Scott Gray’s season was rolling along like many over the last several years with plenty of deer sightings but few big bucks. Gray and a hunting buddy have hunted together with his buddy harvesting bucks almost every year. They planted fields and put up shoot houses over the last 10 years while getting them in better positions to watch the deer and to give them the best position for viewing deer and killing a few without the wind giving them away.

“On December 31, 2007, after allowing my hunting partner three encounters with a nice deer, I took over the spot and harvested a nice 12 point with a left side dagger and an eye guard,” Scott Gray said. “I have not harvested a deer since then, until now.”

A couple of weeks ago Gray was hunting in the same field and they knew the bucks were chasing does and it usually had a bunch of does in it right at dark so Gray was getting really excited at the possibilities of harvesting a good buck.

“I missed a nice deer that I believe was better than the one I eventually killed,” Gray said. “As previous hunts went, first deer came in at 5:15. By 5:30 I had 12 in the field and I was watching the feeder when a deer lifted his head and I saw horns, on a good buck. Then he looked away and I knew immediately, he was a shooter with that spread. I got my gun ready and found him in the back of the field, but two does were in the way. Patience, I thought as I waited… looking back on it, NOT.”

“The minute the does moved, I rushed a shot,” Gray said. “He was still standing there when I bolted another shell in and the field just exploded with a herd of deer going everywhere. Ten seconds later after the field had been empty for a while, I saw him trotting right at me with his head down. It was very late and I could not stop him to get a good shot so I had to let him run on.”

Saturday’s hunt allowed Gray the time to pull a card from a field they rarely hunt and on January sixth, just three hours after serveying the field, we had this buck on camera. There was eight photos, the next eight after Gray was seen checking the camera in a backside photo.

“I sent the pictures of the buck to my hunting buddy and we started dreaming about when we could go hunting there again and who might get a shot at him,” Gray said. “I finally got to go on Monday, Jan. 21 and I got the field started with scents sticks, which had been keeping small bucks and does interested and settled in my fields since the rut started. I settled in and knew that it would be an hour before I might see a thing if they were early.”

At 4:45 Gray spotted a deer approaching on the main trail to the left end of the field, running along the creek. He looked at him through his binoculars and saw it was a buck, and a nice one at that.

“I reached for my gun and got ready,” Gray said. “He was only looking and by the time my gun was ready, he had turned back into the woods headed for the creek in the direction where the does bed. I could see him moving and I was trying to determine whether to take a shot or not since with I might not see the deer again.”

Gray decided to take his own advice and decided not to take a bad shot.

“Five minutes later I saw him coming back towards the field and getting a little closer,” Gray said. I waited for him to step in, while I told myself to settle down. I set the crosshairs on the front shoulder, trying not to look at the horns, as he was quartering to me…

Ka-Boom! The rifle roared and the buck hunkered down and was booking it out of there.

“I knew I hit him,” Gray said. “I couldn’t wait long, it was just like it was Christmas, so I eased to the back. Thinking he might just be on the edge, I went to the creek and I saw a great big blood patch where he was standing and nothing on his trail. ‘Oh, no, my gun is off, I have wounded a really nice deer!’ I thought.”

Gray went back to the shot sight and started over and followed the foot tracks toward the creek.

“Low and behold I spotted him not 50 yards away laying in a dip on the edge of the creek,” Gray said. “How I did not see him the first time back there is beyond me.”

“Twelve years was a long wait, but I have enjoyed every minute in God’s museum,” Gray said. “Thanks be to God!”

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comast.net.