Mississippi deer hunting: Case of mistaken identity leads to 149-inch trophy buck
A Mississippi man was hunting a deer he had seen in photos, and it would have been his biggest to date.
However, after harvesting what he thought was the buck in the photos, he realized the rut had given him something even bigger.
"Actually, it showed up on Sunday (Jan. 16)," said Hunter Riley of Caledonia. "I've got pictures of him at two different spots.
"Man, I'd say he was in the 140s. It was super thick all the way through. It was just massive. That would have been the biggest one I've killed."
Riley hunted the deer the following two days, but without success. Photographs told Riley the buck, a 9-point, was still in the area, but the two never crossed paths. Jan. 19 was shaping up to be a repeat of the previous two days.
"It had been a slow morning," Riley said. "I was sitting on a fire lane probably 250 yards long. About 7:15, I hadn't seen anything."
Riley decided to see if he could drum up some activity. He pulled out his bleat call and used it a couple of times. Nothing immediately happened, but a few minutes later, the situation changed.
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Looked like a moose
"It wasn't 15 minutes later a young buck came out," Riley said. "It just ran across.
"I put my gun out the window, and this buck came out at the same spot. I guess he was chasing the small buck."
Riley thought it was the buck in the photos.
"I could tell it was a really good buck," Riley said. "When that sucker stepped out, he looked like a dang moose. The lane wasn't but about 20 yards wide. It was almost like his horns filled up the whole lane."
With a narrow lane and a buck on the move, Riley knew he had little time before the deer would vanish into the woods. The first opportunity he felt comfortable with, Riley pulled the trigger, and the deer ran.
Because everything happened quickly, Riley said he wasn't sure of his shot. When he went to where the buck had been, he became less confident — there was no blood.
After a short search, Riley found a blood trail that led him to the buck. It was only 40 yards away. Riley had his biggest buck to date and called his father and said, "I got him."
In his excitement, Riley didn't notice that it wasn't "him."
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'Dang, that's a different deer'
"When I was walking back to the 4-wheeler, I realized it was an 8-point," Riley said. "I got to looking at him and said, 'Dang, that's a different deer.'"
Not only was it a different deer, but Riley also said it had a larger rack than the 9-point he was hoping to harvest. The 8-point gross-scored 149⅜ with a 19⅜-inch spread and 23¾-inch main beams. His G2s measured 9 inches and 9⅝ inches with a kicker on the right G2.
"I've killed some 125-inch to 130-inch deer, but nothing like that," Riley said. "He's by far the biggest one I've seen while hunting."
Where the buck came from is anyone's guess as bucks make excursions out of their home ranges in search of receptive does during the rut. After posting a photo of it on Facebook, Riley said he received a photo of it from another hunter taken 8 days earlier and more than 6 miles away.
The fact the buck was on his hunting land and managed to avoid cameras was not lost on Riley.
"If I hadn't been there, I probably would have never got him on camera and never knew he existed," Riley said. "It made a believer out of me that just because you don't have one on camera doesn't mean one's not there."
Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com. Follow Clarion Ledger Outdoors on Facebook and @BrianBroom on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi deer hunter's chance encounter yields 149-inch buck
