David Barrett

You don't get many second chances in life, especially when it comes to mature bucks. That's what makes this story so amazing. I spotted this buck at 7:00 in the morning feeding in the field behind my house while I was getting my kids ready for school. He was about 250 yards away and I could tell he had a decent rack, but there wasn't enough light yet to be sure. I took the kids down to the bus, put on my hunting coat and hat, and glassed the buck as he left the field. By now it was 7:30 and I knew he was a shooter, but he walked out of the field into some weeds and brush and bedded down. That was the beginning of a 6 hour stand-off that my wife found to be hilarious. I watched this buck from my daughter's bedroom window waiting for him to stand up and offer me a shot. Hours went by with no shot opportunity. He just laid there in the brush with only his antlers and head visible at precisely 200 yards. By 1:30 pm he had only stood up twice with his back end toward me, and he never turned to the side. My dad asked why I didn't shoot him in the neck, but I fully believed that, at some point, he would present me with a "perfect" shot. It never happened. About that time, fellow Trophy Nation members, Bill Wonderling and Ed Fox showed up. Ed posted at the bottom of the hill below the buck, and I posted in my back yard. Bill, who shot a nice main frame 8 with 2 kickers at my farm on Monday, was going to try and get the deer up for us. He looped around the opposite edge of the field upwind from the buck. We expected the buck to head down hill when he was bumped. Bill got within two paces of this buck before he moved a muscle! When he finally did get up he didn't waste any time. He bolted straight toward me. I had to wait for the buck to turn one way or the other so that Bill wasn't in the line of fire. Unfortunately for us, the buck did the only thing he could have done to survive. He headed straight for the thick brush, but instead of busting down the hill to where I had a clear shot, he double back past Bill, across the open field and out of sight. I had no shot at him in the field because a fence row of Cherry tress blocked my view. I have video of the buck laying there throughout the day, and of Bill practically stepping on him. Something went wrong with my camera so I haven't been able to upload the video to the site yet. (No I didn't destroy the camera out of frustration, even though I felt like it.) I was disgusted to say the least. Ed and Bill left and I went about my business of putting up our Christmas tree. I kept one eye in the fields out back while I was trimming the tree. I noticed some deer out in the far field about 400 yards away. There were a few does and a couple of bucks fighting, but they were too far away to get a good look at their racks. Next, I saw a couple other hunters walking along my property line off to my right when white antlers caught my eye straight ahead. It was the same buck and he came back to the same spot he was in three hours earlier! He wasn't so lucky this time around. I got a good rest and squeezed the trigger on my 300 win. mag. I got a second chance at that buck and I made it count. He's not a monster, but he's a nice 10 point with a 19" outside spread. He probably scores just about 130. That's the first buck I've taken off the farm where I live. Something tells me that it won't be the last.

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