'I was speechless': 2-year hunt ends with 150-class deer for Mississippi woman

A Mississippi woman was beginning to think she'd never cross paths with a big buck photographed by game cameras, but an unexpected change in his behavior put him in the hunter's crosshairs.

"We had been hunting him two years," Stacey Bradford of Louisville said. "We had seen him on camera last year but never saw him in person.

"He was huge. It was quite a deer. He's one of the biggest ones we've seen around here. It made you want to go hunting a little more. We hunted him pretty heavy then but never saw him."

Bradford said the buck first appeared on camera in late December 2020. He was photographed multiple times by game cameras but never during the day. Soon enough, the pictures stopped coming and Bradford didn't see him again until late December 2021 — the same time he appeared the year before.

"We just thought he'd ventured off and somebody else killed him," Bradford said. "We were surprised when he showed back up."

Like the year before, Bradford spent a lot of time in a stand trying to get a shot at the big 10-point.

"I was hunting every chance I got — in the afternoons, on the weekends — just about any time I could get away from everything," Bradford said. "I would say I was in the stand every other day."

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A nocturnal deer

However, pictures of the buck on game cameras seemed to indicate that no matter how many hours Bradley spent in a stand, she wasn't going to encounter him.

"It was mostly at night or early morning — 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning," Bradford said. "He never seemed to come out in the day.

"I just thought he's too smart, and he's never coming out in the day. I hadn't given up totally, but it was discouraging not to see him during the day."

Despite the buck's behavior, Bradford decided to give it another try on Jan. 16. It was a hunt that unfolded in the most unexpected way.

"It was close to 3 o'clock on a Sunday," Bradford said. "I was walking to my box stand and I had not even climbed into the stand, and I saw some does. I just stopped and watched the does."

The stand overlooked a small food plot. The does were feeding in a narrow lane through the woods that had also been planted. As she watched the does through her scope, the unthinkable happened.

"I was braced-up against the stand, and he came out not five minutes after that," Bradford said. "Honestly, I was like, 'Holy crap. That's him.'

"I was astonished. He was walking right to the does. He was broadside. It was picture-perfect."

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No time to get nervous

Because the lane was narrow, Bradford knew her window of opportunity to take the buck was small. As soon as he paused, Bradford pulled the trigger.

"He came out and put his head down for just a moment and picked it back up," Bradford said. "I just shot him right there."

It happened so fast, Bradford said, that she didn't have time to get nervous, which for her was an especially good thing.

"I get pretty worked up," Bradford said. "It's an adrenalin rush. It gets on up there."

On one hand, everything happening so fast seemed to work in Bradford's favor because she was relatively calm. On the other, Bradford thought it may have been a disaster.

The deer bolted when she fired, and Bradford was scared she had missed.

As it turned out, there was no reason for concern. Bradford found the buck 50 yards away from the lane, and she had her first opportunity to put her hands on his antlers.

"I was full of emotions," Bradford said. "I was so excited.

"I was speechless. It's just one of those special moments of a lifetime. You hunt and hunt and finally get him."

The buck gross-scored 150½ with 22-inch main beams and an 18-inch inside spread. His bases measured 4 inches, with G3s measuring 7⅜ inches and 9⅜ inches.

"It's definitely the biggest deer I've ever killed, or my husband has ever killed," Bradford said. "I never thought it would happen like that. I guess it was about being at the right place at the right time."

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 bags elusive 10-point, 150-inch buck