Thursday, October 01, 2009
Kill a record-book buck on public land? It's possible
Bill Cochran
Recent columns
Sean Huffman with the 19-point Rockbridge County buck that won the 2009 Big Game Contest.
When Sean Huffman saw the buck, it was about 100 yards away in thick cover. Even so, he could tell it was a “shooter.”
Two smaller bucks had passed by earlier, about 50 yards apart. It appeared obvious that their necks were rut swollen and they were in hot pursuit of a doe.
“I didn’t see the doe, but there is no doubt in my mind, three bucks, 50-yards apart, the way they were acting, they were on a trail.”
Huffman, a 40-year old from Buena Vista, was hunting on national forest property in Rockbridge County.
National Forest land -- there are 1.8-million acres of it in Virginia -- has gained the reputation in recent decades of offering inferior deer habitat. It was the place our grandfathers grew up hunting, but our fathers gave it up to seek deer on more productive and easier-to-hunt private land.
Huffman and his brother grew up hunting farmland. Then, a few seasons ago, the farm they hunted was sold and they reluctantly had to search for new terrain, which turned out to be George Washington and Jefferson National Forest land.
“I wish it had happened sooner,” Huffman said. The past three years, he has made the discovery that the national forest is as good as it gets when it comes to offering remote habitat for trophy buck hunting. He killed a wall-hanging, 9-pointer there and has passed up a bunch of other bucks that would send the average hunter to the taxidermist shop.
“You have to let them go if you want bigger ones,” he said
The buck he spotted the second day of the 2008-09 Virginia deer season was the kind that even discriminating hunters dare dream about. It was a record-book candidate.
Huffman was still-hunting along a 4-mile loop. Like hunting on national forest land, still-hunting is a quiet but aggressive technique of another generation, having given way to tree-stand hunting. It involves putting the sneak on a buck by taking a few steps then pausing to look and listen as you move through the woods.
Hunters like Huffman hone it to perfection by knowing the terrain, the active deer trails, the food sources, the bedding areas, the direction and velocity of the wind moving along the ridges, the slant of the sun. Even then, it is no small task to catch a glimpse of a mature buck before he sees you.
When Huffman spotted this one, he picked a shooting lane with the plan to fire his aging .30-06 when the buck stepped into it.
“My thought was, a soon as I saw the deer hit that opening I would bleat. Usually they will take another step or half step. When I bleated, he stopped on a dime, and just left his head and neck sticking out.”
Huffman aimed for the neck. Boom! A miss!
You’d expect this chance of a lifetime to vanish; rather, the confused buck moved closer to Huffman and remained in the shooting lane. This time, it offered the other side of its neck.
Boom! Another miss!
Now the buck was within 65 yards and had exposed its shoulder.
Huffman had hunted with the .30-06 for probably 25 years, and knew it was time to retire it, but it had a strong sentimental attachment. It was a gift from his grandfather, who had helped introduce him to hunting.
The gun had a malfunction. After shooting it twice, it would fail to drive the third round into the chamber. So, as Huffman eyed the buck that was giving him a rudimental shot, he seated the bullet with his finger.
This time, when the rifle cracked the buck dropped. When Huffman reached it, his first reaction was to think it only had antlers on one side. But the other side simply had been buried in the leaves.
“When I pulled it up out of the leaves I dry-heaved,” Huffman said.
The drag to his vehicle was an estimated 2.5 miles. He called for help on his cellphone, and then started out.
“It is pleasurable pain, is what I called it,” he said.
That also might be a good description by him of the 70th annual Big Game Trophy Show Sunday in Franklin where Huffman’s 19-point buck was the top entry, scoring 252 6/16 under the Virginia measuring system. As best as can be determined, that ranks it 10th among the all-time big bucks registered in the state.
Huffman didn’t particularly like the exposure, the interviews, the picture taking, the questions for fear it will draw attention to the national forest as a place for trophy hunting. He also was concerned that the spotlight on him would take away from his heartfelt belief that he had been blessed.
“I am not crazy about doing this,” he said at the show.
See Cochran Field Reports for more information on the Big Game Trophy Show.
