Hunter gets her ‘Oh My Gosh Buck’

Delise Menotti with her 173 1/4-inch 9-point taken Dec. 27 in Warren County.

Warren County 9-pointer grosses 173¼ inches

Delise Menotti of Vicksburg loves deer hunting to the extent of few women. From the start of bow season to the end of the final primitive weapon season, she eats, sleeps and dreams the sport.

She hunts as often as possible, usually with her husband Scott.

Heck, she even wrote a country music song about it, which includes these lyrics: “I’m huntin’ deer and my dear is huntin’ me. Gotta Boone and Crockett in my scope, said a prayer asked for hope and steadied my rifle for the shot.”

On Dec. 27, she lived out those lyrics, especially the part about the record book 9-point buck, which she rattled up and put down with her .270 short mag at the family’s private deer camp on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg.

“I still can’t believe I was blessed enough to have harvested such an incredible whitetail,” Menotti said.

Incredible? Yes ma’am, it is that: 27-inch main beams, 20¼-inch inside spread, 5-inch bases, 13-inch G2s and 12½-inch G3s, and a total Boone & Crockett gross of 173¼ inches.

It wasn’t her first big buck, but is her biggest to date. It follows a story thread that seems to connect all of her best hunts — 28-degree weather.

“When we got up that morning and it was 28 degrees, my husband commented that the cold temperatures should really get the bucks moving,” Menotti said. “I joked that 28 degrees is my lucky number, since I had killed my two biggest bucks to date, a 159½-inch 15-point in Missouri in 2010 and a 144-inch 8-point in Mississippi in 2011, at that same temperature. So I was excited about the possibility of what could happen.

“But come to think of it, I am always excited about the possibilities of what could happen when I am deer hunting, regardless of the temperature. I always anticipate that a monster buck will appear at any moment and that is exactly what happened at 9:30 that morning.”

Menotti went to the stand well prepared for the elements.

“We prepared for the morning hunt with our scent-free ritual of washes, deodorant and clothes spray,” she said. “I also prepared for the cold with my lucky hat, face mask, gloves, hand warmers, boot warmer inserts and layering in my warmest hunting clothes.”

She was hunting in a tower stand about two miles from the river and a mile from the Louisiana line — the camp is west of the main channel but has lands in both states. She was looking over a cutover, a spot full of scrapes and rubs found during a scouting trip by Scott, who was hunting in a stand of timber a few miles away.

“We were both in our stands by 5:50 and ready to hunt,” Menotti said. “At around 7 a.m., I had two does in the cutover and at 7:30 I had a young 10-point cruising the timber on the trail of the does. At 7:45, I had a spike also trailing the does.”

Things slowed down, however, and after a long period of inactivity, Menotti decided to liven things up.

“At 9:30, I took my Rattle Bag out of my backpack and rattled for about 30 seconds,” she said. “I sat back and waited to see if anything would respond. This technique had worked for me the year before when I rattled in and took the 144-inch 8-point.

“I began to glass the cutover with my binoculars to look for buck movement. I was watching another spike to the right of me, and when I turned to glass in front of me I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

There, about 200 yards away in the cutover, Menotti had her eyes on the biggest buck she’d ever seen.

“He was walking straight toward me, bristled up and looking for a fight,” she said. “He was what I like to call an ‘Oh My Gosh Buck.’ The one that you hunt for all your life, you dream that one day will step into view, the one that you don’t have to wonder if he is a trophy because you just know immediately he is, and the one that makes you say ‘oh my gosh.’

“As this giant 9-point walked toward me, he had it all — age, antler width, incredible tine length, excellent brow tines, mass and beam length. Unbelievable.”

The buck was closing quickly, and Menotti didn’t waste any time getting ready for when the opportunity of a broadside shot was presented.

“I knew I didn’t want anything less than a broadside shot for the vitals, and I knew I didn’t want to shoot with all the gear I had on,” she said. “So I ducked down slightly, so he wouldn’t detect me moving, and quickly took off my gloves, facemask and lucky hat. I did put my lucky hat back on and grabbed my rifle and positioned it on the ledge of the opening of the stand for the shot.

“I put the crosshairs on the deer and waited for a broadside shot. As he approached at about 175 yards, he turned and I knew this was it. As he turned I tried to get him to stop by making a grunting noise to simulate another buck, but he kept walking.”

Menotti was beginning to worry that if the deer kept walking, it would eventually disappear into the dense cover of the cutover.

“I knew I had to take the shot, so I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder, took a deep breath, let it halfway out and squeezed the trigger,” she said.

Instinctively, she automatically bolted in another shell and waited for him to drop.

“But he didn’t,” she said. “He took a couple of leaps and looked around like ‘what was that’ and started walking again.”

As much as she didn’t want to believe it, Menotti realized she had missed.

“As he kept walking, it was so thick with treetops and cutover that I didn’t have another shot,” she said. “Finally he walked into an open area and I grunted again to stop him and this time he stopped. Perfect, 175 yards, broadside. I squeezed the trigger again, only this time the only sound I heard was the dreaded click. In my excitement on the first shot, I guess I didn’t fully lock in the bolt on my rifle.

“So now the monster buck was on the move again. He walked behind a club of treetops and all I could see was his massive horns. I looked 40 yards in front of where he was headed and saw an opening where I could get another shot.”

Fortunately, the buck kept walking and reached that opening. It was now or never for Menotti, who had her lyrics to settle her nerves.

“Gotta Boone and Crockett in my scope, said a prayer asked for hope and steadied my rifle for the shot…”

“Again, I put the crosshairs on him, squeezed the trigger and fired,” she said. “The shot rang out and the buck is gone. I couldn’t see if he ran or dropped because the cutover was so thick, I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe that in my 37 years of hunting, and all that I had learned about hunting from my father, my husband and my time in the field had come down to this one encounter with a buck of a lifetime and I blew it.

“Sitting in my stand after this magical encounter I was reflecting on what had just happened and what I should do next. I decided to try rattling again thinking that if I had missed the buck he may still be in the area and come back in to defend his territory even though I had fired two shots at him. I have seen bucks do crazier things during the rut so I thought it was worth a try. I rattled and waited but no response.”

She waited 15 minutes and decided to go look for signs of hitting the buck. She pinpointed both places the buck had been on the two shots and struck out to investigate.

“At the first spot, there was no sign of a hit but I did see what appeared to be the big buck’s tracks but there was no blood,” said Menotti. “I followed the tracks along a trail but still no sign of a hit. I continued to walk this obvious major deer trail into the cutover thicket still looking for any sign of a hit but nothing. I was making my way to where I took the second shot.

“As I walked I raised my head to look at the trail ahead and there he was; white belly facing me laying there with all his beautiful rack in clear view. I shouted, ‘I got him! I got him!’And I ran toward him. There was no ground shrinkage here. I was so excited and amazed that I fell to my knees next to this giant and said, ‘Thank you God! Thank you God!’”

Click here to read about other big bucks.

And don’t forget to upload pictures of your kills to the MS-Sportsman.com Big Buck Contest, which is free to all registered users. Not a site member yet? It’s free, so click here to get started today!

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply