Deep in the woods of south Lauderdale County stands the Stucky Bridge, so named because of a legendary outlaw who reportedly operated an Inn and robbed patrons and others who dared cross his bridge with any money. The bridge still spans the river but these days the river is home to spotted bass, and trophy bucks.
Lamar Arrington has been hunting some of those deer for as long as he can remember. The Meridian native followed in the footsteps of his father, Dr. George Lamar Arrington II, and grandfather, George Lamar Arrington, as both were avid hunters and fishermen. While Arrington has harvested trophy deer from Nebraska and other places, the ever-elusive trophy buck escaped him in Mississippi and more specifically right here at home near Meridian. That could be a result of his goodwill towards others, including friends, and children especially.
Arrington hunted one of his favorite stands the week before Christmas and saw about 10 deer with three bucks among the bunch, but no shooters. The next week he texted a friend to see if he wanted to go hunting the Wednesday before Christmas, but rain was predicted so they decided to make a Christmas Eve hunt instead. On the morning of the hunt Arrington learned that his friend was bringing his daughter since she was off work that day and might not have another chance to hunt.
Cold weather change of plans
Arrington met his friends the following day in south Lauderdale County on Christmas Eve and told them to hunt the two fields in the bottom, about a mile back in the woods.
“I wanted the young lady to get a shot, so I told her dad to put her in my field,” said Arrington. “I’d seen so many deer there the week before that I thought she’d get a shot and I wanted her to get a deer.
“I went back to check out another field not too far from my friends but I’d left my coveralls at the truck, so I went back to get them since it was bitter cold and very windy that day.”
When he got back to camp, Arrington decided to hunt near the camp and not go back and disturb the woods near the other hunters as it was getting late in the day.
A surprise buck
“We had a field on an 80-acre tract that was close to the main road where we never killed anything or hardly ever saw anything, but it was close to the camp, so I decided to hunt there and wait on the others to get out,” said Arrington. “The field was in a bottom with hardwoods to the right and a pine plantation to the left. It was about 125 yards long and about 20 yards wide.”
It was a decision that some might regret but Arrington was more concerned with the young lady harvesting a deer than he was himself.
“I got into the field about 3 p.m. and got into the stand and napped for a while,” Arrington said. “A single doe walked into the field about 4:30 and she kept looking back as she nipped at the grass. I wasn’t too excited about it until he walked into the field 5-minutes later.”
Arrington knew instantly that this was a special buck and quickly got ready to shoot.
“The buck’s rack was so wide and massive that I didn’t have to look at him through the binoculars, so I just pulled up my rifle that I had in the shoot house window and tried to get the crosshairs on him as quickly as possible,” said Arrington. “I knew I might not have long to shoot since the field was so narrow. The buck crossed the food plot at 75-yards, and I took the shot as soon as I lined him up.”
Personal best
“Tic-Boom!” roared Arrington’s Remington .270 and the buck collapsed in a heap. Not only was this the biggest buck he’d ever seen in Mississippi but this buck beat all of his Nebraska trophies and he never had a clue it lived anywhere nearby.
“After I killed it, I found out that several neighbors had seen the buck on camera and they told me that they were hunting him,” Arrington said. “People had seen him around the Stuckey Bridge Road and on several game cameras the last two or three years in the properties surrounding the bridge.”
The 210-pound buck sported 12 points on a rocking chair rack and had a double brow tine with a 20-inch spread. The Buckmaster’s score was 160.
Ironically, Arrington never had a thought about hunting a deer there, only taking a stand on Christmas Eve because he wanted the young lady to get her chance. It’s seems appropriate that Arrington harvested the Stuckey Bridge Buck, which was unknown to him, but on the radar screen of several other hunters, after years of helping others and trying yet again to help someone else.
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