14-point buck wins Bag-A-Buck for S.C. hunter

Bag-A-Buck
Ridgely Linville’s entry of his 146-inch Barnwell County buck won Carolina Sportsman’s Bag-A-Buck contest for August-September.

Buck passed up in 2018 wins first Bag-A-Buck of 2019

Ridgely Linville of Summerville, S.C., saw a nice buck last season, a 120-inch stud. But with a bigger one already at the taxidermist, he decided to let it walk.

What a great decision. On Saturday evening, Sept. 28, he saw that buck again. This time, it was carrying a 5×5 main-frame rack with two sticker points. Linville didn’t have to think twice before dropping the buck at 170 yards with a single shot from his 7mm Mag. It weighed 205 pounds and had a 146-inch rack.

Linville entered the buck in Carolina Sportsman’s Bag-A-Buck contest, and he was drawn on Oct. 1 as the winner of the August-September monthly contest.

Linville will receive a free one-year subscription to Carolina Sportsman and a $25 gift certificate to the online Sportsman’s Store. He will be eligible, along with every other contest entry, for the grand prize: a two-year deer/hog combo hunt for two people at Cherokee Run Hunting Lodge in Chesterfield County, S.C., a $50 gift certificate to the online Sportsman Store, a free, three-year subscription to Carolina Sportsman and an Energy Elite bow.

All because he passed the buck in 2018

“I saw him two or three times last year. But I had already killed a buck I thought would make the state record book, so I didn’t kill him,” said Linville, a 30-year-old UPS employee.

“The first trail-camera shot this year, near the end of June, you could see how much he’d blown up,” said Linville, who was hunting on private land in Barnwell County.

But the buck disappeared from his trail camera for about two weeks in September. Linville figured he’d moved to acorns and was by-passing his stand area. Until about 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 28, when the buck showed up, crossing a logging road within sight of Linville’s stand. Moments later, the buck was down.

Linville’s buck carried a 5×5 main-frame rack with a sticker on each beam. It was 15 inches wide, with 20- to 21-inch beams.

Click here to see the full list of entrants in the CarolinaSportsman.com Bag-A-Buck contest.

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.

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