KENNA, W.Va. — Jackson County husband and wife Millie and Chad Raines knew there was a monster buck in close proximity to the lease where they hunt not far from home. But getting him into bow range proved to be a tricky prospect.
“We had been watching this deer for three years, and this past fall finally figured out where he was bedding. It was an area on the neighboring property,” said Millie in a recent interview for West Virginia Outdoors.
So, knowing where the large one lurked, they tried to make every effort to direct him their way. During the off season they added a food plot close to the property edge in hopes he would be enticed to cross the boundary into an area where the would have a shot at taking him. According to Millie, it worked.
“We had started from scratch with the food plot and setting up a blind to hunt him and all of that prior planning paid off,” she said.
The couple got a trail cam pic of the big deer with his massive rack early in the season, then while Millie and her daughter were out of town Chad laid eyes on the big critter while hunting from the blind alone. But the bruiser refused to come out of the woods into a clear shooting lane. Millie took up a position in the blind a couple of days later.
She spied a doe and a fawn not far from the blind and noticed they had become nervous because of something in the woods behind the blind. Millie explained she couldn’t see what had created the angst in the deer, but knew it had to be something substantial.
“The doe and fawn moved to my right and he stepped out of the woods about 75 yards to my left and then started walking toward me. He came to about where they had been feeding and he just stopped and stood there for about 25 minutes,” she explained.
The long standing time was probably a blessing for Millie who was trying to collect herself and prepare for a shot.
“When he first came in, I’m not going to lie my heart was beating out of my chest. But he was there long enough for me to calm my nerves,” she laughed.
Eventually, the buck turned and presented a broadside shot.
“He took off plowing dirt like they do when you shoot one,” she said.
Knowing she had put a good shot on the buck, Millie backed out and waited until Chad and friends could join them later in the evening to make the recovery. The buck was everything they thought he would be and more.
“He’s very heavy in mass. Typical deer here don’t carry mass all the way out their main beams. Even his tines are thick and wide,” she said.
Although they haven’t given any measurements to the buck’s rack, she believed he would likely fall into the 150 inch score once the drying period was done.