Big Buck 411 Blog

Not All Rumors are Unfounded

Not All Rumors are Unfounded

By Mike Handley

Had Tom Wingate not retrieved trail camera photographs of an exceptional mainframe 8-pointer in 2015, he might’ve dismissed the following year’s rumors of a monster roaming the farmland near his 450-acre lease on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

He was smitten as soon as he saw those nighttime images.

“It was the biggest buck I had ever seen in my 30-plus years of hunting!” he said.

Tom didn’t retrieve any photos of the deer leading up to the 2016 season, so he had no idea if it was alive, still in the vicinity, or how much bigger its rack might’ve grown.

He heard rumors, however, that an enormous buck was frequenting the nearby fields during the summer, which made him wonder. Every time someone shared a story about it, he remembered the giant 8-pointer.

When Tom hadn’t seen the deer with either his own eyes or a camera’s well into October, he began worrying someone else had shot it. He was both surprised and elated when he jumped the top-heavy buck while doing some routine maintenance midway into the month.

After several days of bowhunting the deer without success, Tom feared his zeal might’ve pushed it into another zip code. Accordingly, he decided to give the setup a break.

On Nov. 26, opening day of Maryland’s rifle season, he went to a stand about 200 hundred yards from his usual bowhunting spot.

“I saw 14 deer that morning, but only small bucks and does,” he said. “When I got down, I pulled my trail camera pictures. Guess who had been at the corn pile in daylight?”

The local legend had passed in front of the lens the previous week. Tom hoped the rut-weary animal had shifted its focus back to food in preparation for the upcoming winter.

“I eagerly returned to my stand about 1:00 for the evening hunt,” he said. “It was slow going until about 4:55. Then I heard a grunt behind me.”

When the deer stepped out at 8 yards, a surprised Tom had trouble acquiring it in his scope. The big whitetail was equally shocked to see Tom’s telescoping head as the man tried to distinguish crosshairs from brown hairs.

The buck bolted immediately, but it stopped behind a tree 30 yards in front of Tom’s stand.

A fatal mistake.

The antlers carry a BTR composite score of 180 1/8 inches.

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Teamwork:
Shannon Sledge / BTR Composite Score: 206 2/8 inches.

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Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd