By 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 28, the final day of normal gun season, Danny Duvall was shivering by himself in an oak tree. With a gentle rain, excessive winds, and temps within the mid-20s, the 40-year-old Arkansas native simply couldn’t sit within the stand any longer. Apart from, the rut was over, and with none does to chase, he figured the bucks can be hunkered down in a holler and out of the wind.
“I knew if I used to be gonna discover ‘em,” Duvall says, “I used to be gonna should stroll.”
The terrain he set out throughout was typical for this a part of the Ozarks, the place he’d grown up looking as a child. Deep and wild nation with dense forests and no cell service, it was something however flat. Duvall had hung a stand on public land there as a result of his cousin had gotten some path cam footage of an excellent buck within the space again in October, and he tagged an honest 7-point there in mid-November.
Now on foot, he was in search of signal when he got here throughout a well-defined deer path not removed from his tree stand. He adopted it for a pair hours and dropped right into a holler filled with pine timber. He scanned the large bowl and noticed a patch of white on the bottom inside 200 yards. Trying by means of the scope of his .30-.06, he picked out a small 8-pointer. Then he seen a much bigger eight bedded proper behind it.
“It was in all probability 18 inches broad, that greater 8-point — an excellent buck for this space,” Duvall tells Out of doors Life. “So, I began getting excited.”
For the following 45 minutes, Duvall sat there behind a tree and watched the bedded bucks by means of his scope. Then, round midday, he heard some squirrel hunters throughout the best way pop off just a few rounds. The bucks heard it, too. Duvall watched as one younger buck stood up, then a spike, after which the 2 8-pointers, which have been adopted by a fifth buck he hadn’t seen but.
“That’s after I seen this man. He turned his head and confirmed his horns to me,” says Duvall, who acknowledged the antlers instantly from his cousin’s path cam pics. “I simply misplaced it, man. I’d already been holding my gun up for the final 45 minutes and I used to be shaking like loopy.”
To try to calm his nerves, Duvall aimed for the bottom under the large buck. Then he slowly raised his rifle till his crosshairs settled behind its shoulder. He squeezed the set off and missed his level of purpose. The deer ran for greater than 100 yards whereas Duvall bounded after it.
“I appeared like a deer myself working by means of these woods,” he laughs.
Fortunately, the buck stopped quickly sufficient, so he shot once more, hitting its neck. The deer ran for one more 40 to 50 yards, and when it stopped a second time, Duvall’s third shot hit residence.
“When he went down, I went down,” Duvall says. “I used to be about lifeless. And I used to be so down on myself that I knew if I didn’t get this deer, I’d in all probability by no means hunt once more.”
![The big Arkansas buck where Duvall found it. Duvall holds up the rack back at home](https://www.outdoorlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/arkansas_stud_buck_pack_out_hoodie_3.jpg?w=1850)
With the buck on the bottom, Duvall had much more work lower out for him. Since he’d deliberate to hunt from the tree stand that was nearer to his truck, he didn’t have his backpack or any sport baggage with him.
After field-dressing, quartering, and deboning the buck, Duvall took the additional cotton hoodie he’d been carrying, tied an enormous knot within the backside, and stuffed it filled with deer meat. He says the toughest half was eradicating the pinnacle to complete the packing job.
“I knew his cape wasn’t gonna be any good. I virtually cried doing it, however I went forward and did what I needed to do.”
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With the roughly 50-pound hoodie hanging off his shoulders, Duvall hoofed it again to his truck with the buck’s head in a single hand and a deer rifle within the different. It took him two, possibly three hours to make the mile-long trek.
“It was all straight up and down, a rocky, bluffy mess,” Duvall says. “God was positively laughing that day. He obtained a kick out of each little bit of it.”
On high of being the most important buck that Duvall has ever killed, it’ll be the primary one he will get formally measured. The rack has 10 scoreable factors with just a few additional kickers. He says a pair buddies gave it inexperienced scores within the higher 150’s, and he’s already submitted the buck to a neighborhood contest generally known as the Arkansas Big Buck Classic. The occasion takes place later this month in Little Rock, and he’ll have a greater thought then of how his buck stacks up towards the others taken this previous deer season. No matter the place Duvall’s buck locations, nevertheless, one factor is for positive: He earned it.