.”
His son knew better.
“Dad later said he thought he’d missed the deer, but I knew he hadn’t because I heard the bullet thwack when it hit the buck,” Jimmy Reemes said. “Dad was so sure he’d missed he didn’t even go look for the deer but went on to feed his cows.”
Later the elder Reeves saw his son jumping up and down on the side of the mountain and waving his arms.
“I thought something was wrong with him,” Everett Reemes said. “He was havin’ a fit.”
Earlier, his son had thought his father was having trouble because “I could seem him fumbling in his truck. He even tooted the (truck’s) horn trying to get his gun out.”
The buck’s 5×5 rack gross scores 175 1/8 inches (164 5/8 net) and includes a split brow tine (a 4/8-inch abnormal point). It has 10 4/8 total inches of deductions.
The main beams are 27 5/8 and 27 4/8 inches (left and right sides, respectively), with the left side circumferences measuring 5 6/8, 4 4/8, 4 6/8 and 4 inches. The tines are 8, 9 4/8, 11 and 3 inches. On the right side, the circumferences are 5 6/8, 4 4/8, 4 4/8 and 3 6/8 inches with the tines totaling 6 3/8, 11, 10 6/8 and 1 inches.
The outside spread was 23 5/8 inches with the inside spread 21 7/8 inches. The tip-to-tip total was 13 4/8 inches.
“It’s still my best buck, and I’ve killed several nice ones,” Everett Reemes said.
Reemes’ son said he’d have a shoulder mount prepared of his father’s trophy. He isn’t sure if it will be taken to the Dixie Deer Classic.
“Dad’s such a low-key person and doesn’t really care about publicity,” Jimmy Reemes said.
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