Derrick Stewart of Brookhaven had been watching a buck for at least four years when it unexpectedly showed up on his game camera in Lincoln County this fall.
“I’d been chasing the special buck for four years and only had him on the camera during daylight hours a few times before this year and it was during the late season,” Stewart said. “Then unexpectedly he showed up on the camera every day from Monday through Thursday the week of the special velvet season at the same time each day so I had to change my plans.”
On the first day of the special velvet season, Sept. 13, Stewart went to the woods and got to the stand at 4:30 a.m.
“I wanted to get in there earlier than the buck so that I wouldn’t spook him, but I waited until about 4:30 so that I wouldn’t spook any other bucks that were usually coming in much earlier,” he said.
The temperatures had fallen to the upper sixties so it was much more pleasant to hunt in than the 80 or 90 degree weather the Magnolia State had been experiencing recently.
Between two trees
Stewart took note of the wind direction and went into the area downwind of where he wanted to hunt so that the buck would not spook. Due to the thick terrain, he decided to try something different.
“I laid down between two trees and faced the direction where he had been coming from,” Stewart said. “I was hunting with my Raven Crossbow on an oak ridge next to a powerline and I waited patiently.”
Then morning dawned cloudy and daylight came around 6:40 a.m. Stewart was ready. About 7:40 he heard footsteps and looked up in anticipation of what was about to appear.
Suddenly the buck he’d been following on his game camera for four years came walking calmly into range.
“I centered my sights on the buck and squeezed the trigger at 7:45,” Stewart said.
“Thwack!” The Raven Crossbow bolt smacked the buck in the boiler-room and it stumbled from the impact and ran off in a daze but didn’t get far.
“The buck ran about 60 yards and just laid down,” Stewart said. “I made a double lung shot and put him down quickly.”
The massive velvet buck sported an almost 22-inch wide rack with 25-inch main beams, 6 ½ inch bases, 12 ½ inch G2 tines and 5.5 inch G3s!
Highway 51 Pawn Shop scored the buck at 158 B&C for their contest and Allen Morgan scored the buck at 156 and said it was at least 8.5 years old.
The right time
Amazingly, Stewart has only bow hunted about three years and he actually bought a Raven Crossbow to hunt with this year and used Rage Broadheads on his bolts.
“I didn’t think I’d hunt him until gun season but the area he was living in was undisturbed, so I guess he started feeding in daylight after the temperature started dropping,” Stewart said. “I’m only hunting a small 15-acre plot so I know that the buck wasn’t leaving the area after he showed up every day of the week preceding the velvet season. The small plot of land is surrounded by two deer clubs on two sides also, so the pressure is usually intense during the gun seasons. That’s probably the reason the buck was mostly nocturnal that time of year.”
Prior to the season, Stewart put out a Boss Buck feeder and started feeding the deer. Several bucks were hitting the feed pretty hard. Stewart was actually feeding a corn and soybean mixture in a gravity feeder.
Ultimately Stewart was successful by staying out of the area while using his cell phone camera to see when or if the buck showed up again. The technique worked perfectly as he was in the right place at the right time and scored on a massive trophy buck.
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