Girl’s first buck killed despite severe case of buck fever.
To hear Jeff Martin and his daughter Cameron of Lexington tell their hunting story, we know that there was a “whole lot of shaking going on” in their deer stand on last Thursday (Nov. 8).
So much so that it’s a miracle that Cameron Martin, 10, was able to take the shot that led to her first buck — a 9-pointer her father said would be a trophy buck for anyone.“She’s been hunting with me for three years, and she’s killed several does; I think at least one a year all three years,” Jeff Martin said of the fourth-grader at Central Holmes Academy. “But she’s never been able to shoot a buck. She’s had opportunities, several times, but every time antlers appear, she gets nervous. I mean really nervous, like sick to her stomach.
“She was never able to take a shot. She did this time, but it took a while for her to get that shaking out of her system.”
After school Thursday, the pair went to a deer stand together with hopes that they could cure her severe case of buck fever once and for all.
Jeff Martin had the big 9-point in mind when they went to the club.
“I had photos of this buck, but it was in a different place about a quarter mile from the field we were in,” he said. “But I have a friend who had seen the buck in this field when he drove past it the day before. Knowing that, I decided to go and see if the buck would walk out that afternoon.
“We got in the stand at about 4:15, and it didn’t take long. This buck and another one came out at 5:05.”
Things happened pretty quickly.
“I was sitting in the stand playing on my phone, when Daddy called my name very excitedly,” Cameron wrote in her brief synopsis of the hunt as part of her Big Buck Contest entry. “Then, shaking worse than I was, he told me to settle down.”
The excited dad was watching the bigger of two bucks walk through some tall weeds headed toward a green patch.
“I don’t know who was shaking worse, she or me, but there was a whole lot of shaking going on,” he said, adding that he started calming his daughter before she saw the buck based on her history of nervousness. “I got the gun up, and she was standing next to me and I could feel the stand shaking.
“I’m amazed she was able to shoot.”
It didn’t help that Jeff Martin wanted took to look over both bucks.
“When the first buck — the bigger one walked out — I knew it was a pretty good buck even before I got a look at it, but I wanted to see the second one, too, and see which was bigger,” he said. “I told her to wait until I could look him over. He was fair, but no doubt the first one was the one we wanted.”
In position, Cameron Martin put her eye to the scope and ….
“All I could see was ‘my monster buck,’” she said. “To make my luck even better, another buck followed in behind him. More nervous now that I have ever been, I got him back in the scope, and I pulled the trigger.”
It wasn’t that simple, her dad said.
“She was so nervous and was shaking, and she kept telling me ‘I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I can do it,’” Jeff Martin said. “I told her that, yes, she could do it, and to take her time and calm down. We had a little breathing problem there for a while, but I kept telling her to take a deep breath and calm down. Seemed like it was five minutes, but I don’t know for sure how long it was.
“Finally, Cameron started asking me if she could shoot. ‘Can I shoot now? Can I shoot now?’ I told her that as soon as she felt like she had it on the right spot and was ready she could shoot.”
BOOM!
The 7mm-08 roared.
“The buck immediately turned and ran off, but I could tell it was limping and had been hit hard,” the daddy said. “I told her she’d hit it, but I wasn’t sure where. I told her we were going to have to be patient and give it some time so we wouldn’t push the deer.”
Cameron’s excitement grew with each passing second.
“I was crying with joy,” she said.
Her dad confirmed that.
“Yeah, she was so excited she was crying like crazy,” he said. “And she was still shaking, bad.”
Jeff Martin made a phone call to a friend, Trent Johnson, and told him they had gotten the big buck and described the situation. Johnson headed home to get his wife, Laura, and their blood-trailing dog Molly.
“After a few minutes I told Cameron we would climb out and go to the truck,” Jeff Martin said. “But, honestly, she couldn’t do it.”
Cameron said it was just too much.
“Steadily crying, I stood up and I was shaking so bad, I had to sit back down,” she said. “Slowly but surely I got up and climbed down the stand. Then we headed to the truck to get the flashlight to start looking for blood.”
It took a few minutes, but they found a few drops of blood on a leaf. That was enough time for the Johnsons to arrive with Molly.
The dog was shown the blood, given the scent and the search was on. It ended just a few moments later when the dog found the buck just 45 yards from the field.
“Her shot was perfect, right through the left shoulder, which was the one facing us,” Jeff Martin said. “He didn’t make it far, and she was right with me when we went to him.”
The young hunter was ecstatic.
“The moment had arrived: There he was — ‘My Monster Buck.’” she said.
The youngster was grateful and gave credit where credit was due.
“If it were not for my daddy, I would not have what I have now,” she said.
Editor’s note: Got a good deer story? Post your pictures on the Mississippi Sportsman Big Buck Contest and contact Bobby Cleveland at bobbyc7754@yahoo.com.
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