Rutting monster buck shot when it shows up looking for love.
West Point’s Robert Lott was practically born into a deer hunter’s paradise. The 2,500-acre timber farm in Clay County on which he lives has been in his family for four generations and is loaded with deer.
Soon after Lott, his dad and younger brother, headed for their deer stands on Dec. 15, one of the farm’s monarchs stepped into the crosshairs of his scope. That buck, a product of careful management, later scored in the mid 150s Boone & Crockett.
“We manage our property for quality deer,” Lott said. “We take lots of does and won’t shoot a buck unless the antlers are tall and outside the ears, and we can only take one buck each per season.
“In addition to leaning heavily toward the doe harvest, we plant food plots of wheat, oats, rye and clover. The land has lots of hardwoods, some fields and around 70 acres of CRP.”
Lott and his family live on the banks of Fortson Lake, one of several lakes on the property, and on the day of the successful hunt he elected to cross the lake in a canoe to get to the green field he planned to hunt.
“I wanted to approach my stand as quietly as possible, and felt that the canoe would be quieter than me tromping through the woods around the lake,” Lott said. “My brother was east of where I was on a stand in the woods, while dad set up on the opposite end of the lake from me.”
The rut was ongoing in that part of Mississippi, and while sitting 20 feet high in a double ladder stand Lott watched interesting interplay between some deer that came out to the field earlier.
A doe and a button buck, possibly her offspring, provided entertainment, with the little buck approaching the doe only to have her paw at him and chase him away. Apparently, she was interested in a more mature suitor.
“At around 4:20, another doe came out of the CRP and onto the green field 150 yards away,” Lott said. “The buck came out right behind her. When I saw his rack and how big he was, I got the shakes really bad.”
Shakes or no shakes, Lott shouldered his Browning .30-06 and touched off a shot. The buck crumpled, piling up on the spot.
“I kept my rifle on the deer for at least five minutes, but it was obvious he was done for,” Lott said. “When I cleaned the deer, I found I had dead-centered the heart.”
The 220-pound buck, which rough scored in the 155-inch range, sported 8 points with near perfect symmetry; only 2 ½ inches of deductions were noted.
The inside spread taped out at 20 inches, with both main beams stretching the tape to 22 inches. The G2s were 12 ½ inches each, with 8-inch brow tines.
Lott said he felt fortunate that the buck chose the path it did to enter the field: If it had come out a bit farther away it would have presented itself to his brother, and if it had come from the west his dad would have had the shot.
“I guess that I was sitting at the right spot at the right time,” Lott said.
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