South Alabama Produces Another Beast
12-14-2005, 11:40 AM
#13
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 58
RE: South Alabama Produces Another Beast
Here is a pic of the 196" Bow Kill from Bullock Co. Alabama and the story behind the deer.
Bucking the skeptics
Sunday, December 04, 2005
MIKE BOLTON
News staff writer
Dax Anderson is a quiet, unassuming insurance salesman who likes to hunt deer. The 27-year-old never dreamed a deer hunt on Nov. 17 would so greatly change his life.
Anderson arrowed a buck on that afternoon in Bullock County and it was by no means an ordinary deer. The 13-point buck grossed 196 2/8 typical Boone and Crockett points. It will likely become a state record for a bow-taken deer when it is certified after a 60-day drying period.
The current record for a bow-taken deer is the 170 2/8 buck taken by Opelika's George Mann in Lee County in 1980. Anderson's deer would need more than 26 inches in deductions to not surpass the current state record.
Anderson's buck might be the largest buck ever from Alabama. The current state record is the 186 3/8 buck found dead in 1986 in Lee County. Anderson's buck must have less than 10 inches in deductions to surpass that buck.
Anderson's buck is a mainframe 9-point and has split brow tines on both sides. It is believed to be 7 years old.
What has stunned Anderson most about his buck of a lifetime is the ugliness of it all. His problems began, he said, the following day when the negatives of the photos he took of the deer were stolen from a film-processing center in Troy and the photos appeared on the Internet.
The Internet has been abuzz with nasty rumors claiming the deer was really taken in Illinois and that the deer was taken inside a high fence, he said.
And then there were the never-ending phone calls. Anderson said he has gotten so many calls from people across the country wanting to know about the deer that he was forced to leave his home phone off the hook. He has moved the deer's antlers and skull plate from taxidermist to taxidermist and now has it stashed in a secret location for fear it might get stolen.
When the mounting of the deer head is complete, he plans to display the deer not in his home, but at a Troy sporting goods store. Anderson said he can't take the risk of someone breaking into his home to steal the head and sell it to a collector.
Thomas Calhoun, the owner of Troy Sports Shop, said he has known Anderson for years and that Anderson is an ethical sportsman who has passed up shots on that deer for three years and watched it grow into maturity. Calhoun said the jealousy among other hunters is appalling and the rumors floating about are nonsense.
"He has shown me pictures of this deer taken by a trail camera for three years," Calhoun said. "It's sad seeing what he is having to go through."
Surprising size:
Anderson is a student of deer management, but he never envisioned a buck of that quality.
"I have gotten the deer on the trail camera for three years but it never really let me get a good look at just what he had," Anderson said. "He was always turned in a way so I couldn't see everything."
Anderson got a glimpse of the deer late on Halloween afternoon from about 60 yards but even then he couldn't see the rack well. He said he needed to wait in a certain tree stand to intercept the deer on its daily afternoon walk from its bedding area to the area where it was feeding, but needed the wind coming from the northwest for that stand to work.
"I couldn't get the wind coming from that direction so I stayed out of the area in fear that I may spook him," he said. "On Nov. 17, I got the wind from that direction and I said, `Today is going to be the day.'"
He waited in his stand for only 10 minutes, he said, when a pair of small bucks wandered through. Twenty does eventually passed by his stand before 8-point and 10-point bucks passed through. Anderson said he was watching those two bucks when the big boy made his presence known.
"I had to watch him for about three minutes," Anderson said. "Where I was, I was going to have to stand up and shoot over a bush. I couldn't do it because he was always looking in my direction."
Anderson doesn't minimize the role luck played in taking the big buck.
"The deer was quartering away from me and all of a sudden an armadillo started coming toward him," Anderson said. "The deer wheeled his head around away from me to see what the noise was. He just kept staring at the armadillo. I stood up and drew and he never heard me. I broke him down right on the spot."
The shot was 32 yards, he said.
