With help from an accomplished accomplice, Alan Schales of Cave City won the Arkansas Big Buck Classic with a magnificent non-typical rack that scored 205 1/8 points on the Boone and Crockett scale on Sunday at Barton Coliseum.
Schales, 43, a laser specialist for Bad Boy Mowers, killed the buck on opening day of the 2016 modern gun deer season, Nov. 12, at the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge.
His hunting partner was Phillip Norton, who won the muzzleloader division of the 2014 Big Buck Classic with a typical rack that scored 165 6/8.
They killed their prize-winning bucks within about a mile of each other.
As is usually the case when hunting public land, the pair did not know enough about the buck to pattern it. Schales was simply in the right place at the right time.
"We got a picture of it the week before, and we moved some stands around," Schales said.
November 12 was noted for a fierce north wind that made the temperature feel very cold. The terrain was flat and swampy, but Schales said he was prepared to hunt all day. He said he saw four smaller bucks, and the big one rewarded his patience about 9:30 a.m.
"He was running with the wind instead of against it," Schales said. "He came out of a big thicket, and I was in a willow brake."
The buck was in a hurry, and Schales had to react quickly.
"From the time I saw him to the time I pulled the trigger was about four seconds," Schales said. "The rut was going on pretty good, and he was trotting pretty fast."
Schales downed the deer with one shot from a rifle chambered in 300 Winchester Magnum. That cartridge is suitable for shots up to 500 yards, but Schales made this shot at about 40 yards.
"After I pulled the trigger, that's when reality set in," Schales said. "I was shaking pretty bad."
Schales said he started shaking ever harder when he put his hands on the buck.
Luck, it is often said, is the result of preparation, and that was certainly the case with this buck, Norton said. He and Schales didn't hunt this buck specifically, but extensive scouting and experience has shown Norton that big bucks traverse the area he hunts as they travel to feeding and bedding areas.
"We hunt real hard, and we do a lot of work," Norton said. "That week I walked 25 miles checking cameras and moving stands around. There are a lot of crops down there, and they've got plenty room to hide."
Norton said he wasn't surprised that Schales got such a big deer.
"People said I was never going to top mine (the 2014 buck), but this deer was coming right to me from him," Norton said. "If Alan hadn't got him, I might have had a chance at him."
Six bucks at the Big Buck Classic scored high enough to qualify for the Boone and Crockett All-Time awards book. Five were non-typical, which is very unusual. To qualify for B&C's all-time book, a non-typical requires a net score of 195. A typical rack requires 170. Walt Sharp killed the only Boone and Crockett typical, a Little River County buck that scored 170 2/8.
The number of racks that hunters brought to the show to be scored was a five-year high, despite the discovery of chronic wasting disease in Arkansas in 2016, said Tom Murchison, co-owner of the Big Buck Classic.
Lee Walt of Dumas, an official Boone and Crockett scorer at the show, said the panel scored nearly 500 racks. He said that was nearly 120 more than the 2016 show.
The crowd was bigger than 2016, too, and vendors said that sales were brisk Saturday and Sunday.
Sports on 01/30/2017