Shelby County Today

November 27, 2017 - Just about anyone with an interest in chasing whitetails likes to hear a good story about a young deer hunter bushwhacking a big ol' buck. But it's episodes like the one that unfolded shortly after daylight on Oct. 28 on a 100-acre family farm in western Nacogdoches County that will put an everlasting twinkle in your eye and leave you scratching your head at the same time.

Just ask 40-year-old Clint Miller of Jacksonville. It's been nearly three weeks since Miller watched his 12-year-old niece, Chloe Howard of Bullard, blast the biggest buck that either of them has ever seen. He still gets goose bumps just thinking about it.

"I still can't believe it," Miller said. "That buck was a monster, man. He just showed up out of nowhere and took us both by total surprise. There are some pretty decent deer that hang around out there on the farm, but we've never seen anything close to this. The other farms around our place get hunted, but as far as I know nobody knew a thing about this buck. I know I didn't."

And neither did Howard.

A 7th grader at Bullard Middle School, Howard lives life like many other girls her age with roots in rural East Texas towns. She enjoys the classroom, is involved in FFA and is big on sports. She wears a jersey on the Lady Panther volleyball and basketball teams and has aspirations of joining the track squad next spring.

In the midst of it all Howard likes to cradle a rifle or shotgun and go hunting whenever the chance arises. Her most frequent partner is her Uncle Clint, a life-long deer hunter who knows the value and importance of getting youngsters in the woods at a young age.

"I've got an 11-year-old daughter and I take her and Chloe whenever I can," he said. "We've got a family ranch in North Texas where I do a good bit of my hunting, but I also enjoy going over to my mom and stepdad's 100-acre farm. It's a really sweet spot with lots of deer. It's not managed and we don't have game cameras or anything like that. It's one of those places where you just go sit and wait. You're always just about guaranteed to see something over there. If you don't see deer while you're in the stand you'll see them on the way out. It nothing of the ordinary to see 10-15 does at one time."

Miller has his own theory as to why the acreage attracts and holds so many animals, and it makes plenty of sense.

For starters, there is a hog wire fence around the perimeter and adult does utilize the property as somewhat of a sanctuary during the fawning season. Plus, the deer don't see much outside human traffic and hunting pressure is limited to a few family members who take a handful of deer off the property each year. Everyone with key to the gate is becoming increasingly choosy about the bucks they squeeze the trigger on.

"The guy who owned the place before my mom and stepdad had a bunch of goats and he had it fenced to keep them in," Miller said. "It's not a game fence, but it'll hold cattle. The adult deer can jump the fence easy and they come and go, but the little ones can't. A lot of the does have their fawns on the place. They'll hang out there because the fawns aren't big enough to jump out. When the rut starts those bucks come running. Sometimes you can rattle them up. At times it's almost like a hunting show on television."

The acreage also is heavily wooded and cluttered with mast producing oaks. Miller says large white oak trees that produce nutrition-rich goodies are especially abundant on rectangular shaped piece of land.

"The white oaks are another big key, no doubt about it," he said. "There are lot of big trees on this place - way more than you see most land around East Texas. The deer don't have any reason to leave because they've got plenty of food and water right there. Those deer hang out under those white oaks and feed on those big ol' acorns. I think that's what helped this is buck get so big and massive. There are some pretty good genetics out there, too."

That's all interesting stuff, but what is even more intriguing is how everything came together and paid off with a brute of a buck for a pretty young blonde with her hair styled in a pony tail. Here's how it all went down:

Short but Sweet: Hunt of a Lifetime

Volleyball season had rolled to a close just prior to the two-day Youth Only season in late October, so Howard took advantage of the free time to join her uncle in a box blind on opening morning. One of fall's most pronounced cold fronts had recently passed across the region, dropping outside temperatures into the upper 20s long before the dawn of another day.

"He told me I needed to get up at 4 a.m. and be ready," Howard recalled. "It was about 6 a.m. when we got into the stand and it was freezing out there. I was dressed in layers, though, so I was pretty warm."

That's a good thing. Howard said her uncle had two propane heaters in the stand that morning, but couldn't get either one of them to fire up.

"He even had a spare bottle of propane, but it didn't help," Howard said. "He was thinking it was going to be a horrible morning for hunting because it was so cold, but it ended up turning out pretty good. I'm glad we went."

Howard said they had been in the box blind for close to an hour before the first hint of daylight made it possible to see. The woods were still and quiet, but it didn't stay that way for long.

"It was just breaking day when I looked past Chloe and out the window on the left side of the blind," Miller said. "That's when I saw him. I couldn't tell much about him other than he had a really thick set of antlers and was definitely a shooter. He was headed right at us and getting really close. I handed Chloe the gun, got her chair positioned at the right angle and told her to get ready."

A Hitch in the Plan

Something went terribly wrong as the young girl searched for the buck through the 3X9 power rifle scope.

"You see him?" Miller asked

Chloe's reply: "No, I can't see anything. It's all blurry."

That's when Miller remembered he had cranked the scope to its strongest power ahead of time, just in case his niece was faced with a long range shot. At a distance of 40 yards the buck was over-magnified, making it difficult to find in the lens.

"My uncle got the scope turned down, but by that time the buck had stepped behind some brush," the hunter said. "At first he thought the deer was gone, but I could still see him behind the brush. Then he deer started trotting away from us."

Howard says she wasted no time getting repositioned, sliding the .308 barrel out the front window and steadying for a shot.

"I still couldn't shoot, though," she said. "The buck was trotting away from us and wouldn't stop. That's when my uncle yelled and clapped his hands."

The sudden commotion caused the buck to slam on the brakes and spin sideways, offering Howard a clean broadside shot at 50 yards. The deer fell in its tracks and a celebration began.

"I'll never forget it," her uncle said. "She was so excited. She shot out of the blind before I knew it and I'm yelling for her to come back and get her gun. When we got up close to him I couldn't believe it. He was a monster. It looked like had big tree branches on his head."

Tale of the Tape

The gross score tallied by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist Larry LeBeau of Tyler explains why. LeBeau green scored the massive 21-point rack at 171 3/8 using the Boone and Crockett scoring system.

More than 41 inches of circumference measurements account for a percentage of the score, largely as the result of the extreme palmation (webbing) on its right antler. The final circumference measurement on that antler is 7 4/8 inches, a good indicator of how much mass the animal was able stack on.

Not surprisingly, Howard quickly became the talk of the hallways at Bullard Middle School as word of her trophy buck spread among her classmates.

"Some of the guys at the school didn't believe me until they saw the picture, and then they were like "whoa!" she said. "My volleyball coach even wanted a copy of the picture so he could show his friends. That was pretty cool. He definitely looks like something you'd see in a deer hunting magazine."

Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.