Buck of a Lifetime

Written by Kyle Carter

Friday, 30 November 2007

Twelve-year-old Sadee Woodson of Denton with her 20 point buck Twelve-year-old Sadee Woodson of Denton had just gotten comfortable on a cold Saturday morning during the youth-only weekend season when her dad, Shannen Woodson, saw movement in the shadows on his right. It had already been a long Oct. 27 morning and it was only 7:20 a.m. Sadee had just slid on her headphones, put the iPod on her favorite song, and closed her eyes when her dad nudged her awake. His eyes were the extreme opposite of hers. “It was in the shadow of a tree, so I couldn’t tell how big it was right off,” Shannen said. The deer shifted again and gave him a better look. “I saw its four main points and I knew it was a shooter. I knew it was going to be the biggest deer she had ever shot, but I still didn’t fully understand what I was looking at.” They were sitting in a ground blind at a lease in Irion County, and the shadow in the trees was a 20-point buck. It took Sadee a couple seconds to find the shadow and she lined up behind her Remington Model 7 - .223. But there was one piece of business that still needed attending. “Hold my ears,” Sadee whispered to her dad, explaining later that she didn’t want her eardrums to burst. The bullet traveled 40 yards and the shot was true. “I was nervous,” Sadee said. “I couldn’t see it very well and I’m always nervous when I’m about to shoot something.” Five minutes later, the father and daughter were standing over what he described as “the deer of a lifetime.” “I’ve got to be honest – I dropped the f-bomb,” Shannen said. “You just don’t see stuff like this; you just don’t expect it.” Sadee, who started hunting at seven and shot her first deer at age eight, said her dad kept yelling “you shot a 20-point buck!” Shannen and his father Mike have been hunting that lease for 29 years, and he said he’s never seen anything even close to the size of Sadee’s buck. He has also been following the camera setup on that feeder and he said he’s seen plenty of deer, but nothing of that magnitude. The family has looked at different contests across the state, but in most of what they’ve found, the hunter had to be registered before the deer was killed. The buck’s gross score is 183 4/8 and will be mounted. “When we first saw it on the ground, I asked my dad if I was dreaming,” she said. “He pinched the crap out of me and said, ‘”No baby, you’re not dreaming.”’ I was so happy, I was about to cry.”

Last Updated ( Friday, 30 November 2007 )

 

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