Big buck was not the one she was expecting
Sherry Clayton of Roxboro, N.C. killed her first buck on Nov. 10 in Person County, and it was a whopper. The 9-point buck weighed 190 pounds and has been green-scored at 135 inches. And while she had a specific trophy buck in mind, this one wasn’t even the deer she was after.
“I was after a different 9-pointer that was showing up on my trail cameras. I had never seen the one I killed before the day I shot it, but I am plenty happy with it and thankful for the chance to shoot it,” she said.
Clayton got in the tripod stand that morning around 5:50, and it wasn’t long before a number of does populated the field in front of her tripod. The big buck came into range around 7:30.
“The does all left, except for a big one. She kept looking behind her, so I had a feeling I was about to see something else,” she said.
And out stepped a different buck than the one she was expecting. It was 100 yards away, and she recognized it was a shooter immediately, raised her Tikka .308, and pulled the trigger.
New rifle, new farm, new goals
“It was a brand new gun, and it was my first time shooting it while hunting. The deer stumbled, but ran off. I felt like I’d hit it, but then I started having doubts. I called my son Colby and he came to help me look for it. We looked around for a good while and didn’t see any blood at all. We were both starting to think I’d missed, and then about 50 yards away, Colby saw where the buck had dragged its feet,” she said.
They found the buck piled up after walking another 10 yards. She’d made a perfect double-lung shot and the deer had bled very little.
Although it was her first buck, it wasn’t Clayton’s first deer. She’s killed her share of does over the years, but always preferred to let her two kids kill the big bucks, and she was always happy with putting some doe meat in the freezer.
But this year was different. This year, she wanted to kill a good buck. She bought a 33-acre farm that’s been in her family for some time this past May, and it hadn’t seen any hunting pressure in many years. Her daughter killed her first turkey there this past spring, so she’s glad to get her first buck on the property.
“Heritage Acres Farms is the name of it. It’s a place for new beginnings and a lot of firsts,” she said.
“I’ve worked really hard and am thankful for that piece of property. It’s my own little paradise and I’m glad I was able to shoot my first buck there,” she said. “So many things came together for me to make that happen, and I was really excited. But I think my son was just as excited for me as I was.”
