182-inch 23-point could be largest-racked deer killed in county, according to Magnolia Records.
Blake Benefield saw the monster buck pop out of the tree line Jan. 2 hot on the heels, or hooves, of a few does and knew it was a good one.
For the last two years, Benefield and his fellow hunters had seen the buck on trail camera photos. There was no doubt this was the same one, and definitely a product of their selective management plan on the Lauderdale County tract.
The problem was the buck’s amorous display with the does. It had no intentions of sticking around to show off its antlers. Love was in the air of the creek bottom where Benefield had been sitting for almost two hours for an afternoon hunt.
What Benefield was looking at, and eventually put his hands on, could be the biggest buck killed in the county in 60 years. The 23-point non-typical green-scored 182 3/8 on the Boone & Crockett system – it was 161 1/8 as a typical – and also topped 183 7/8 on the Buckmasters BTR scoring system.
“When I shot the deer he was running some does down a hardwood creek bottom,” Benefield said. “I could see his right beam and it was impressive, but most of the stuff and the droptine was on his left.”
The problem was getting that shot.
“I never could get him to stop,” Benefield said. “I grunted and grunted, and he never stopped. I watched him run straight from me in the bottom along the edge of some cutover about 60 to 70 yards from me.
“Just in a matter of seconds, he was to the top of the hill and about to go over. I knew it was going to happen then or I’d be watching him go over the hill.”
Benefield hit his grunt call one last time “pretty doggone hard,” and the buck hesitated. It turned and gave him a quartering shot, which the hunter took with his .270 WSM.
The buck didn’t take another step.
It was about 4:30 p.m., with daylight disappearing, along with the steady 20 mph wind that had rocked and rolled the area all afternoon.
“It was a pretty good day, temperature-wise, a cool day” Benefield said. “But when you’re about 30 feet up a magnolia tree in a lock-on, you get some second thoughts with that wind blowing like that.”
When Benefield got to his buck, he knew it was the one they’d seen in the photos. It had character a’plenty, with numerous stickers, kickers, a big drop tine on the left side and a tangle of split brow tines.
“We have some pretty good deer on the property but nothing’s been taken like that,” Benefield said. “We’ve been here for five years, and this was absolutely by far the biggest one been taken.
“The best one I’ve killed before was 138. Normally we see some 130 to 140 deer in this area, but this was a heck of a buck.”
Benefield had the buck scored twice before dropping it off at the taxidermist, and will have it scored again after the 60-day drying period. It weighed 180 pounds. He said the taxidermist planned to pull the jawbone to get an approximate age.
“If anything, he may have gone down a little bit (with age),” Benefield said. “I don’t think he had all the trash last year. From the photos last year that we saw, he appeared to be just a mainframe 10 with the droptine.”
The 60-year-old county record currently is held by Miller Frazier, with a 21-point buck killed in 1952. It grossed 185 1/8 and netted 174.
Benefield said his buck had obviously been feeding well on the native forage and other forage provided for the deer.
“We plant a lot of high-protein food for them, feed them well and have some restrictions,” he said. “On a normal year, we probably take four or five bucks off 2,000 acres. We just try to shoot however many does the biologists tell us to take. We probably shoot 30 to 40 a year.
“It’s work, year-round, to get things ready. Some of the guys turkey hunt in spring and do a few things, and then get after it again in August before the season.”
Despite all the available food, Benefield said the buck’s lovelorn attitude had obviously kept him on the move.
“There wasn’t an ounce of fat left on him,” he said. “He was run slap down.”
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