When Madison and Debbie Edwards of Stanford, Kentucky, headed to his deer lease in Owen County last year, they planned to bowhunt the entire week leading up to the firearms opener. They also took their rifles, just in case the bowhunting was a bust.
Good move.
Mike filled his tag on opening morning of rifle season. Debbie got her turn that afternoon, and hubby was right beside her.
"We were in my stand by 3:00," she told Dale Weddle, who wrote the story for Rack magazine.
"As the afternoon wore on, we started seeing quite a bit of rutting activity. After a while, there were about a dozen does in the field, and an 8-pointer was chasing some of them. I had never seen that much activity," Debbie said.
"While she was watching the deer in the field, I was looking at the edges," Madison picked up the tale.
"About an hour before dark, I saw a good buck about 300 yards away and put my binoculars on it. When Debbie put her binoculars on it, she about died."
Weeds obscured any shot at the deer, however, so Debbie could only watch it, which thoroughly derailed her train.
"I looked through the scope for so long, my eyes were crossing," she said. "I said 'I'm going to miss!' I started counting points: one, two, three ... and said ‘Oh my gosh. There are seven on one side! Madison told me not look at the rack anymore."
A half-hour later, the buck finally moved clear of the weeds.
The first shot flew wide. And when Debbie ejected the spent cartridge, she hit the clip's release and lost her ammo. When she dug in her pocket for another cartridge, she dropped it on the ground, too.
"There were more in her pack, and I told her to hand me four or five," Madison said, adding that he put one in the chamber for her.
But Debbie missed again.
"By that time, she was going berserk. I loaded the gun again, gave it back to her and said ‘Calm down, take a deep breath, and kill this deer,'" he said.
That did the trick.
The 13-pointer is the largest felled by a woman in Kentucky last season. Its BTR composite score is 191 7/8 inches.