LITTLE ROCK — For buck hunting, the 2010 deer season ended for Wade Hill of Dumas almost as quickly as it started.
But what a start it was. On Oct. 1, opening day of the archery deer season, Hill killed a massive buck at the Turner Neal Hunt Club that racked a green, or preliminary, score of 158 6/8 Boone & Crockett points. It was a typical 9-point with a “kicker” point on the left antler. The inside width between its main beams was 19 inches, and the circumference of the antler base was 5 1/2 inches. It was 4 inches around at the tips. It was the biggest buck the Dumas farmer has ever killed in Arkansas, eclipsed only by a Kansas buck he killed with a rifle that scored 208.
Technically, members of the Turner Neal Club are allowed to kill only one buck per year on the property, and it must meet strict guidelines, said Bill Knoedl, club president. The Turner Neal Club contains 4,800 acres near Pendleton. An eligible buck on this property must have at least one 22-inch main beam, with a main beam circumference of 4 inches around the base. A deer with antlers of those dimensions will be 3-4 years old, Knoedl said.
A member can also kill what Knoedl called a “management” buck, one with 7 points or fewer and at least one 20-inch main beam. A member has to shoot two does before he can kill a buck, and killing a buck that’s too small will result in a $250 club fine.
“We want big bucks. We don’t want ‘basket racks,’ ” Knoedl said. “The clubs above and below us are on the same program. We went on at the same time. Inside the levee, that takes in nearly everything from Coal Pile to Douglas Lake, just below Cummins prison. That helps a whole lot right there. Your neighbors have to do the same thing you do, or the program isn’t going to work.”
Under those guidelines, Hill climbed his stand Oct. 1. Club members are allowed two stands, and most “sweeten” their stands with food plots and corn feeders.Between Wade, his brother Daniel and their father, Tuffy, each has access to five stands. Each stand has a trail camera, and a camera showed that one stand at the edge of a treeline overlooking a Conservation Reserve Program field attracted a group of particularly big bucks, including a superlative 11-point.
“There were several deer over 150 inches, an 11-point in the 160s, a 150-inch 8-point and a buck with double main beams. I’m not sure how many points it has,” Hill said.
To satisfy the two-doe-per buck requirement, Wade and Daniel each killed a doe early on Oct. 1 and signed them in together on the club log, allowing either Wade or Daniel to take a buck later in the day. They drew straws for the honor, and Wade won. The buck he shot was one of fivethat came to the food plot, and Hill let his arrow fly at 7:08 p.m., at a distance of 25 steps. It ran, and he waited about an hour to begin searching for it.
“We found a lot of blood where I shot him,” Hill said. “I came back and tracked him about 150 yards. He was still alive when we found him, so we held a light on him, and I shot him again with my bow.”
Curiously, Hill’s game camera never photographed this particular buck. It picked a bad day for its first visit.
“We sat around and talked about it,” Hill said. “Everyone was asking me which deer it was on the camera. I said, ‘I’m pretty sure it was a 9-point. I know he’s real heavy. I hope he meets requirements.’ ”
Another deer standing off in the shadows probably metthe requirements, too. Hill said he believed it was the big 11-point, but with a shooter buck in range, he didn’t want to take a chance on coming away empty-handed.
“There was another buck behind him that never came out,” Hill said. “I didn’t give him time to come out.”
Hill shot the buck with a Matthews Reason compound bow with a 60-pound draw weight, and an Easton arrow tipped with a G5-T3 broadhead. The deer presented a quartering away shot, so Hill shot it a little farther back to angle the arrow through the vitals. The shot was true, and the arrow lodged in the buck’s left shoulder.
Wade is done hunting bucks at Turner Neal for the year. He said he’s going back to Kansas to see if he can bag an even bigger one.
Sports, Pages 40 on 10/31/2010