Rockingham County buck was elusive
On Sept. 24, 2023, RJ Seiler killed a Rockingham County, NC buck that’s been green-scored at 162 inches. The mainframe 10-point buck had an extra kicker for a total of 11 points, and it sported a 19 3/4-inch wide spread, along with 25-inch main beams.
Seiler had a history with the buck going back to last season, when his cameras began capturing photos of the deer.
“We had pics of him last year as a 4-year-old,” Seiler said. “He was a 9 then, with a mid 130s rack. This year he exploded, and put on about 30 inches of horn.”
The deer became a home body, and Seiler’s cameras continued to capture photos of it all summer long.
“He stayed in the same, real small area all summer,” he said.
Wanting to target the buck this year, Seiler hung two stands in order to have two options to hunt this deer no matter which direction the wind was blowing.
Cut the corn
“I had two stands hung for him with a corn pile at each stand and a cell cam at each stand,” he said.
Once the season came in, Seiler and the buck played a version of hide-and-seek, with the deer always showing up at the opposite stand Seiler was hunting.
“Every time I’d hunt one stand, he would be at the other. Just a lot of bad luck with him,” he said.
So Seiler purposely neglected one of the corn piles to limit the buck’s options.
“I let the corn pile at the stand for a south wind go dry, and started putting corn out at the stand for a west wind heavy, so he would only have one corn option,” he said.
The trick worked, but not as quickly as Seiler would have liked.
“It still took six or seven sits before he finally showed up, right before dark, with enough light left to shoot him,” he said.
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Bag A Buck Contest
Congratulations to Seiler, who is now in the running for our monthly prize of a free 1-year subscription to Carolina Sportsman Magazine, a Mini Maglite, an 18-ounce Yeti Rambler, and other prizes, as well as our Grand Prize, which includes a 3-year-subscription to Carolina Sportsman Magazine, a 2-day two-person hunt at Cherokee Run Hunting Lodge in Chesterfield, SC, and other prizes to be determined.
See all the bucks entered so far, and upload yours at carolinasportsman.com/bag-a-buck-2023, or email photo and detailed info to images@carolinasportsman.com.
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