"I about drove my wife, Carolyn, crazy for the next few days," Charlie said with a laugh, "talking about that buck. We spent Christmas with my daughter up in Bella Vista, and didn't come back until the following day. On the way home, I told my wife over and over that someone had probably already killed 'my' buck.

"That morning I shot a coyote off my stand just after daylight, and thought at the time that I had probably ruined my deer hunting for the day. But sometime later I looked up and saw a deer in some thick brush, maybe 150 yards away. It was just feeding slowly along, with its head down, and at first I couldn't even tell if it was a buck or a doe."

When the feeding animal finally stepped into a small opening, Charlie instantly recognized the limping animal as being the same buck he'd seen in the field. Bringing his Remington 742 to his shoulder, he fired, and then watched as the animal bolted across the ditch into some thick cover.

"There was still snow on the ground from the snowstorm on Christmas Day," Charlie recalled, "so it was easy to follow the blood trail into the thick pines. He only went about 40 steps or so before going down. And when I found him I did something I had never done before: I took out my cell phone and called my wife! 'Honey, you know that big buck I've been telling you about? Well, I'm standing here right on top of him now!'"

Upon dressing the buck out, Charles was able to ascertain that at some point the animal had dislocated its right kneecap, which accounted for its pronounced limp. Its body, though large of frame, was gaunt and in poor condition, possibly from the effects of the injury, or perhaps as an effect of the stresses inherent in the just-completed breeding season.

"I've been deer-hunting since I was 11 years old," Charlie observed, "and all of that time I've kept precise records about every deer I've ever taken. This past season was the 55th I've hunted -- and this buck was the 53rd that I've killed!"

It might have taken a while, but the result was worth it. Officially scored by Todd Sharp, the Zone 9 5x5 netted 172 5/8 Boone and Crockett points!

LITTLE RIVER MONSTER
Donald Troup
Twelve years ago Donald Troup and his wife Debbie bought 14 acres adjoining a vast Weyerhaeuser property in southwest Little River County, not far from Ashdown.

The acreage was actually an old homeplace made up of rolling fields containing numerous pear and crabapple trees, separated by several honeysuckle-covered fencerows. Surrounded by the thick stands of replanted pines, those 14 acres have become a deer magnet.

Donald, a welder for Odis Machine in Ashdown, constructed a comfortable box stand overlooking several of the fruit trees that the deer seemed to use most. The spot was less than five minutes from the house itself, and that proximity allowed Donald to hunt each afternoon after arriving home from work, around 4:30 p.m. or so.

On Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, he was in the stand watching several deer feed at the opposite end of the long opening maybe 100 yards away. "I guess I had been there about 15 minutes when I saw a deer feeding some honeysuckle about 50 yards from my stand." Donald said. "The sun was going down, and I couldn't see much because it was so thick. But finally I made out 4 points on one antler. That made it a legal buck, so I raised my Urge .270 and fired."