Easley youth hunter kills massive buck in McCormick County

Chase Williams, 12, of Easley killed this massive 7 pointer at Russell Creek Hunt Club in McCormick on October 15.

7-point buck weighed 205-pounds, had 20-inch inside spread

Teaching a child the ways of the outdoors is not always an easy task. When it comes to deer hunting, most tutors opt for the “brown and down” philosophy before trying to instill a sense of trophy management. This is not the case for Chase Williams of Easley, who on October 15 killed a massive 205-pound, 7-point McCormick County buck that any seasoned hunter would be proud to display.

“We were hunting the afternoon on a powerline right-of-way at Russell Creek Hunt Club in Mt Carmel,” said Williams’ father Chuck Williams. “The deer were moving early and we had seen plenty of does cross the power line and one decent 8-point who needed a little more time to grow.”

When the action slowed, the Williams’ stepped out of the ground-level box blind to stretch their legs when it came to mind they might want to check their six.

“We were back in the stand and I said let’s look behind us. That’s when we saw this massive deer with about a 20-inch inside spread standing about 80 to 90 yards off,” said Williams. “I tried not to get too excited, so Chase wouldn’t get nervous, so I said, ‘that’s probably one you need to consider shooting.’ I said it about 8 times.”

Drawing his trusty 25.08 Mauser rifle, Chase sighted and dropped the trophy buck where it stood with one shot, making a clean, swift kill through the upper shoulder.

The deer was a surprise to Williams, who along with club members at Russell Creek try to monitor their herd with cameras. No one had ever seen this buck before. While the deer has not been green scored, it had great spread and tall tines approaching record book proportions.

Chuck Williams said he’s as proud of his son’s skill at a young age as he is of this particular accomplishment. This is only the second racked deer that Chase has killed, the first being a 9-point that was earlier identified as a cull buck.

“We watch a lot of deer from the stand,” said the elder Williams. “He’s been hunting since he was 5 or 6 years old and he’s let a lot of bucks walk. My goal has been to teach him to think about whether this is a deer he wants to shoot.”

Williams plans to have the deer mounted at Wolf Creek Taxidermy in Dacusville as a great reminder of an awesome father and son experience shared on an October afternoon.

About Phillip Gentry 815 Articles
Phillip Gentry of Waterloo, S.C., is an avid outdoorsman and said if it swims, flies, hops or crawls, he's usually not too far behind.