After watching a gigantic buck for days and getting scads of game camera photos, Steven Davis calmly stood in his stand waiting for a shot at the bruiser.

He’d seen this gagger in velvet, bedding down in soybeans, and watched as a smaller 6-point literally ate the velvet from the buck’s massive antlers. And then the giant buck, with his routine-oriented day, made a mistake.

With the right wind to hunt, Davis patiently waited in his stand for a shot and then put a crossbow arrow through what may be the North Carolina record. Davis was hunting private family property in Davidson County, on Sept. 18 when he finally got a shot at the buck. He’d watched it for several days and figured out a few things about its routine before putting up a ladder stand and adding some apples and corn less than 40 yards away. Supplemental baiting is legal in North Carolina.

With the 6-point leading the way, the bucks stood from their beanfield bed and walked into the woods by Davis. He waited for them and was rewarded with a shot.

“He walked into the woods to my right, and after about an hour, he and the 6-pointer came to my pile of corn and apples,” he told North Carolina Sportsman. “The big deer walked straight through it; he seemed kind of jittery. The 6-pointer stopped right in it and started eating.”

Davis took the shot with his Horton crossbow, and the Swhacker broadhead did its job. The buck is a 5-by-5 with nine extra points. Five are on one tine on his left side. The rack is almost 24 inches wide and it scored 190 7/8 nontypical.

Quite a buck! Congratulations!

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