
2024 was stellar for Carolina hunters
The 2024 deer hunting season proved to be fruitful for many hunters in the Carolinas. Our Bag-A-Buck Contest once again broke records for number of entries, and plenty of those who entered killed bucks that will land in the record books of North and South Carolina.
As mentioned earlier in this issue, Laura Tucker of Warren County, NC won the Grand Prize for our Bag-A-Buck Contest, but numerous other hunters had kills that were noteworthy. Some of those were impressive due to the sheer size of the deer’s antlers, and others were notable for other reasons, such as being a hunter’s first deer, or for the circumstances surrounding the hunt.
The Lincoln Legend
Gavin Glance of Lincolnton, NC killed a massive 21-point buck on Nov. 9, 2024 in Lincoln County. The deer, which had been known by other hunters in the area as the Lincoln Legend, has been officially scored by Buckmasters at 193 7/8 inches. Glance shot the buck with a CVA Optima V2 from 103 yards away.
Glance was hunting on a plot of land he purchased before the 2024 deer season started. Once he purchased the 12-acre plot, he put a series of trail cameras out and began seeing a group of bachelor bucks, including one 9-point buck that he decided to target. And then one day while he was at work, one of his trail cameras sent a picture to his phone that stunned him. It was a huge buck, unlike anything he’d ever seen before. It was the buck, he later learned, that was being hunted hard by at least six hunters in the area known as the Lincoln Legend.
Archery season rolled in, and since the giant buck had not shown up again on his trail cameras, Glance stuck to his original plan to target the big 9-point buck. He killed that buck, which at the time was his personal best, on Oct. 20.
“I didn’t know the chances of this buck, because I’d only gotten one picture of him. So when my 9-pointer came out, that was the main deer I was after, so I still felt really good taking him,” Glance told John MacPherson on the Black Widow Deer Lures Podcast. “And he was my personal best, and my second bow kill ever.”
With that buck behind him, Glance killed a doe, then he got another photo of the Lincoln Legend on Oct. 30. He started studying his maps and paying close attention to the wind, making sure he gave himself the best chance to get the big deer in his crosshairs. Finally, on the morning of Nov. 9, he got a good look at the buck while in the stand, took a shot at it, but missed.
Feeling heartbroken, Glance spent a little time shooting his muzzleloader, making sure he was zeroed in. He decided that if he ever got a chance at the big buck again, he wouldn’t shoot at it past 120 yards.
That afternoon, he decided to get back in the stand. He was surprised to see the buck again. He ranged it at 200+ yards, so he held off on taking aim. The buck moved closer to him, but then jumped into a thicket. Glance rearranged himself in his stand to get a steady shot, hoping the deer would come back.
A few minutes later, the buck reappeared, and walked into range. Glance vocalized to try to stop the deer, but it kept walking. He tried one more time and the buck stopped and looked at him. Glance pulled the trigger, and the buck dropped on the spot.
After word spread that Glance killed the big deer, he began hearing from other hunters, exchanging earlier photos of the buck from their own trail cameras.
Harkey’s Taxidermy is creating a mount for Glance, and he had the rack scored by Wayne Cox of Buckmasters. Glance is now officially in the Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records.
Crabclaw II
Stacy Mitchell of Blythewood, SC killed a 9-point buck she nicknamed Crabclaw II on Nov. 12. It’s a deer she’d been keeping tabs on since 2020, and it reminded her of another deer, the original Crabclaw, that she had hunted hard in 2018 until it was killed by another hunter on a neighboring property.
“Six years ago, I was after a buck that was rarely seen on camera in daylight,” she said. “Adjacent property hunters were calling him Crabclaw.”
Both of these bucks had a distinctive set of antlers, with two points on one side forming what appeared to be a crab claw, thus the name.
After noticing Crabclaw II, and hunting it for a while, she even shot at it twice, missing both times.
“I shot at this buck twice in 2022, embarrassingly missing him clean both times,” she said.
Mitchell later learned that she was shooting from a box of bad ammo, and once she figured that out, she was ready for another encounter with her target buck. But it didn’t come until 2024.
In 2023, she had another encounter with the buck, but it stayed out of range. After that, she only saw the buck through nighttime trail camera photos for the rest of that season.
As the 2024 season came in, Mitchell was happy to get trail camera photos of the same buck once again, but not during shooting hours.
“I was excited to see Crabclaw II show up again on camera, although it was only late at night,” she said.
Mitchell killed a different deer, a nice 8-point buck, in October. And in November, she decided to hunt from that same stand. Shortly after getting in the stand, she saw her target buck, which was a bit of a surprise to her.
“I had never had him on camera in that food plot,” she said.
She fretted this may be simply another close encounter.
