Amy May, a conservation officer by trade, was looking forward to a few days off work, but more importantly it provided a time to recharge her batteries while hunting for a trophy buck. May is no stranger to harvesting deer, having killed her first buck at the tender age of 9 near her home in Conehatta. This time her field of play was on a farm near Greenwood.
“This makes the third year I’ve gotten to hunt the farm and I had not yet pulled the trigger on a buck, although I had seen many bucks during my prior hunts,” she said. “I’d passed on some 3- or 4-year-old bucks preferring to hold out on a trophy instead.”
A windy hunt
Back in September/October, May went up to the farm and rode around with the leaseholder. She was able to get a better feel of the actual lay of the land.
She arrived at the farm and started hunting on Monday, Dec. 8.
“On Monday afternoon we saw a lot of young deer, but nothing we wanted to shoot,” May said. “After the morning hunt on Tuesday, I had a blowout on my truck so that about did in the afternoon hunt. Wednesday morning we got up and went arrowhead hunting, and it was really fun and we actually found one good arrowhead point.”
Wednesday afternoon came and the wind was blowing from 15- to 20- mph. They were not really excited about the prospect of the hunt.
“I didn’t think anything would be moving but I was going to hunt anyway,” May said. “I climbed up into the treestand and started messing with my new camera that I hoped to film deer with. At 4:45, I looked up and spotted a deer about 120 yards out. It had come out of the woods on my side of the field angling towards the woods on the other side. I picked up my binoculars and got a better look and said that’s a nice buck.”
Taking the shot
Things were really heating up now and May tried to get another look before trying to get a good shot.
“I was on the tree line and there was some saplings between us, and he just kept feeding across the field,” May said. “All the while I kept trying to film him with my new camera, but the auto function just kept blurring the camera as it focused on the limbs. I finally got my camera adjusted as he was going out across the end of the field, and just about the time I got it right I saw he was about to go into the woods, so I put my camera down and shouldered my rifle.”
She knew the buck was a definite shooter when he cleared the timber and raised his head up. She got a clear view and saw just how big he was!
“Baaaaa!” May sounded out a loud grunt and got the buck’s attention at 150 yards. He stopped suddenly at the sound of the grunt.
“Boom!” May’s rifle roared and the buck collapsed in an instant.
“I haven’t shaken that bad in a long time,” she said. “I was shaking so bad that I could hardly talk afterwards, and I just couldn’t believe he came out so quickly while I was working on my camera. Then he dropped like a rock and I could hardly believe he dropped so quickly.”
Impressive buck
May watched the buck a few minutes before getting down and heading over to the kill location. Upon walking up to the buck she realized he was the best buck she had ever harvested.
The buck was a main-frame 8-point with a 20-inch spread with long tines and plenty of mass to go on the 220-pound buck’s massive rack also. The initial score showed the buck to be well into the 140’s.
“I had just bought the rifle after I’d saved up for a long time,” May said. “The rifle was a Browning 300 Win-Mag X-Bolt rifle with a beautiful wood stock topped off with a Leupold VX 5 Scope, and it really made it special to me to be able to harvest the biggest buck of my career with my new rifle.”
You can find more from May on her YouTube channel Amy May Outdoors.
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