She dreamed of hunting a massive buck. Then they crossed paths on family’s AL property
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Chelsea Hunter was shocked when she peered out of her deer stand on her family’s property in Alabama.
Across from her was a massive, 13-point buck she had been hunting for two seasons, she told Alabama Black Belt Adventures.
“I never dreamed I’d see him that day. He was coming toward me. He stopped and turned. I took the shot,” Hunter, who is from Tallassee, said in a news release.
She had first seen the deer while hunting during the 2020-2021 season. When she bagged the buck in Macon County on Jan. 4, 2022, it weighed 242 pounds, which Hunter said was by far the largest deer she had harvested.
The first time Hunter saw the buck was right after she had killed a smaller nine-point buck, she said. After she saw the 13-point buck, she was enamored.
“I was just amazed at how beautiful he was. I hunted him hard last year. I was in the woods every opportunity I got,” she said.
Her opportunity to shoot the deer in January wasn’t planned, though, she said in the release. Hunter was on a spontaneous hunting trip with her family, and had wandered out to the deer stand for some peace and quiet, she said.
It was that afternoon when she noticed the special deer chasing two does near her deer stand.
“It’s the deer of a lifetime, for sure,” Hunter told AL.com.
Hunter’s photo with the trophy deer won Alabama Black Belt Adventures’ Big Buck Photo Contest, which had over 100 submissions and counted thousands of votes, the contest said.
The treasured buck became one of her grandfather’s favorite meals, venison and collard greens, she told Alabama Black Belt Adventures, and offered advice for other hunters.
“Learn to have some patience,” she said in the release. “Let some small bucks walk, and they’ll end up a trophy.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 3:46 PM with the headline "She dreamed of hunting a massive buck. Then they crossed paths on family’s AL property."
