Boy's First Buck is a Mountain Monster

A first buck is big milestone, especially when it’s a 190-inch giant. Ten-year-old Clark Bolling was hunting with his dad, Josh, when he shot the deer on a snowy mountain in Virginia.

Clark had been tagging along with his dad nearly every day he’d gone hunting for the past four years. In 2023, Josh let Clark harvest his own deer for the first time, and he killed a doe. Josh said Clark got more “buck fever” with his doe than he did with his first buck.

During the ’24 season, Clark and Josh put in many sits, starting on Virginia’s youth day. They had some encounters but nothing that resulted in a dead deer, including when Clark’s muzzleloader misfired on a 7-point buck. They were hunting on land they lease with a hunting club that leases out 1,800 acres. Josh has been hunting the lease the last 15 years and the biggest deer he’d ever seen on the property were in the 140s or 150s. This year they had a 10-, 7- and 6-pointer on camera.

On the morning of Nov. 21, Josh told Clark that rather than practice baseball after school they should go hunting because the weather wasn’t looking good for the next day. School got out early. They put on extra layers at home and once they got up the mountain they waited. An hour passed, and it was almost 5 p.m. without a deer in sight. With the higher elevation the snow was really coming down. Josh was thinking they should pack up soon to avoid getting snowed in. Clark said let’s wait a few more minutes since they couldn’t come back tomorrow. Josh used his grunt call to see if anything was in the area.

Josh and Clark were sitting in an elevated blind on top of an 8-foot platform that they and Josh’s dad built two years ago. The blind was in clearing that they made on top of a ridge adjacent to a big thicket. Josh thought he heard a stick break behind the blind in the direction of the thicket. He told Clark to peek through the window to see if there was anything behind them. Clark’s eyes got huge. Josh rolled his eyes because they joke with each other a lot, so he thought Clark was just messing with him. “No, I swear,” said Clark. Josh looked for himself. “Oh my goodness he’s a giant,” said Josh.

The buck was coming in at a slight angle, but when he finally turned broadside at 25 yards, Clark made the shot. The deer ran about 40-50 yards. Josh thought maybe Clark missed because the buck looked back at them, so Clark raised his .30-06 rifle again. But his first shot had made its mark; the buck started swaying before Clark could take another shot.

Clark was wondering how big the buck was going to be as he was walking up to it. Josh was thinking this was the 10-pointer they’d seen on camera, until Clark mentioned the buck had a droptine. Bewildered, Josh realized this was not the 10-pointer, but in fact a much bigger deer. Their amazement grew as they started counting the points — 15 in total! They took the buck’s rack to a local gun shop owner who gross scored the rack at 190 inches.

Clark and Josh never want to forget this memory, so they’re getting a shoulder mount that sits on a stand with a snow scene below. Clark wants to put the mount in his room, but his dad says it needs to go in living room by the fireplace to display proudly for everyone to see.