Rack Magazine

Mississippi deer hunter bases choice of destination on nighttime sighting vs. daytime photos.

Trail camera photographs, shed antlers and a witness’ wide-eyed description might’ve piqued Pittman Edwards’ interest in the giant whitetail seen by members of at least two hunting clubs in Bolivar County, but it took seeing the animal to convince him to pursue it.

The Cleveland, Mississippi, deer hunter had already committed his 2016 season to an exceptional buck his trail camera was photographing while the sun was overhead. But that was then.

Pittman’s priorities changed on the night of Dec. 12, while he was driving back to his hunting club’s camphouse from a trip to town. As he approached a road’s-edge food plot about 9:15, several deer ran out of it, and one wore a tremendous rack.

He hunts land both inside and outside the levee on the Mississippi River, some he owns as well as the 52-member club’s 9,600 acres. All the adjoining hunting clubs intensively manage their deer herds, establishing early on which deer – among those photographed – they will and won’t shoot.

The buck he saw that night was on the neighboring club’s protected list because they thought it was only 3 1/2 years old.

“From the trail camera pictures I saw, I thought the buck wore at least 180 inches, if not more,” Pittman said. “I decided that if that buck came on our hunting club, I’d put it down. Another member of my club told me, ‘That’s the biggest buck I’ve ever seen.’”

The one from the food plot had to be the same deer.

“Although I had some daylight pictures of a very nice buck I could hunt on the property I own, I kept thinking about that huge deer that ran out of the food plot,” Pittman said. “I’d been hunting the other big buck on my land for 10 days and hadn’t spotted it.”

The next morning, Pittman took his climber, his bow and his son’s single-shot, 7mm-08 to a travel corridor between his club’s land and the adjacent property where the giant had been seen most often.

Created by an oxbow lake, the funnel connects large woodlots on each side of the property line. Pittman hung the rifle on a screw-in bow-hanger, while he held his bow.

Despite a heavy fog at daybreak, Pittman saw a few does and a small buck. Around 9:30, he heard an ATV approaching. Soon afterward, he saw three does heading his way.

About 10:00, he watched three bucks chase does through a clear-cut about 100 yards distant.

“The first buck was a tight-racked 8-pointer,” he said. “The second was a spike, and the third a 7-pointer.”

Pittman then heard a deep-sounding grunt off to his left.

“When the 7-pointer looked back where the sound originated, I followed its gaze and spotted this monster buck coming from the clear-cut at only 60 yards,” he continued.

“Suddenly, a doe took off, and instantly the three bucks ran toward her. The monster buck sped to cut off the doe.

“I bleated with my mouth call and came to full draw, but the buck didn’t slow down,” he added.

Realizing there would be no opportunity for a bow shot, Pittman traded his stick and string for the rifle, which is why he’d carried it. He then found an opening the big buck might pass through at 75 yards and leveled the crosshairs about where the buck’s shoulder would appear.

When the deer entered the zone, he squeezed the trigger.

“I could instantly see I hit it, because the deer was running on three legs,” Pittman said. “I reloaded while the buck ran another 50 yards. I took a second shot when it stopped.

“Instead of continuing straight ahead, the buck whirled around and started running back the way it had come. I reloaded again and took a third shot when it was at the edge of the clear-cut.

“It vanished after that.

“I was shook up, although I’m an experienced deer hunter. I was like a youngster who’d taken his first deer, shaking like a leaf,” he said.

Two club members soon appeared to see who had shot and if any help was needed. Pittman hollered to them, but he had to sit in his stand for 15 minutes before he could descend the tree safely.

“My friends helped me find the blood trail,” he said. “The buck was headed in the direction of private land inside the boundary of our hunting club that was owned by three individuals. I called them and got permission to cross their lands and look for my buck, if the blood trail went in that direction.”

Some of Pittman’s good friends, Jason and Chad Smith, had deer-tracking dogs. They agreed to bring them to help him find his buck when they got off work at dark.

Word of Pittman’s deer spread quickly. Soon, people began arriving at the club to hear the story and see the buck.

Pittman was nervously walking back and forth, waiting on the Smiths to arrive. These men and their dogs recovered more than 36,000 inches of antlers during the 2016 deer season.

“When Jason and Chad arrived with their Labrador retriever and black mouth cur, we put the dogs on the blood trail,” Pittman said.

The dogs bayed the deer about 255 yards from where the blood trail ceased. It had fallen into a hole.

“Once I put my hands on the deer’s antlers, I knew this was the buck I’d seen trail camera pictures of and had found his 2015 shed antlers.”

Incidentally, Pittman took the big buck he’d been bowhunting on his property one week later. It scored 172 1/8 inches as a 4x5.

Editor’s Note: You can learn more about the dogs used to find Pittman’s buck on the Facebook page for “Blood Trailing Dogs.”

This article was published in the March 2018 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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