Bluegrass Bruiser
By Darron McDougal
Tennesseean Kevin Clifton III was returning from a fishing outing with his brother, Gunter, and their two friends when an oncoming truck collided with his car. They had been sightseeing along a country road when a truck rounded a bend just ahead. It was traveling in the center of the road at approximately 65 mph, towing a trailer loaded with lawn mowers.
“We were driving over a bridge when I first saw the truck,” Clifton recounted. “I had nowhere to go. When we cleared the bridge, I moved off the shoulder into the grass. The truck driver panicked when he finally noticed us and swerved right into my car.”
The head-on collision broke Clifton’s right foot, all of his toes and two vertebrae, although he didn’t realize it as he checked on his passengers, hopeful the crash hadn’t been deadly.
“All the doors were jammed shut, but my window was down, so I jumped out and ran around the vehicle,” Clifton said. “I was able to pull my friend’s brother out his window. He’d suffered a concussion and was pretty loopy.”
Next, Clifton noticed Gunter lying on the floor, unconscious from the horrific impact. He climbed through the window to further investigate his brother’s condition.
“I pulled him up onto the seat and tried waking him,” he said. “He eventually started moaning, so I jumped back out the window and began yanking on the door. I finally got it open and pulled him out as the front of the vehicle caught fire. When I tried carrying him away from the car, I realized I had broken bones because I couldn’t hold his weight. I got on my knees, and drug him away.”
Everyone was alive, but Clifton and his passengers needed a lot of care, both physical and mental, after the traumatic collision.
“It took a lot of prayer and support from friends and family to help us get through those difficult circumstances,” Clifton said. “The accident completely blindsided us. We didn’t see it coming until we were right in the middle of it.”
All his life, Clifton hunted deer on public land, but the accident settlement helped him afford his dream of hunting with a premier outfitter. His destination? Whitetail Heaven Outfitters in Nicholasville, Ky.
In 2013, Whitetail Heaven owner Tevis McCauley captured an outstanding 1 ½-year-old 12-pointer on his trail cameras. One of McCauley’s clients videoed the deer that same year.
The following year, the buck again had 12 points, and several kicker points had sprouted, adding character. McCauley knew it could grow into a giant if allowed to get older, so he named the buck Off Limits, and clients weren’t allowed to shoot it.
Off Limits showed up on McCauley’s cameras often throughout summer and early fall of 2015. Although just 3 ½, it was world class in every sense of the term. A client missed Off Limits, no longer protected, just days into Kentucky’s 2015 archery season. There were no other close encounters until mid-October.
It was Oct. 17 when Whitetail Heaven guide Richie Edgington dropped off Clifton and his father near a food plot for an evening hunt.
“Dad and I headed out to the food plot around 2 that afternoon,” Clifton said. “Except for some turkeys, movement was dead during our first three hours. Nine does came into the plot around 5 p.m. They stayed an hour and a half, and I was actually planning to shoot one, but Dad kept telling me to wait. I was impatient, but I finally listened to him. I’m so glad I did.
“About 10 minutes later, coyotes howled from the river bottom nearby,” he continued. “I soon spotted about 20 deer approaching the food plot. I was surprised to see that many all at once.”
While turning to tell his dad about the approaching deer, Clifton spotted two monster bucks, one noticeably larger than the other, near the back of the food plot.
“I raised my gun carefully because several deer were right by us,” he said. “Dad was watching the bucks through his binoculars, and the larger one raised up on his hind legs to work a branch with its antlers. There was a scrape beneath it, and we’d seen a doe stand up and bite at the same branch that morning. The other buck, a 160-class stud, came toward the scrape a few times, but Off Limits ran him off each time. He was clearly the boss of the area.”
Finally, the giant marched across the food plot toward the Cliftons. “We got pretty nervous because the wind had shifted,” Clifton said. “It was blowing right into the food plot. Off Limits covered 50 yards in five minutes, and I told Dad I’d take the shot when he turned broadside.”
Clifton’s muzzleloader roared moments later. His dad watched the entire event through binoculars and knew the buck was lethally hit. Clifton said the experience was completely different from other bucks he’d taken. He’d somehow remained cool until after taking the shot.
“Surprisingly, I stayed completely calm throughout the entire encounter,” he said. “That’s never happened to me before. I usually get pretty worked up. After the shot, though, Dad and I shook uncontrollably. I almost dropped my phone as I texted my brother, and Dad did drop his phone while texting our guide. We were high-fiving and celebrating. It was awesome.”
Recovering the 200-inch buck was surreal. “Normally the first thing you do is get your hands on the antlers, but I just stood there in disbelief,” Clifton said.
“I’d never seen another wild buck as big as this one. The mass just seemed unbelievable. I still have a hard time believing I shot a buck that big.”
Kevin’s father, a retired pastor, quoted scripture over his son’s deer that pertains well to the chain of events. The passage was Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose.”