The Law Buck
Jefferson County B&C 11-Point

By Robert Law

My brother and I decided to go pull my, bow only, tree stand in the training area on Fort Drum that morning... Monday, November 23, 2015. A friend had told me about another area that had some nice rubs and scrapes. I normally hunt with a bow year around and this new spot was rifle. We got up that morning and headed over to my stand, pulled it down, and was going over to the new spot to scout around and find a good rut spot... seeing how rut was starting to kick in.

We parked, I grabbed my rifle, and my brother and I headed across the big over-grown meadow towards some hardwoods on the back side of the meadow. We got about half way across the meadow when my brother said, "Rob, there's a deer." I looked to my left to see a deer about 300 yards away. I pulled up, put the zoom on 12 and looked for horns... there were none. I then caught a glimpse of a deer just a few yards behind that deer with it's head was down. With the grass being so high couldn't see anything but body of the deer. I held the scope on it until it raised its head.

Once he raised his head... it got real! I started shaking so bad it was unreal. I could not even keep the cross hairs on him to take a shot. I think I took depth breaths for a good minute or two. The big buck was 100% focused on the doe, so I had my brother crouch down and walk toward me so I could use his shoulder to steady myself, but it still didn't help. So, I took a few more breaths and before squeezing off a broad side shot.

I must have shot over him because all he did was turned and look at us. At this point my brother could now see how truly big he was and the excitement got intense. I re-racked a shell and when I got the scope on him again the doe started walking away and he was bumping his chest on her. I told my brother to take the grunt call and grunt as loud as he could, but that did nothing. So, I had to calm down and take the shot no one wants to take. I could not let him go any further and take a chance of him getting away, so I took the ass shot. I saw him jump extremely high, landing down on his feet and appearing to be fine. I racked another shell, looked up, and he wasn't there! I said to my brother, "I think missed. Do u see where he went? My brother started freaking out and said, "He fell face forward!"

With excitement I ran as fast as I could and, when I got about 40-50 yards away, the buck lifted his head looking back and forth between my brother and I. The grass was about 2-3 feet tall I could not see his front shoulder. So, with my last shell I put the cross hairs on his neck and pulled the trigger. I got within a couple of feet of him as he was slowly dying, and being that close I could tell just how big he was.

It was pure luck... being in the right place at the right time. It was a great memory to make with my brother with a once in a life time buck. I'm pretty sure I was shaking still a few days after.