105-yard shot dropped
Terry Henderson knew he had a good spot to hunt when he got permission to use his pastor’s property in Wilkes County just 1/4-mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway a number of years ago. And after hunting a total of 22 years, he finally got Brutus, his first wall-hanger from that 40-acre tract of land on Dec. 9.
Brutus had shown up on Henderson’s trail camera numerous times over the past few years, but every single one of those photos were taken at night. Brutus was as nocturnal as any deer had ever been.
One of the things Henderson loves about this piece of property is the topography, which allows him to sit in a box stand on the ground while still sitting high above the the hunting grounds.
“My box stand sits on top of a ridge, so even though I don’t have to climb up a ladder, I am still sitting just as high above the deer as I would in an elevated stand on flat ground,” Henderson said.
Henderson was in his blind early on the morning of Dec. 9, and because Brutus had never shown up during daylight hours, he never expected to see him. But at 9:09 a.m. Henderson did see a set of antlers moving about 105-yards away. He didn’t recognize the deer, but he knew it was a shooter.
A spine shot from his Remington 700 7mm-08 dropped the buck in his tracks. Once one the ground at the site of the kill, Henderson realized the buck was Brutus. The green-score on Brutus measured 151, a trophy for anywhere in the state. Henderson said there are more in the area.
“We aren’t really known for having a lot of deer or having big deer in Wilkes County, but there are some out here. The best thing is that we don’t have a lot of hunting pressure here. Even on this tract of land, we have more deer like this coming up,” said Henderson, who is having a semi-sneak mount crafted by Zack Smith of Wild America Taxidermy.
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