The Crown Buck: Pt 1, Contact

My newest hunting buddy is my step daughter’s son Champ. He is a natural born outdoorsman and at 13 years old he’s spent more time in the woods; and likely knows more about woodsmanship and understands more about locating and hunting our local wild game, Whitetail deer and wild hogs, than most 30-40 year olds do. I’m not lying, Champ has spent plenty of his time there and he knows his way around in the whitetail woods.

Last year, the Friday after this Thanksgiving, Champ wanted to zero in on a big wild boar showing up regularly on his SpyPoint mobile game camera at one of my ground blind stand sites. The day before that I hunted alone in a weather worn, years old tin shed. Before long my area got nuts with deer activity, all does, but that’s ok because the rut was coming on right then and this steady flow of does in and out of my area might get the attention of a nice mature buck.

Three of the members of our deer lease were also down to hunt, Richey, John and Bryant. I kept up with everyone by texting them and they were seeing deer also. An hour before dark 5 does were scattered around my area; on the slope in front of me, in the valley the slope led to, on the nearby hillside and in the surrounding strips of woods. Something caught their attention and all of the does looked in the direction of a nearby area I couldn’t see — south of my dirt-floor tin shed.

Suddenly … from the right, a buck walked into my view, only a few feet away from my shooting cut-out in the blind’s wall.

He was a big, mature buck. Based on sightings of him by Richie, Robbie and myself over the last few years he was at least 5 1/2 in age. And he was a buck that holds down the nickname of the “Crown Buck” because of his straight and evenly spaced vertical tines, and his high rack as well as the circular shape of the main beams.

I quietly stepped backward to get ahold of my crossbow.

Woops! Crown Buck looked into the cut-out window, right at me.

CONTINUED…