Hunter shot deer while climbing into stand
Big bucks are becoming more common every year for Tarheel hunters. Still, few true trophies arrive at the taxidermist painted white. For Scooter Pegg of Oak Ridge, a three-year saga after a piebald buck ended at 4:30 in the afternoon on December 22 with a 141-inch eleven pointer.
For over three years, Pegg and his two sons, Troy and Hunter, monitored the movements of this deer very closely on their Guilford County hunting property. They first saw the deer on trail camera back in 2013 when the buck was a five pointer. Then in 2014, the buck arrived on camera again sporting a nine-point configuration. But it wasn’t until early September of this year when the buck exhibited a much more impressive set of headgear that was enough to drastically change Pegg’s hunting methods.
“He jumped around 25 inches or so from last year,” said Pegg. “I am usually a bow hunter. But, I started bringing my .308 hunting with me after I realized how big he was this year.”
The buck was showing up regularly on his trail cameras in an overgrown cutover from September through the middle of October, and then the deer disappeared until two Sundays ago. Pegg saw a good buck dashing through the cutover. And just as he realized it was the big piebald buck, it was too late for a shot. It was the first time Pegg or any of his boys had seen this deer on stand.
“He stopped long enough for me to tell what he was and then I was sick on my stomach when he got by me,” he said.
Then, Pegg captured a few new pictures of the deer out in front of his stand during the daylight a few days after he saw the buck on stand. Pegg knew he had a chance and started to hunt the deer as hard as ever.
Each afternoon, Pegg climbed into the stand hoping the buck would show up. On the afternoon of Dec. 22, the deer surprised Pegg just as he was climbing up the ladder of his tree stand.
“As I was climbing into the stand, I looked to my left out into the cutover and saw him standing there at 100 yards away. He was watching me climb into the stand,” he said.
Apparently, the buck thought he was hidden enough from Pegg and remained still behind some brush in the cutover. Pegg didn’t waste any time at all. He set his backpack down, propped the gun against the railing, and shot the deer while standing on the second step from the top.
After the shot, the buck bolted off and crumbled after a short 35-yard dash.
“We had a good feeling about him showing up that day. He showed up on camera the week before on a day with the same exact conditions, misty and cloudy. We believed it was a good day for deer to be on their feet,” he said.
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