Mason’s buck measured 147 6/8 inches Boone and Crockett
If you talk to any biologist and ask what it takes to get the biggest possible size from a whitetail buck’s rack, they’ll all tell you pretty much the same thing: Age.
Planting food plots, creating mineral stations and supplementing with protein will certainly aid the process, but unless the animal is able to reach full maturity, the rack’s greatest potential won’t ever materialize.
Jody Mason, of Spearsville, has allowed deer on the land he hunts in Union Parish to fully mature, but it originally happened almost by default.
“This land that I found, nobody had hunted in about six or seven years before I started,” Mason said. “I knew the guys who used to lease it and they both passed away at a very young age, and nobody hunted it after they were gone.”
After asking around about the land, Jody found out the secluded, swampy area not too far from the Arkansas line wasn’t being hunted, and once he started to see the size of some of the bucks, he decided to keep a good thing going.
“I try to let the smaller bucks walk unless it’s something like a big-body, cow-horn spike, and I firmly believe in killing does,” he said. “I pretty much have a rule that if I kill a buck, the next one has to be bigger. Last year I killed a 7-point that was in the 120s in this spot, and then a 10-point.”
According to his trail cameras, big bucks were roaming the area and on the morning of Oct. 30, Mason finally came face-to-face with one.
“There was paws and rubs all over the place. He had that whole hillside torn up, so I pretty much knew he was in there,” Mason said.
The early-morning hours were cool, and Mason patiently watched the shooting lane and small cutover he was hunting. He didn’t have to wait very long before things started to get wild just before 7:30.
“He never hit my lane at all. He stayed in that small cutover grunting with every breath and taking small runs, like he was running a doe, but I never saw one. He’d run and stop, then run and stop,” he said.
Mason’s heart pounded harder and harder as he watched the small trees shake and listened to the brush break in the distance. Then things got eerily quiet and Mason thought he’d squandered his chance at the big buck.
“He made another run when he got close to me and I could see his tail, and thought that he was headed out,” Mason said.
But the big buck had other ideas.
All at once the, the deer spun around and ran directly towards the box stand Mason was in, and ended up only 15 steps away. With his rifle raised and ready to go, he squeezed the trigger just as the big deer saw him and pulled up.
The shot from his .30-06 hit the mark, and the buck crumpled in its tracks.
The big 10-point scored 147 6/8 inches Boone & Crockett, with bases between 5 1/2- and 6-inches around. The big buck’s main beams were 23 inches, and the rack sported a 17-inch inside spread.
Don’t forget to enter photos of your bucks in the Nikon Big Buck Photo Contest to be eligible for monthly giveaways and the random drawing for Nikon Monarch binoculars at the end of the contest.
Read other stories about big bucks killed this season by clicking here.
