How many hunters have skipped Sunday school or church to go deer hunting? You’ll have a difficult time selling that after reading about how Chip Henderson, pastor at Pinelake Baptist Church in Rankin County, tagged his trophy Dec. 30.
“After preaching three services at church and eating lunch with my family, I asked my kids if they wanted to go make a quick hunt,” Henderson said. “My 16-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son (both bow hunters) said, ‘Yes,’ so we loaded up and headed to our hunting land 45 minutes away.
“We were running late, so I knew our stand options would be limited based on the time of day, the time it takes to get set up and other hunters who already would be in their stands.”
After placing his children in the top two remaining stands, Henderson choose a stand located less than 300 yards from the camp, on the back side of a pond. The stand had several things that made it attractive: it was close, the wind was right and a lot of does hung out in the area.
“I was in my tree and settled into my stand by 4:15 (p.m.),” he said. “At 4:30, I heard the familiar sound of a deer walking, and turned in the direction of the sound. Behind me, across a narrow finger of the pond, appeared a huge 6-point walking right down to the water’s edge.
“Normally a 6-point wouldn’t excite me, but this one was a whole different deal. I could tell he was massive, and my quick score came to 140. As a 6-point, that’s just sick. Then he did the unthinkable. He lay down with his back to me 60 yards away across the pond.”
Henderson was tempted to try and stick the deer.
“That’s a long shot, but I practice at that distance routinely, so I felt fairly confident I could make the shot,” he said. “But with clumps of grass hiding most of his vitals, I knew it would require a huge gamble and a ton of luck to pull off a lethal shot.
“I texted a couple of friends and asked what they thought I should do. They both said, ‘Shoot,’ but I just couldn’t bring myself to take the shot. For the next 30 minutes, I videoed a little and prayed a lot that the big buck would get back up.”
His patience — and prayers — finally paid off.
“At 5 (p.m.) he stood up and turned my direction,” Henderson said. “A doe had made her way into the food plot in front of me, and the bruiser started easing around the edge of the pond in her direction. He was moving painfully slow, and darkness was closing in.
“As a preacher, I talk to God all the time, but when this buck stood up, I took my praying to a whole new level.”
With daylight quickly falling away, the hunter finally saw a shot.
“At 5:20, the buck finally stepped into an opening and I ranged him at 40 yards,” Henderson said.
“I let the arrow go and heard the whiz of the arrow in flight, the impact of the broadhead and then a thud into the mud indicating a clean pass-through shot.
“The buck ran 100 yards and stopped in a cut cornfield. I could see with my binoculars that blood was pouring from his side, but a little farther back than I would have wanted. Then he hunched up and slowly walked 250 yards across the field and headed into a blown-over treetop.”
The temperature was in the low 30s that night, so Henderson decided to leave the buck alone until in the morning. The recovery revealed the will of a mature buck to live, but in the end the Lord answered his prayers, and by 3 p.m. the next day, Henderson finally laid his hands on the super six.
The buck sported 15-inch G-2s and netted an impressive 139 6/8-inch” green score.
Henderson’s tip“Don’t be predictable. Deer pattern you just like you pattern them. You can take immature deer by hunting the same places over and over, but my experience is that the element of surprise is huge when it comes to taking a mature whitetail. Surprise includes hunting a given stand sparingly, using the least-intrusive way to access and leave your stand, only hunting with the right wind and using more climbers and lock-on stands than fixed position stands. In short, act like the deer is hunting you, too — because he is.”
Henderson’s equipment• Bow — Mathews Z-7 • Arrow — Easton 340 Full Metal Jacket• Broadhead — Montec G5• Sight— Black Gold• Rest — QAD• Quiver — Tight Spot• Release — Fletcher .44 Caliper
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