This family has a knack for killing trophy bucks
Months after Tory Pegg killed a 31-point buck that has been named a new N.C. state record, his brother and their dad killed their own trophies. These three don’t compete against each other, but they still bag their share of trophy bucks.
Scooter Pegg of Oak Ridge, the patriarch of the trio, killed his mainframe 9-point buck in Stokes County while bowhunting on Nov. 14. This buck grossed nearly 150 inches when green scored. An absent split brow tine on its right beam was apparently lost while fighting another buck. That deduction hurt the score a little.
“The broken-off split brow tine would’ve added nine inches or so (to the rack) for a near-150 total score,” said Scooter.
The eldest Pegg was hunting from a Loc-On stand about 17-feet high in a pocket of oaks encircled by a Stokes County cutover. He didn’t have many trail cam photos of the deer, but it showed up at the right time for him.
“I had only three pictures of it. The last one was 4 p.m. the Monday before I shot him, he said.
Trail cam photos are a big help in knowing what to shoot
Scooter Pegg was using a Bowtech Prodigy compound bow set at 50 pounds draw weight. He used Victory carbon arrows and Rage TryPan expandable 100-grain broad heads.
‘He came in from my right. So I put the 20-yard sight pin on his left shoulder and punched the release,” he said. “I ten-ringed him, and he took off.”
After employing the help of his friend Mike Hall, the two found the buck about 70 yards from the shot site. The location was headed downhill toward a dry stream bottom. Pegg said trail cameras help him hold out for bucks like this one.
“Used to be, people would shoot a deer in the 130s. But now I believe trail cams have changed attitudes,” he said. “They’re getting big ones on cameras. So it’s easier to let the 130s walk. I know it’s caused me to change my thought process,” he said.
Hunter got his trophy 8 days later
Hunter Pegg, Scooter’s youngest son at 23-years-old, killed his big buck on Nov. 22 in Guilford County. His 9-pointer taped out at 152 1/8 for the gross green score. He got off work early that day. So he hustled to his hunting area. And he promptly killed his trophy. It was gross green scored at 152 1/8 inches.
Hunter shot his deer with a Ruger American 300 Blackout. He was hunting from a Loc-On tree stand 20 feet off the ground in a pine tree just a few yards from a bedding area.
Unlike Scooter, Hunter had a long history with this buck. With 3 1/2 years work of trail camera photos, he observed the buck grow. And last season, he thought the buck had been killed.
“He didn’t show up in 2018. So I thought he was dead. I was surprised to see him (in a 2019 photo). But he’d gone downhill from two years ago when he was 4 1/2,” he said.
Hunter soon discovered the reason for the buck beginning to slip physically.
“He’d been shot three times,” he said. “On the trail cam pictures, I could see a hole in his neck. I thought that was from fighting. When I skinned him, I found two buckshot pellets in him and a .223 bullet in his back strap. The .223 bullet had hit his neck, when through him, and lodged in his back strap next to his backbone.
When Hunter shot the buck, it whirled and ran downhill. It crossed a creek, but expired trying to climb the far bank. It fell back into the water.
“He was one tough old 6 1/2-year-old deer,” he said.
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