Quick draw rewards hunter with 12-pointer

Fairfield County buck measures 147 inches Boone & Crockett.

Chris Chason of Fort Long got busted by a huge buck the afternoon of Nov. 17 while hunting on his club’s land in Fairfield County.

Luckily, his reaction time was just swift enough to get off a kill shot at his biggest buck ever shortly after being detected at only 40 yards away.

Chason’s buck, a main-frame 12-pointer, had one sticker point and an outside spread of 19 3/4 inches. It’s expected to be his first buck to qualify for South Carolina’s record book — his last four missed the 125-inch minimum by 1 to 2 inches.

The afternoon he took his buck, Chason showed up late to his stand — real late.

On what looked to be one of the best afternoons of the year, as far as conditions were concerned, he got into his tower stand an hour before dark. A cold front had passed through the Midlands earlier in the day, bringing lots of wind and unsettled conditions into the area.

But the temperature started falling, and conditions began to shape up.

“The barometric pressure was rising, and the wind was calming down,” Chason said. “I really expected to see deer, even though I didn’t make it into the stand until 4:42 that afternoon.”

Since he got in late, Chason hunted in one of the club stands overlooking a large food plot of oats and clover. While he knew it was a good stand to encounter deer, it was not really a stand he expected to see a trophy buck — especially not the deer that was about to appear in the food plot within bow range.

He remembered seeing this buck during the 2010 season on a different section of the property.

By 5:29 p.m., the afternoon was shaping up with everything about to fall into place.

“I heard a noise to my right, but nothing was there,” Chason said. “I then turned my head and looked back to my left, and there he was at 40 yards looking directly at me.

“The deer turned and started to trot off.”

Chason shouldered his .270 rifle and got a lethal shot into the buck’s vitals before the deer made it into the cutover.

“The buck ran off hard and piled up dead about 15 yards into the clear-cut,” he explained

Chason had long hoped for a “book” buck, that the quality deer management efforts on the 1,400-acre lease might work out. The club harvests only mature bucks and plants 20 acres in food plots with oats, clover and brassicas.

See other bucks killed this season – and add photos of your own – in the South Carolina Sportsman Bag-a-Buck Contest!