Submitted photo85-year-old Charles Compton of the Clarkdale community harvested this buck in the final weeks of the season. Johnny Cumberland helped Compton retrieve the buck, and Compton said he's going to enjoy the smoked sausage from the deer soon.

Charles Compton harvested a trophy 10-point buck about 10-years ago and it was the crowning achievement in his deer hunting career. That buck was killed in Clarke County on the old family homeplace, and it was the last deer he killed, until recently. Compton is well known in the Meridian area having worked at Kimbrell Ruffer Lumber for 57 years until he retired at 74 years old.

“I enjoyed deer hunting but after I harvested that big buck I quit hunting and just started watching them,” Compton said. “I actually sold my land in Clarke County, where I’d killed that big buck, to a friend and just didn’t have an urge to kill one. I really just enjoy being out in the woods and watching the wildlife and that’s just what I’ve been doing.”

Compton still has a stand and green patch on his land off T M Jones Road, and that’s enough land to watch them wildlife or hunt them.

“Greg Chatham gave me some deer sausage from a deer he’d killed recently, and it was really good,” said Compton. “My wife Pam told me that I was going to have to go deer hunting and get a deer so we could get some more sausage made up so that’s just what I tried to do. That’s the only reason I went.”

“I went to my stand one afternoon and a couple does and yearlings came out and started feeding and I was going to shoot one of the big does,” Compton said. “But they were bunched up together and before I could get a clear shot the does snorted and they ran off.”

Compton didn’t know what had run the deer off, and he was a little disappointed because he was going to shoot a doe for meat. He wasn’t very confident that he would see anything else but decided to wait and see.

“About an hour after the does left out a small buck walked out and started feeding in the patch,” said Compton. “I put the crosshairs on his neck and shot and the buck hit the ground and then took off running and sliding across the ground and ran off down in a ravine. I couldn’t see where he’d crossed the creek and I couldn’t find any blood because I’m color blind so I called Johnny Cumberland.”

Cumberland quickly picked up the blood trail as the buck crossed the creek and went straight up the ravine and kept going about 150 yards.

“It was thick and grown up so bad you can’t hardly get through there, but Johnny is just like a tracking dog,” Compton said. “He found him pretty quick about 150 yards from where I shot him and they retrieved him for me. While we were looking for the deer, I noticed that I had on the same flannel shirt that I had on when I killed that trophy buck too.”

“I have watched the deer the last few years and never thought about shooting one,” he said. “I usually don’t kill them but when I want to shoot one for meat, I usually shoot them in the neck and they drop right there!”

Thanks to Johnny Cumberland, Compton didn’t have to worry about finding the buck, as Cumberland is an expert hunter and trapper extraordinaire and almost always finds his buck! If not for a gift of some scrumptious tasting smoked sausage from Greg Chatham, then Compton probably would not have even gone hunting this year, but he did and was successful. Many people hunt all season for a chance to harvest a buck and Compton did it on his first hunt at the end of the season. It was an amazing feat for an 85-year-old hunter for sure. Imagine the possibilities because anything is possible with a little help from your friends. Carpe Diem!