Late-season update

One full month of deer season left

With only a full month left of the 2025 deer season in the Carolinas, hunters across both states have been making the most of it, killing numerous bucks with racks of all shapes and sizes.

While every deer is unique, it’s the stories of each hunt that are the real gems, at least for us. Here’s a handful of recent stories our readers have shared with us.

Date night booster seat

Amy Fletcher of Ninety Six, SC killed her biggest buck on Nov. 1 in Greenwood County. She killed the deer from a stand her husband and his friend built.

“This was our first time hunting in it,” she said. “I’m short, 5-foot-2, and I couldn’t see out of the window.”

She didn’t let that halt her hunt. A little improvising got her to the right height.

“I had to fold my husband’s hunting bibs and sweatshirt up and use them as a booster seat,” she said. “My feet barely touched the floor.”

When a big 8-point buck showed up at 6:05 pm about 100 yards away, she shot it.

“Sitting on a booster seat with my feet barely touching the floor, I dropped him in the field,” she said. “Great date night with my husband!”

Lost and found

John Houser of Lawndale, NC killed an absolute stud of a buck in Cleveland County on Oct. 19. Unfortunately, he lost the blood trail and didn’t recover the 12-point buck until days later.

“I hunted this buck hard since bow season,” he said. “I finally got a 40-yard shot with my Stryker crossbow. Ten minutes after I shot him, it started raining hard and I lost the blood trail.”

The buck disappeared into a thick cutover.

“I didn’t find him until days later. I hated to lose the meat,” he said. “But glad I found him.”

The buck has been green-scored at 161 6/8 inches.

“Not a bad buck for Cleveland County,” Houser said.

Scarecrow buck

Maurice Lloyd killed “Ole Scarecrow,” a mainframe 8-point buck with lots of character on the rack, in Stokes County, NC on Oct. 25. It was a deer he’d first spotted last season, and even took a shot at it then, but his shot was high.

“This year, he came back, really crazy looking, almost the same time as last year,” Lloyd said.

With cold weather moving in, Lloyd thought he’d get to see the buck.

“He came in last minute from the pines, heading into the persimmon trees,” he said. “He made it hard on me the way he was facing, and me shaking like a leaf on the tree.”

Lloyd shot the buck with a crossbow, and through the scope, he watched the arrow hit the deer.

“I couldn’t find the arrow or blood,” he said.

He backed out and went home for the night, returning the next morning to find the deer 100 yards away.

“I’ll be on Cloud 10 for a while,” he said. “I’m blessed. He’s a mainframe 8 with a bunch of trash. I can count at least 10 points.”

Foggy morning buck

Hayden Walker of Reidsville, NC killed a nice 9-point buck during a foggy-morning hunt in Rockingham County on Nov. 8.

Even though he knew the buck was there for more than an hour, the fog prevented him from getting a good look at the deer.

“When I got in the stand, it was super foggy,” he said. “A few minutes after legal shooting light, I received a picture of the deer I was hunting 100 yards in front of me, but I could not see him because of the fog.”

For more than an hour, the buck was in range, with Walker only getting a few passing glimpses of it.

“He chased does around for an hour or more with me spotting him a couple of times with my binoculars, but unable to see him in the scope,” he said.

Then all of a sudden, Walker got a shot at the buck.

“Finally around 7:30, I heard deer running,” he said. “I looked to my left to see him chasing two does.”

Walker wasted no time.

“He stopped at 35 yards from my stand and I shot him with my muzzleloader,” he said.

The buck ran about 50 yards, then dropped.

Accidental 9-point

Dahlia Hammett of Ridge Spring, SC was hunting a spike buck for the freezer with her brother when she killed a 9-point brute in Aiken County on Nov. 11.

The spike buck had been showing up on her brother’s trail camera for several days. Her brother, Justus, thought that would be a great chance for Dahlia to bag a deer and stock the freezer.

As luck would have it, the spike showed up right on time, but now it was traveling with a wide-racked 9-point that had not shown up on their cameras all year.

Hammett made a great shot, but with no visible blood on the ground, Justus put his tracking dog Cooper to work. Cooper led them straight to the buck, which had an 18.5-inch spread.

Bag-A-Buck Forum

We’ve got plenty more stories like these on our website from hunters across the Carolinas this season. Check them out at carolinasportsman.com/bag-a-buck-gallery.