How many times have you skipped a day in the whitetail woods, but wished you hadn’t? It was 2008, and Stephen Oakes Sr. had a week off of work. He was debating whether or not to stay home or head into the woods. His neighbor noticed him putting all of his hunting clothes away and came over to encourage him to go hunt.

The neighbor’s pep talk did the trick, and Oakes went hunting that afternoon. He saw a buck with three does but didn’t take a shot. He was on stand that next morning and sat the whole day only to climb down at lunch and make a scent trail in the thick laurels back to his stand area. At 4:05 p.m., a buck walked into shooting range. 

“I knew he was a buck because I could see his big body and some bone on his head. He was broadside so I couldn’t really see how big the rack was, but it didn’t matter. I stopped him with a grunt and fired. All my worries and troubles faded away quickly when I lowered my gun to the forest floor to see what I killed. Wow what a day,” said Oakes in his Facebook post.

The inside spread of this buck was a whopping 31 inches, and he scored 150 inches. He was the only buck Oakes ever had scored. This was also the last year hunters had to check in deer in Connecticut, where the buck was killed. A biologist said he was 9 years old. When Oakes skinned the deer there were three .22 lead bullets healed in his neck, and there was a wad of black powder lead healed over in his backstrap. This buck sure was tough!