DANIEL BAXTER
Daniel Baxter, 29, farms near the small Monroe County community of Bisco, where he makes his home. Having hunted since he was 6 or 7 years old, he can’t remember the exact number of deer that he’s felled during that two-decade-plus period.

On the afternoon of Dec. 12, a Saturday, he was sitting in a box blind overlooking some fallow ground alongside dense woods at the back of his property. It was a beautiful day, the sky clear and the temperature in the 50s.

At 4:20, Daniel saw a doe walk out of the woods about 130 yards away. She was immediately followed by a buck that, even at that distance, was plainly a nice one. The problem was that the two animals turned and walked directly away from him. Not wanting to take a “Texas heart shot,” he decided to wait.

The pair went back into the woods at one point, and Daniel feared that he’d lost his opportunity. But then the doe came back out, the buck still right behind her -- and this time it turned broadside. Daniel steadied his Remington .270 and fired. At the blast of the rifle the animals immediately whirled and disappeared into some dense woods.

“The place where the buck went in was so dense you wouldn’t believe it,” Daniel said, “so I called my brother James on my cell phone and asked him to come help me. When he got there, I sat in the box and directed him to the spot where the buck had been standing when I shot. We found some tracks gouged deep in the damp earth, but no blood.”

The two brothers worked their way slowly in the direction the buck had gone, into brush so thick that they literally had to push their way through it.

“I was getting worried,” Daniel stated in what may well have been understatement, “but then I heard James yell, ‘If I find him, can I keep him?’ The buck had gone about 150 yards, never leaving a blood trail at all.”

Gaunt from the rigors of the rut, the Monroe County buck still tipped the scales at nearly 200 pounds. On the basis of tooth wear, the animal was estimated to be at least 7 years old. The 23-point rack, assessed by B&C scorer Clinton Latham of Wynne, netted 198 5/8 non-typical points.

ERIC JONES
Searcy resident Eric Jones, 39, makes a living working for Bryce Company and spends many of his off-duty hours afield. He’s now hunted for more than 20 years, taking some 15 deer during that span.

On Nov. 12 he was on private land belonging to a friend of his mother and father, Bob and Teresa Jones. Lying in the same area that Eric grew up in, the tract consists of open hayfields and cropland surrounded by fairly dense hardwoods.

“This was probably the quickest hunt I have ever been on,” Eric recalled. “I was running late, and it was already getting light when I parked the truck and got out. I had about a 500-yard walk, so I didn’t get on my stand until about 6:15.

“I had sat there just a few minutes when I heard something coming down a fencerow in front of me. I had seen a coyote in that same area several times when I was bowhunting, and I thought at first it was him.”

It turned out to be a small doe, which passed about 10 yards in front of the tree in which Eric sat. As the deer disappeared from sight, the hunter heard a buck grunting. “There was a large oak between me and the fencerow,” he said, “and I had to lean forward to see around it. When I did there was a buck there -- no more than 20 feet away! I held my breath until he finally stepped out; then I raised my Remington 7600 and fired.”