Hunter was expecting a smaller 10-point buck to show up
Tyler Ransom of Sophia, N.C. dropped a Guilford County giant buck that’s been gross green-scored at 160 inches. Ransom was expecting to see a different deer. He killed the deer on Dec. 11 with his Remington 700 .243.
Ransom’s trail camera had captured one photo of this deer. It was snapped a week earlier during the dark hours of early morning. But another 10-point buck visited regularly and consistently. Ransom was really expecting to get a shot at that one.
“At the stand where I killed him, I was hunting a big 10-pointer. That one would probably score in the high 130s or low 140s,” Ransom said.
And even though the numerous photos of that deer were night-time photos, Ransom believed it would show itself during daylight hours.
“I knew after the rain we had, and the cold front moving in that night, deer should be moving Wednesday afternoon,” he said.
As it turned out, Ransom saw both bucks that day.
“I got off work at 4 p.m.,” he said. “Where I hunt isn’t far from my job. So I hurried home, changed into hunting clothes, and ran to the stand.”
He reached his spot at 4:15 p.m. Then he waited. Within 30 minutes, things started happening.
“I could hear something making its way to my corn pile,” Ransom said. “It turned out to be a knot-head. Five minutes later, a cow-horn appeared.”
One 10-pointer shows up, then the other
Where he hunts, the area has older houses on abandoned and working farms. And new developments are sprouting up. That means roads.
“My stand is 60 yards from a road with only two houses,” he said. “When a vehicle comes by, deer run off, but come back in a few minutes.”
At 5 p.m., a car moved past. At the same time, Ransom saw a big-bodied whitetail 40 yards behind the corn pile.
“I looked through my binoculars. And in the thick stuff was the (well-photographed) 10-pointer,” he said.
That’s the deer he was expecting to see. That back, watching the car, seemed to stare at the hunter. As the vehicle got closer, the buck and a few does ran about 50 yards back into the woods.
“After about 10 minutes, I saw three deer running in circles,” Ransom said. “The big 10 stopped for a second, then ran off. I didn’t know why he did that.”
He discovered the reason shortly after.
After the does returned to the scattered corn, Ransom heard, but couldn’t see, another approaching deer.
“When it stepped into the corn pile, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. “It was the bigger buck I had one time on my trail camera.”
Ransom aimed, the . 243 barked once, the Guilford County giant hopped three times, then fell to the ground.
“After I shot, I couldn’t believe what had happened,” he said. “I believe both bucks were chasing the same doe. He weighed 165 pound, probably because he was rutted out.”
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