THE NOONDAY BUCK

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hunters at George Mayfield's Roost Hunting Lodge in Aliceville, Alabama, enjoy picking his brain about how to hunt big deer. One of the biggest bucks he ever bagged he took in 1994.

I saw this deer in a wheat field near Aliceville, Alabama from about ½-mile away. Although he had a nice rack, by the time I spotted him in the late afternoon, I knew I couldn't get to him before dark. So I decided to go back to the area on the last day of deer season, which in Alabama runs from mid-November through the last day of January for gun hunting each year.

I was burned out and almost didn't hunt the last day of the season. I didn't get up in time to go in the morning or at mid-morning. However, then I started feeling guilty as I kept remembering that big buck I'd seen and not hunted again. I decided to head out early for the afternoon hunt.

I was hunting in an area of soybean fields divided by a wet wooded slough right on the edge of a spoil area coming off the river. This spoil area held the dredging from a trench built out in the river and had a levee to contain the spoil.

I couldn't go into this region the way I wanted to because the wind was wrong. So I made a big loop and walked across the muddy field and down the levee bordering the spoil area. By the time I got there and did all the finagling to get the right wind, the time had come for lunch.

I walked down from the top of the levee. The wooded slough was a peninsula that angled toward the levee. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and opened a can of Beanie-Weanies. As I ate and walked, I tried to figure out what to do.

I saw a yearling doe on the point. I stopped, sat down in the open and looked at the doe while I was eating. The doe kept looking around the side of the slough, where I couldn't see, and acting spooky. I thought probably another yearling or a doe was there. Then I got curious. The doe ran toward me and stopped. Because I wanted to be on the far end of the slough to get the wind right, I got up and went to the other side of the levee where the yearling doe couldn't see me from the woods.

I stayed out of sight and came up the back side of the peninsula around to the point to cut across the point to see what was down there. I heard deer in the water. Although I wasn't particularly worried about spooking the yearling, I still didn't want to go around the point. However, because I needed to, I duck-walked through the canes and came around the point. I got between the yearling and whatever it was looking at.

When I broke out of the canes, the yearling saw me and started to spook. I peeked around the corner. About 100 yards away was a big-racked buck feeding. He never knew I was there. I duck-walked out, got on one knee and fired. That nice buck took off like a scalded dog into that slough, which was no more than 150 yards wide at that point. I didn't know if I'd hit him or not.

I took off running around the point, before realizing at least 50 deer were in that slough. They all started running, splashing and making a big commotion. Although the big buck didn't come out on the side of the slough where I was, a bunch of does and a small buck or two did. When I ran back around the point and didn't find the big buck there, I got a little panicky. I couldn't find deer tracks anywhere. I dived into the slough and then waded around in nearly waist-high water.

I returned to the bank to try to locate some blood but couldn't find anything. So I went back to where I took the shot, found my knee prints in the ground, got lined up, looked down there and marked the spot where I thought the deer was. I walked down there and saw a big gouge mark where he'd taken off. I took five steps and saw a rack in the water. My fine buck hadn't gone five steps into the water, and I'd spent 20 minutes running around in a panic! The only thing sticking out of the water was his horns. I had shot him in the lungs.

You can contact George Mayfield at The Roost, P.O. Box 509, Aliceville, AL 35442; PH: (205) 373-3147 to learn more about hunting big bucks.

Check back each day this week for more from George Mayfield and The Roost...

Day 1 - 180-Class Boone & Crockett Non-Typical Buck
Day 2 - 155-Class Boone & Crockett Buck
Day 3 - 151-Class Boone & Crockett Buck
Day 4 - The Noonday Buck
Day 5 - Briarpatch Deer

John's Journal