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Weaver together with his first buck. Courtesy Lawayne Weaver
On Aug. 12, the opening day of South Carolina’s deer season, Leyton Weaver sat in a raised blind on a personal parcel in Bamberg County. Weaver, 10, was accompanied by his 21-year-old brother-in-law, Jamin Stoltzfus. The 2 had been overlooking a grassy energy line with a clear-cut close by—the identical spot the place their path cameras had confirmed a number of good bucks feeding a number of days earlier.
“It was a night hunt as a result of it was so scorching, effectively into the 90s, and we knew deer solely can be transferring later within the day,” Leyton’s father Lawayne tells Outside Life.
After beginning their sit round 5:30 p.m., Leyton and Stoltzfus had waited within the stand for about an hour with out seeing a deer.
“Then 5 does confirmed up,” Leyton says. “[But] it’s bucks solely, even in the course of the youth season, so we watched them transfer off and disappear.”
Awhile later, he appeared up once more and noticed what he thought was one other doe.
“However Jamin checked out it fastidiously with binoculars and stated it was an excellent buck,” Leyton continues. “After which he advised me to shoot.”
Leyton wasted no time getting his scoped .243 on the buck, which stood 50 yards away with its head behind a bush. He settled the crosshairs behind its shoulder and squeezed.
The buck took off after the shot and ran away from their stand, the place It shortly disappeared.
“4 different bucks that we didn’t even know had been there took off too, scattering within the route the place my buck ran,” Leyton remembers. “Then all of them simply vanished.”
Stoltzfus climbed down from the blind and walked to the place Leyton’s buck was standing when he’d shot. He appeared for signal however discovered nothing. With Leyton nonetheless directing him from the stand, Stoltzfus tried re-tracing the place the deer had run however he nonetheless couldn’t discover any blood.
Leyton’s brothers, Anson and Camden, who’d been looking in a distinct stand close by, got here to assist in the search. They unfold out and appeared for greater than 90 minutes. However as darkness settled in, Leyton’s hopes of recovering the deer appeared grim.
“I assumed that I’d missed him, as a result of there was no blood, no signal of something that the buck had been hit,” Layton remembers. “Then Anson referred to as me over and stated I ought to stroll up a path close to him. I did, and after strolling a bit of methods, there was the again finish of a deer laying on the bottom. Its head was in some brush, so I couldn’t see its antlers till I bought shut. It was my buck.”
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The deer had been hit completely behind the shoulder. The bullet handed utterly by way of, however there was hardly any blood to trace. And regardless that the deer traveled lower than 50 yards from the place it was hit, the dense foliage and fading gentle made discovering it a problem.
By the point they loaded the buck into their truck and began for house, it was effectively after 9 p.m. As they drove, Leyton says he couldn’t anticipate his dad to see his first buck.
“It was actually one thing, an actual household occasion,” Lawayne says. “It’s an actual trophy in full velvet. A 9-pointer on an ideal 8-point body with simply over a 21-inch unfold.”
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