January 1 dawned dreary and rainy in Leake County, but that didn’t deter David Langford from going to the woods in search of a buck. After battling the rain and elements for a few hours without any luck, the discouraged hunter made a fateful decision to call it a day.
The Lena hunter decided to return home to watch his Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Gator Bowl — but that didn’t last long.
By the end of the day, he was back in his hunting stand and sending a bullet toward what turned out to be a 200-inch Buckmaster buck.
“I was watching a doe around 10:30 (a.m.), but I was soaking wet and just went home,” Langford said. “I was going to dry off, have a snack and settle in to watch the game.”
While he was changing clothes back at the house and trying to get a snack, Langford missed the kickoff and heard his wife shout a short time later. State was down 7-0 and the game had just begun. Langford finally settled into his easy chair and was trying to enjoy lunch and watch the game, but things took a turn for the worse and went downhill fast for the Bulldogs.
“Tyler Russell threw another interception, and I’d had enough,” Langford said. “I just got disgusted and decided to go back to the woods.”
It was a decision that turned out to be a memorable choice. MSU never turned it around and the rain kept coming too, but that didn’t stop the rutting deer.
“I went back out to the woods and stayed in the rain all day, but I was determined to find a good buck,” Langford said.
Langford had been hunting a good buck in the area for a couple years, but hadn’t spotted him on camera or in person since his son shot him on the last day of youth season.
“We were hunting a good buck but didn’t know if he’d lived after my son shot him at that the end youth season in January 2012,” he said.
Langford took a stand on a hill overlooking an area that was full of cutover with lanes and pockets of thick brush all around.
“I had a wreck a couple years ago and broke my neck in two places, so I hunt on the ground and was sitting in a director’s chair overlooking the area where I’d spotted a doe earlier,” he said.
It didn’t take much time before the action heated up: In fact, a hot doe ran by soon after he sat down.
“A doe came by me and the buck was hot on her trail, but they went by too fast to get a shot,” Langford said. “He ran by me so fast that I couldn’t get on him quick enough.”
Watching the area intently, Langford knew there was a good chance the doe would come back through the area and bring the old buck by him again. About 10 minutes later Langford’s patience and determination paid off as he spotted the buck again.
This time the deer stopped in an area concealed by brush.
“I could see a bunch of stuff sticking up on his head, Langford said. “I stopped looking at horns and spotted a small opening in front, and decided to take a heart shot if he came through there.”
When the buck hit the opening, Langford drilled him with a round from his 7mm Magnum.
“He went straight down, but jumped up and ran into a thicket,” the hunter said.
When he got to the spot where the deer had gone down, Langford couldn’t find any blood because of the rain.
“I found where he’d pawed the ground getting back up, and started trailing him as I found more paw marks,” he said.
Langford trailed the deer a short distance before finding the downed animal.
“I slipped and looked about 30 to 40 yards (ahead) and finally saw a horn sticking up,” Langford explained. “I shouldered my rifle and watched a few minutes before easing up to the buck.”
What he found stunned him.
“I was in total amazement; to know that a buck like this was here absolutely surprised me,” Langford said. “You never see those kind of bucks around here. He had points coming out everywhere.”
The monster buck sported a rocking chair with 26 points that green scored 202 4/8 inches on the Buckmaster’s Trophy Records System. The deer weighed 220 pounds.
As it turned out, Langford’s son had hit the deer in the right leg right at the “knuckle” with his 85-grain .243 cartridge last year, but the injury wasn’t enough to hurt the deer. But it did send him to parts unknown.
“We hadn’t seen any sign of him until a neighbor caught him on the game camera on Dec. 20,” Langford said.
That was the last time he was seen by anybody until New Year ’s Day.
And Langford gave full credit to the crash and burn of his beloved Dogs.
“Thank goodness Tyler’s interception sent me to the woods,” Langford said. “I killed the buck of a lifetime on a day that I’ll never forget.”
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