Buck showed up on trail cameras for two weeks prior to hunt
Killing a big buck is every deer hunter’s dream, but when you kill a trophy buck that has some kind of cool feature to it, that’s a bonus. Non-typical racks with long drop tines and unnaturally facing tines are cool, calico bucks are always a big hit, and a true albino buck would be even better. But sometimes, the unique feature is a little less noticeable than those.
Seth York killed such a buck in Person County on Nov. 28. He’d seen the deer on trail cameras for about two weeks leading up to the 28th, but those photos were always at night. One of York’s friends had seen the deer in person during muzzloader season, and took a shot at it.
“He was hunting another piece of the property that is a good mile-and-a-half away, and he shot at it, but missed. He described the deer to me and I scanned through all my trail camera photos, but didn’t see a deer that matched the description until about two weeks before I killed it,” said York.
The buck was green-scored at 158 5/8-inches, and netted 145-inches – a trophy for sure, but the chocolate-colored rack makes it even more special to York. He’s also a big fan of how he attracted the deer.
“At 8:30 a.m. I did a few rattling sequences and grunted a few times. A few minutes later, I noticed a deer heading in my direction about 60-yards away. At 25-yards I took a shot while the deer was quartering away from me,” said York, who shot the buck with a Browning X-Bolt .270.
His aim was true, and looking through his Nikon Buckmaster scope, York watched the buck run about 50-yards before crashing into a cutover, where it lay dead by the time York reached it.
The buck was aged at 5.5-year-old, and its 9-point rack has an inside spread of 18-inches, and has impressive thickness.
“The base of his antlers are 5-inches around, and his inside spread is 18-inches. On his shoulder near the bullet hole, he had a gash from being wounded in a fight with another buck. He’s got beautiful chocolate horns,” said York, who feels blessed to have the opportunity to hunt, draw in, and kill such a nice deer.
“This was definitely a cool deer and a great experience. I’m blessed to harvest such a mature buck,” he said.
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