"I didn't realize until I got down from my stand and got beside him how good he really was. All I could think was, `What in the world did I do to deserve this?'"
Bucking the skeptics
Sunday, December 04, 2005
MIKE BOLTON
News staff writer
Dax Anderson is a quiet, unassuming insurance salesman who likes to hunt deer. The 27-year-old never dreamed a deer hunt on Nov. 17 would so greatly change his life.
Anderson arrowed a buck on that afternoon in Bullock County and it was by no means an ordinary deer. The 13-point buck grossed 196 2/8 typical Boone and Crockett points. It will likely become a state record for a bow-taken deer when it is certified after a 60-day drying period.
The current record for a bow-taken deer is the 170 2/8 buck taken by Opelika's George Mann in Lee County in 1980. Anderson's deer would need more than 26 inches in deductions to not surpass the current state record.
Anderson's buck might be the largest buck ever from Alabama. The current state record is the 186 3/8 buck found dead in 1986 in Lee County. Anderson's buck must have less than 10 inches in deductions to surpass that buck.
Anderson's buck is a mainframe 9-point and has split brow tines on both sides. It is believed to be 7 years old.
What has stunned Anderson most about his buck of a lifetime is the ugliness of it all. His problems began, he said, the following day when the negatives of the photos he took of the deer were stolen from a film-processing center in Troy and the photos appeared on the Internet.
The Internet has been abuzz with nasty rumors claiming the deer was really taken in Illinois and that the deer was taken inside a high fence, he said.
And then there were the never-ending phone calls. Anderson said he has gotten so many calls from people across the country wanting to know about the deer that he was forced to leave his home phone off the hook. He has moved the deer's antlers and skull plate from taxidermist to taxidermist and now has it stashed in a secret location for fear it might get stolen.
When the mounting of the deer head is complete, he plans to display the deer not in his home, but at a Troy sporting goods store. Anderson said he can't take the risk of someone breaking into his home to steal the head and sell it to a collector.
Thomas Calhoun, the owner of Troy Sports Shop, said he has known Anderson for years and that Anderson is an ethical sportsman who has passed up shots on that deer for three years and watched it grow into maturity. Calhoun said the jealousy among other hunters is appalling and the rumors floating about are nonsense.
"He has shown me pictures of this deer taken by a trail camera for three years," Calhoun said. "It's sad seeing what he is having to go through."
Surprising size:
Anderson is a student of deer management, but he never envisioned a buck of that quality.
"I have gotten the deer on the trail camera for three years but it never really let me get a good look at just what he had," Anderson said. "He was always turned in a way so I couldn't see everything."
Anderson got a glimpse of the deer late on Halloween afternoon from about 60 yards but even then he couldn't see the rack well. He said he needed to wait in a certain tree stand to intercept the deer on its daily afternoon walk from its bedding area to the area where it was feeding, but needed the wind coming from the northwest for that stand to work.
"I couldn't get the wind coming from that direction so I stayed out of the area in fear that I may spook him," he said. "On Nov. 17, I got the wind from that direction and I said, `Today is going to be the day.'"
He waited in his stand for only 10 minutes, he said, when a pair of small bucks wandered through. Twenty does eventually passed by his stand before 8-point and 10-point bucks passed through. Anderson said he was watching those two bucks when the big boy made his presence known.
"I had to watch him for about three minutes," Anderson said. "Where I was, I was going to have to stand up and shoot over a bush. I couldn't do it because he was always looking in my direction."
Anderson doesn't minimize the role luck played in taking the big buck.
"The deer was quartering away from me and all of a sudden an armadillo started coming toward him," Anderson said. "The deer wheeled his head around away from me to see what the noise was. He just kept staring at the armadillo. I stood up and drew and he never heard me. I broke him down right on the spot."
The shot was 32 yards, he said.
"I didn't realize until I got down from my stand and got beside him how good he really was. All I could think was, `What in the world did I do to deserve this?'"
