It was the hunter’s first time ever seeing the buck
Christopher Boyes of Wake Forest, N.C. killed a unique Wake County buck on Nov. 25. The buck was solid white. Even though Boyes has hunted this same spot for several years, it was his first time seeing the 7-point deer.
“I’ve been hunting out of the same tree on the same piece of property for seven and a half years, and the day I shot it was the first time I’d ever seen it,” Boyes said.
“The hunt itself was kind of a whim. I dropped my kids off at school at 9 o’clock, and I had to pick them up by noon. So I thought I’d go set up a blind and we’d go sit out in the afternoon. I walked by my tree stand and decided to sit for a couple of hours and see what happens,” he said.
The first portion of the hunt was uneventful. But as Boyes was getting ready to leave the stand around 11 a.m., the white buck showed up.
“I had just lashed my bow up to drop it down and I looked up in the corner about 50 yards away. I saw it, and didn’t know it was a white buck.. I thought it was a dog at first. And then all of a sudden he started grunting down the trail,” he said.
Boyes brought his kids to help track the buck
Boyes got his bow ready, and as we watched the deer, he knew he’d have to leave pretty soon to pick his kids up from school. The buck offered him a 25-yard shot, but it was quartering toward him, and Boyes didn’t like that angle. So he waited, thinking the deer would probably disappear.
“I watched him for another 10 minutes, and at that point, I’m starting to stress out because I have to go get my kids at 12 o’clock. He looped around and did a couple of more grunts and at about 55 yards, I had a little opening. He gave me a beautiful quartering away shot, and I took it,” he said.
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Boyes saw the buck run off and heard it crash. He checked his arrow, which confirmed to him that he’d made a good kill shot. At this point, he needed to get on the road to pick up his kids on time. He made a mental note of the buck’s location, and brought his kids back. That turned into what he said was one of the best parts about the hunt, and a unique memory that they’ll always share.
The unique white buck will be on display at 2020 Dixie Deer Classic
“I taught my daughter — she’s only 4 — how to track blood last year. So when I got them back to the woods, I let her take the lead on the tracking part. At 70 yards, I look up and she’s on the hill just screaming, hands up in the air saying ‘I got him! I got him!’” he said.
Boyes wanted to give this unique animal all the respect it deserves. He’s having a full body mount done of the deer by Hayes Taxidermy in Henderson. He’ll have it on display at the 2020 Dixie Deer Classic in the spring.
“My kids may never see another one, and I’ll never see another one like this. And I’m not going to harvest an animal like this and not give it the utmost respect,” he said.
Click here to read about a white deer killed in Cedar Grove, N.C. in 2016.
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