Hometown Trophy

December 17, 2006

Sylvan Springs, Alabama

December is my favorite month of the year; December is the month of my birthday, Christmas and the first rut for the southeastern deer herd. December 2006 was a special month because I was able to land an incredible hunting opportunity for my dad, my Jonathan, and myself. I got a weekend pass to a hunting property that had just been became available for public hunting. Needless to say, the deer population on this property was not under any hunting pressure which is rare for Alabama. 

The hunt started well before daylight as my dad woke me up. Dad was always the first person awake. He would usually wake me up at least fifteen minutes before my alarm and I never knew why. We would then spend the next fifteen minutes putting on our hunting gear, making sure we had ammunition for our rifles and checking the weather. This was normally all completed in silence because we didn't want to wake anyone in the house. We stood there waiting in the driveway until we could hear Jonathan’s truck roaring down the highway towards our house. Our morning ride consisted of strategizing where the best hunting locations would be based on the weather and our scouting information. We didn't have much scouting information because the property had never been open to public hunting before this season. In this type of hunting situation we always preferred to hunt pieces of the property that offered the most visibility. We all three sat on different power lines in the morning with no luck. We all three met back around 10 AM and decided to go scout one last piece of the property for an afternoon hunt. We crept down an overgrown red dirt road that led to a ridge where we could oversee the northern property line. Who knew, as soon as we reached the vantage point we spotted three doe. I quickly knelt down and let Jonathan use my shoulder as a gun rest so he could take a shot at one of the deer. The deer spotted us and darted into the woods before he could make the shot.

I decided to hunt this location in the afternoon because I thought the doe activity in the morning may be promising for some buck activity in the afternoon. Jonathan had to work that afternoon and dad decided to stay home. I went back to the same ridge that we had found that morning and set up my chair where I could see most of the valley below. This ridge funneled and amplified all of the sounds coming out surrounding woods. This land feature made if very easy to hear the leaves crunching as the deer moved through the surrounding hardwoods.  

It was a hot day in December and I was sitting in the direct sunlight – perfect for an afternoon nap. So I dozed in and out and then I finally fell completely asleep only to be woken up by a crashing noise. The ridge had funneled the sound of a large buck crashing through the brush at 300 yards which was enough to wake me from my afternoon nap. The buck worked across the power line and I only had a few seconds to judge the large rack and flip my chair to make a shooting rest. The buck’s nose was touching the tree line by the time I was able to put the cross hairs on his shoulder. I knew I didn’t have much time so I squeezed the trigger and the deer instantly disappeared. I listened for a few minutes and never heard anything - not a sound. I called my dad and told him I had put a shot on the biggest deer I had ever seen. He told me he was on his way to come help me find the deer and I left to go search the valley for the monster.

I came to the place where I thought the deer was standing when I shot. To my surprise, there was no blood – not one drop. I searched the area and began sweating in the December heat. I sat down in the middle of a kudzu patch and tried to think of how to find this deer. I decided to search the area where I thought the deer would be if he was injured. There was a dense creek bottom inside the tree line not far from where the deer was standing when I made the shot. I walked the creek bottom and noticed the rack lying beside the creek. The deer hadn’t made it 20 yards before he collapsed! I safely ensured that the deer was dead and inspected the body for the kill shot. The rifle bullet had entered his rib cage and splintered on one of his bones leaving no exit wound, a very small entry wound and no blood trail. This deer was enormous. He was a very traditional, typical 8-point. 

Dad arrived and we starting pulling the deer up the ridge towards the truck. We made it about half way up the ridge when we realized there was no way that the two of us could pull this 200 pound animal up this bluff by ourselves. We made a call to my granddad and he brought my brother to help. The four of us were able to drag the deer to the top of the ridge with the help of a winch. 

My mom had several pictures of the deer developed for my birthday the following day. It took several months to have a local taxidermist complete the mount for the deer. It turned out the be a great, hometown trophy and has stayed on my wall until this day. I took the mount to Birmingham's Deer and Turkey Expo the following year and put it in the big buck completion. The deer scored 136 Boone and Crockett and won a prize for “Big 8” in the youth category. I will never forget this hunt or the people that were involved.