“I could make out a large-bodied deer moving slowly towards the food plot. I could see antlers and I knew it was a good buck,” she said.
After glassing the deer with her binoculars, Mitchell realized it was the buck she’d been after for so long.
“I could clearly see this was Crabclaw II,” she said. “I watched him walk into some thick pines. I could only hope and pray he would come back out during legal shooting hours.”
Soon after, she spotted two does acting nervous in the food plot.
“They were jumpy, so I knew he had to be nearby,” she said.
She was right, and the buck came walking in as the does ran off. But again, she didn’t have a clean shot, and the deer disappeared into a stand of pines. But instead of getting discouraged, Mitchell prepared to see him again.
“I had a feeling he would be back out. So I set up and got ready. He came back out, broadside at about 50 yards and stopped,” she said.
She pulled the trigger, and the buck dropped on the spot. It has been green-scored at 132 2/8 inches.
“I was very happy to be blessed with such a fine buck, and a freezer full of venison,” she said.
Double drop 12
Houston Talbert of Travelers Rest, SC killed a 12-point, double-drop tine buck in Greenville County on Nov. 24. It’s a buck he’d been pursuing since seeing it on a trail camera photo before the season even started.
“The hunt for this buck started when I got my first picture of him on Aug. 16 in velvet,” said Talbert. “I could feel it in my gut that he’d show up.”
The deer did show up, numerous times on his trail cameras. Talbert stayed positive about his chances because his cameras were showing the buck during daylight hours every few days.
“Come rifle season, I hunted hard every chance I got,” he said. “And he would daylight about every three days.”
And with daylight running short, Talbert finally got his chance.
“Once I got his pattern down pat, he finally slipped up about 8:15 on Nov. 24. He weighed 180 pounds, and I’m still waiting on his rack to dry out to get him officially scored,” he said.
Surprise 12
Parker Royall of Hamptonville, NC killed a 12-point buck on Dec. 2 in Iredell County. It was a buck he didn’t know was in the area.
“We never had him on camera. I first saw him scraping and licking a branch to my left about 120 yards,” said Royall. “He was quartered away and I didn’t get a great look at him, but I could tell he was a good deer.”
Finding a gap in the weeds, he shot the deer, then saw it jump and disappear.
“My dad and I looked for blood for about 15 minutes and could not find any. I kept looking while my dad walked into the weeds about 10 yards. He saw him lying there. Dad just stood there and didn’t say anything, so I worried I’d shot a small buck by mistake,” he said.
But he’d made no mistake.
“I guess Dad was just speechless, because neither of us were expecting a mature 12,” said Royall. “It was a great way to end my 2024 season.”
Jacob’s double
Jacob Johnson of Gilbert, SC doubled up on bucks on Oct. 26 in Lexington County while hunting with his dad.
When a doe came into the shooting lane, the young hunter got ready, just in case a buck followed. A 7-point appeared, chased the doe, and offered Johnson a broadside shot at 25 yards.
“Jacob squeezed the trigger, and the buck ran toward our stand and crashed 5 yards in front of us in some brush,” said his dad.
The two hunters were excited, to the point they almost didn’t see an 8-point buck was now chasing the same doe.
“Jacob put his rifle back on the rail, and I told him to squeeze the trigger when the buck stopped in the food plot,” he said.
And when the 8-point stopped, Jacob did just that.
“Jacob squeezed the trigger, and the 8-point started chasing the doe in the food plot again,” he said. “I was sure he had missed, and I told him to shoot the 8 if it stopped again. To our surprise, as the buck chased the doe out of the food plot, he collapsed at the edge of the woods.”
It was the hunter’s first and second bucks of his young hunting career.
Late start buck
Abbie Adcock of Roxboro, NC killed a big 8-point buck in Person County on Thanksgiving Day, even though she and her fiance got a late start to the stand.
“We got a later start to the box than we like,” she said. “Didn’t really expect to see anything because of that.”
But after sitting only 10 minutes, the buck stepped out. She’d seen the deer on trail cam photos, but most of those were at night.
With the buck 60 yards away and offering a clean shot, Adcock pulled the trigger on her 350 Legend.
“We saw him roll in the corn pile. However, to our surprise, he got back up,” she said.
After giving the deer a little time to expire, they began tracking him and found him, but the buck jumped up and ran. They backed out and called a drone recovery service.
“He flew his drone and found him where he laid back down, and we finally went to retrieve it,” she said. “I was so happy to find him. He’s a great deer, and my biggest to date.”
The hunt was memorable for several reasons.
“The most interesting part of the hunt was getting sprayed in the mouth with Dead Down Wind by my lovely fiance to start out the morning,” she said. “The best part was getting to experience this moment with him. We have a story to tell for years to come.”
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