Hunter’s Journal: The Quest For The Ghost

Alex Barfield, of Shellman, with a Randolph County monster taken on Jan. 5, 2015.

By Alex Barfield

I love to hunt and the challenge of patterning a big mature buck, but the most memorable experience I have when it comes to hunting is getting the experience the look of pure joy and excitement on my sister’s face the day she killed her biggest buck ever.

The chase started for my sister two years ago with the purchase of a stand of pine timber by my grandfather in Randolph County. I didn’t really think the property was going to be that impressive with deer since there were no hardwoods or water located on the property. 

The first time I checked my trail camera, a good, mature 9-point was on camera, but the deer had two broke tines. I showed this picture to my sister, Alex, and she immediately laid claim to that deer. She had killed several bucks at this point but nothing of really any size, so everyone agreed to leave this buck for Alex. 

She hunted the deer hard the remainder of the season, but it seemed she could never see the deer, even though he was regularly showing up in daylight on camera. I let the deer walk several times throughout the year.

The following year we got cameras out early and immediately began getting pictures of the deer, but to our amazement, the deer had grown beyond our expectation from the previous year by adding more than 20 inches of antlers and adding a drop tine. Alex once again laid claim to the bruiser, and I agreed I would not kill the deer, nor would I allow anyone else to kill the deer, but with a deer of that size, I really had to keep everyone else out of that stand.

I spotted the deer several times throughout the year, but it seemed every time Alex went hunting, the deer was a ghost, thus earning her nickname for the buck, “The Ghost.” She was determined to kill this one buck or kill no buck that year. She was true to her word, letting several bucks walk that many hunters would not have hesitated to shoot. This made several of us question her sanity.

As it became later in the year, I tried to convince Alex to shoot one of the other bucks we had been seeing on the farm, which included a big 12-point, but she was determined to kill The Ghost. A few days following this conversation, our brother-in-law killed the big 12-point, which was a main-frame 10-point with matching kickers and a 20-inch inside spread. It grossed close to 150 inches.

It was now late December, and The Ghost had gone into hiding and actually disappeared for about two weeks from our cameras. Alex continued to believe The Ghost was still alive, since if anyone around would have killed him, we would have surely heard about the monster.  Still, with the hunts beginning to mount up and the countless hours in the stand, Alex still had not laid her eyes on “The Ghost.”

I was starting become concerned that the deer was lost for another year, and then on a Jan. 4, I spotted him again. True to his name, he once again appeared on the farm like a ghost, but I couldn’t bring myself to shoot the deer my sister had put so much time and energy into hunting. I told Alex about spotting the big old buck and for her to go back and hunt that stand hard the next few days and see if the Ghost would reappear or vanish once again.

I was doubtful she would be this lucky, considering it was Jan. 5, and a deer of this age and size would not make such a mistake. 

During the morning hunt, she held true to her mentally all season of The Ghost or no buck, when she let a mature 8-point walk right under her stand.  

Alex and her boyfriend, Fred, got in the stand early that afternoon and had seen several deer, including several young bucks early in the hunt, which was a promising sign. Then around 5:15, they finally spotted The Ghost about 250 yards away standing in the neighbor’s pines with another big 9-point. The deer stood there for nearly 15 minutes without moving, and then suddenly some dogs began to bark on the neighbor’s property, and the two bucks exploded out of the pines into the clearing. Both bucks ran across the clearing and into the young pines the deer stand was sitting on. The two bucks ran straight up the edge of the pines to the stand and began to run back and forth in the young pines several times.  

Finally, Fred was able to stop the bucks with what Alex said amounted to a yell. Alex was then having trouble locating the correct buck. Fred noticed she was actually looking to shoot the wrong buck and pushed the barrel in line with The Ghost. Finally the moment she had waited two years for, The Ghost in her crosshairs at a mere 30 yards. All she could see was horns and eyes looking right at her. The only shot she had was for the neck, and with a little prayer and one squeeze of the trigger, she finally saw the buck which had eluded her for years drop to the ground.

I was at my office when my phone rang, and as soon as I saw her name, I knew she had got him. I’ll never forget the excitement in her voice as she told me, “I did it, I dropped him.” After nearly breaking my chair and having several documents tossed aside and go missing for several days, I rushed to the stand, and to my amazement the deer was bigger than I ever imagined. He had nine tall massive points and a 23 1/2-inch inside spread, but the smile on her face as she ran up to give me a hug is what stuck with me the most. This is a hunting adventure and journey that I will never forget, “Alex’s quest for The Ghost.”