When you’re coming to the end of deer hunting season, you’re begging to just come home with something.
ANYTHING.
James White was having one of the slowest deer hunting seasons of his life in Pleasantville, Maryland, according to the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.
Right when he was about to hang up the bow for the year, he noticed the perfect deer coming along.
It passed one of his trail cameras on January 26th, and he knew he had to find that beauty before the season officially came to an end.
With it being late in the season, white-tails were beginning to lose their antlers.
Several without antlers passed the stand, but he was looking for the perfect buck to take home… and the one on January 26th was the one.
On the last day of the season, he saw the deer in range, and bagged the buck with his bow, the largest deer in his career.
He weighed in on the hunt:
“After I’d spotted it on the trail cam, I didn’t sleep for about two days. I thought about it non-stop, and I’d seen him from the stand a couple times, but he was outside of bow range.
It was amazing to get him, I feel blessed I was able to take him down. You can tell their age by their teeth, and he was right around his peak: any older and his antlers would have started coming in smaller, and the meat wouldn’t be as good.
I had seen a ton of deer this season, some with a lot of potential but when I saw him, I was almost fixated on getting him.”
White had the buck appraised, and it got a “rough green score” of 174, but he’ll be getting an official score later this month.
The 13-pointer had an antler spread of 26 inches.
White said that population management is one of the main reasons he hunts, but it’s also been a passion for him since he was eight-years-old:
“My mother would send me to a family friend’s farm in Logan over the summers, and Danny had a real passion for the outdoors. He invited me back in the fall for deer season, and that’s how I got started. I’d say hunting is the outdoorsman’s drug.
It’s almost always on my mind. And it isn’t always about the trophy of the hunt, for me, helping the area’s deer population stay manageable is important.
I could sit in the stand for hours, not take a single shot, and still be happy.”
He also admitted that he loves hunting for the camaraderie with friends, adding that he likes bow hunting more than gun hunting because you can see the seasons change, and bow hunting is more challenging:
“Hunting is also something to share with younger generations, to get them outside and get them interested in the outdoors. My girlfriend’s son George showed interest last year, and we got his first deer in November.
It’s something special we can share, and it gets him out of the house and keeps him active.”
Amen to that.
