Hunter: Dennis Barrows
Points: 8 (3L, 5R)
County: Crisp
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
Right at daybreak that morning we had seen a couple of does, but my son Dennis was wanting to kill a buck. So we continued to watch the food plot until we happened to look behind us and noticed five gobblers easing along. After a few minutes I returned my attention to the food plot, and my son Dennis continued watching the turkeys. I used a Primos Buck Roar grunt call a few times and shortly thereafter my son said, “Daddy here comes a big buck.” I thought he was pulling my leg by the way he said it, but he insisted that I turn around and look. When I did, I saw it was a small 5-point about a 1 1/2 year old. He said can I shoot him, and I told him we would wait for a bigger older deer. So I grunted a few times at the 5-point, and he turned and looked our direction. Then he picked up his pace heading off to our right side. About 5 minutes after the smaller buck had eased out of sight, my son still looking behind us said, “Daddy here comes another buck this one is bigger.” I could tell my son was getting excited, so I turned quickly to see a heavy-bodied deer with a broken rack trotting along the same path as the previous buck. Of course my son begged me to let him shoot it, and after several seconds of viewing the buck with binoculars I felt he would qualify as a cull buck so I let him shoot. His shot hit the buck low in the right shoulder and he ran about 30 yards before stopping. I put another round in the .300 Blackout as I didn't load but one round at a time. So I gave the rifle back to my son and told him to shoot him again and aim for his lungs. He shot and the buck ran about, 40 more yards into some heavy brush. We waited in the stand about 10 minutes and then got down to look for blood. We found only about four drops where he last shot at the deer. We then proceeded to where we had seen the buck enter the thick cover, and we heard some loud breathing sounds. Almost like cows munching loudly on grass as they graze. After a few minutes of looking around I realized there was no easy way of getting through the thick willows and briars, so I headed on in and eased toward the loud breathing noise. It was so thick that I about stepped on the buck before he jumped up and made a run for it. I could not get the safety off in time to make a shot, so I just listened and watched. I heard and saw him crash down about 20 yards from me in some thick grass. I eased over this time ready for him if he bolted again, but he was laying right there dead as a door nail. After a very difficult drag out of the thick stuff, we took him and had him weighed at the processor and he weighed 210 pounds. I had his lower jaw removed to have him aged, but haven't had it done as of this writing. My son Dennis has been hunting since he was 6 and this make's his third and largest buck and seventh deer.
