Largest of eight bucks in clover patch is headed to the taxidermist
Sandra Douglas of Olar had an inkling on the afternoon of Aug. 19 that she needed to get to her deer stand a little bit earlier than usual, so she headed out to a box blind overlooking a clover field on the 2,500-acre Bamberg County club where she hunts. It wound up being a trophy buck decision.
“I picked out a stand that doesn’t get much pressure, and I left early, probably about 5:15,” said Douglas. “While I was walking to the stand, I took pictures of a 2-year-old buck on the way, and when I got to my stand, he and seven other bucks were out in the field.”
Somehow, Douglas managed to climb into the elevated box without alerting the bucks that were feeding on clover, and a couple of minutes later, she had a trophy 8-pointer on the ground.
“The whole hunt probably didn’t take 20 minutes,” she said. “I never even sat down in the box, because I’m usually noisy when I sit down. I just shot him standing up.”
There was no doubt which of the eight bucks she was going to take when she got a look at them. She picked out a wide 8-pointer in full velvet and dropped him in his tracks with one shot from her .300 WSM rifle at 70 yards.
The buck weighed 172 pounds and carried an 8-point rack with a 19-inch inside spread and a 22-inch outside spread.
“I was shaking the whole time I was climbing up, trying to go real slow and quiet,” she said. “There was another buck in the field that was probably four years old, but he wasn’t as impressive as the buck I killed. There were some other nice 8-pointers, but this was my biggest buck ever.”
Douglas said she had no idea the big buck was using the area; her morning and afternoon trips on Aug. 15, opening day in the Lowcountry, had been spent in another stand, where she didn’t have a lot of action. That led her to the stand over the clover field four days later.
Douglas said the club she’s a member of manages for trophy bucks; this is her third year hunting that particular Bamberg County land.
The big buck is headed for her trophy room, being mounted by Cordray’s Taxidermy in Ravenel.
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