Sixteen-year-old girl takes 8-point, 9-point in less than a week.
Clara Grace Bozeman has been deer hunting with her dad Harvey for a few years now, and she harvested her first buck at the young age of 10.
“Clara Grace told me she wanted to go hunting and use her own gun as well,” Harvey Bozeman said. “So I bought her a 7mm-08 Browning A-Bolt, and we went hunting the next year and she killed her first deer with it. And she’s never missed since!”
She continued that streak with two huge bucks killed during the Christmas holiday while hunting on the Madison County family farm.The kills came when the a 16-year-old Tri-County Academy student from Flora, who harvested a nice 7-point early in the season, decided she was ready to sit a stand again on Dec. 23.
This time Harvey Bozeman had a prior commitment and let his son Swayze be the “guide” on this trip. Swayze Bozeman is known for killing big bucks, even arrowing a 160-class deer in November.
“Swayze’s killed a bunch of big deer and has really been scouting a lot for us this year, so he wanted to go with her,” Bozeman said.
The brother-sister team was on deer immediately.
“Dad dropped us off, and we rode the 4-wheeler to the stand,” Clara Grace said. “We got there kind of late, and we scared some deer out of the field when we went to the stand.”
Clara Grace and Swayze hurried into the elevated deer house and settled in.
It didn’t take long for the action to get exciting: A big buck that Harvey Bozeman had caught on a game camera came out and stayed awhile, but it was too far to present a good shot and it ran off and never returned.
It was enough to get Clara Grace and Swayze fired up and excited, however.
A little while later, a few more does came out and started feeding and the action heated up shortly thereafter.
“A big 8-point came out, and Swayze said, ‘You’ve got to shoot it,’ and I said, ‘Are you sure it’s big enough?”’ Clara Grace said. “I like to get Dad’s opinion because he’s the only one I go hunting with, and I wanted to make sure Dad would approve. I thought it was big, too, but I just didn’t want to shoot something Daddy wouldn’t like.
“Swayze said it would make Dad happy if I shot it. So I shot it and he ran out of the field.”
A few minutes later, the brother and sister got down and headed to the scene of the shot.
“I picked up the blood trail and followed it just a short ways into the woods and found it all by myself,” Clara Grace said.
The monster buck weighed in at 208 pounds, sported a massive 8-point rack and had a 19-inch inside spread.
New Year’s buck
Clara Grace and her dad Harvey Bozeman were back in the same stand on Jan. 1, since Clara Grace wanted to kill another big buck and finish out her limit.
She specifically wanted to get old Bull Shark.
“We got a big buck on the game camera last year, and he made it through another year and showed up again on the cameras this fall,” Harvey Bozeman. “He’s the only deer I’ve ever claimed and followed on camera for awhile, and this year he was bigger with more character, huge, massive horns and long beams.
“He had a 4-inch G4 on one side and a 5-inch drop tine right beside a brow tine this year. I kept calling him a bull, and my nephew Trey said his eyes looked like shark eyes in the game camera photos so we decided to name him Bull Shark.”
Harvey and Clara Grace Bozeman headed to the stand Jan. 1 after tending to a few things.
“Me and dad had a bunch of folks hunting with us that day and we put them on their stands first, and then we fed the cows and got to the stand late,” Clara Grace said.
The late arrival didn’t matter, though.
“It didn’t take long before some does and small bucks came out,” said Clara Grace. “I was really getting frustrated because I wanted to kill a really big buck, and then it came out.”
“It” was a massive buck that walked out into the field.
“‘Oh my goodness, there he is, there’s Bull Shark,’” Bozeman told his daughter.
On second glance, however, Harvey realized that it wasn’t Bull Shark. But it was a great deer and too good to pass on.
“‘This ain’t him, but you’ve got to shoot this one,’” he told Clara Grace.
Amazingly, the young hunter hesitated.
“‘But I want to kill Bull Shark,’” said said.
Clara Grace finally centered the crosshairs on the monster buck and squeezed the trigger. When the rifle roared and the smoke cleared, it was obvious that the young sharpshooter had made another killing shot.
The buck sported nine points along 22-inch main beams that sprouted from 4-inch bases.
“She did what she normally does — stuck the gun out the window and smoked him,” Harvey Bozeman said.
Young Clara Grace said the shot was just par for the course for her.
“The boys have missed plenty but I don’t,” she said.
Her father said her daughter’s statement really isn’t just braggadocio.
“She’s cool under pressure and has never missed and that’s a fact,” exclaimed Harvey Bozeman.
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