Landon Smith killed
this deer 12-13-07 just north of Vicksburg. The deer seemed to have broke
his left main beam in velvet, just above his brow tine.
Landon says, "This
is a special deer because it is the first decent buck that Shane
Easterling (Dogwood Outdoors Ministry Partner) and myself have gotten on
video since the Dogwood Outdoor Ministry was started in 2005. Everything
seemed to happen on this day like we always hoped it would. We got to our
hunting property around 1:00pm and went and checked the trail cameras that
Shane Easterling and Jonathan Breakfield had put out the week before on a
few scrapes. We had about 20 pictures of this deer and it was the first
time we had gotten a picture of this deer. So we went on and got in the
stand around 2:45pm and the rest is crazy. The stand we were in you could
see 4 different ways so Shane and I flipped a coin for which two lanes
each of us were going to watch and hunt. If the deer came out in my lanes
I would shoot and he would video and vice versa if they came out in his
lanes. I jokingly told him I had got the two sorry lanes. At 3:00, about a
14 or 15in 8pt came out in one of my lanes at about 400yds. We were
watching him and this deer walked out at 200yds between us and the other
deer at 3:21pm. After I calmed down I was able to squeeze the trigger and
dropped the deer with Shane’s 444 Handi rifle. The deer was a 12pt with a
17.25in spread. I really hate it, but we could not find a set of scales
anywhere so we can only estimate what he weighed. We estimated him at
about 240lbs. It was the biggest bodied deer I have ever killed.' Well
Shane, I guess I didn't get the sorry lanes! Thanks Buddy!' "