Ben Reece first heard about the buck he shot on November 7 in mid-September when a friend spotted it on his trail camera far from where Reece planned to hunt. He thought the buck was impressive, but he didn’t think much more about it after that. This fall would be Reece’s first season on a new 3,800-acre lease in McDowell County, West Virginia, and he was just looking to punch a tag, bring home some venison, and get to know the new ground he was leasing.
But by late-October, he caught a glimpse of the 17-point giant on one of his own trail cameras—3 miles from where the first photos were taken. “I knew it was the same deer when it showed up on my camera because of his triple brow tine on one side and split brow on the other,” he says. “My buddy told me the buck was probably going to stay put near my stand, and not to hunt any other deer but him. But I’m not the kind of hunter to hold out for one buck.”
On Reece’s third sit, at around 7:00 a.m., he saw the buck again, this time on the hoof. He made a clean shot, anchoring the deer 50 yards from his stand. Here’s how it all went down.
Rough Country
Reece was excited to join a new lease at the end of July and started running cameras as soon as he could. “It’s in one of those bow-only counties in West Virginia,” he says of McDowell, known for its rugged, inaccessible terrain. It’s also known for producing big bucks, which is one reason Reece makes the extra effort to hunt there. By mid- to late-October, he had several decent bucks on camera, including the massive 17-pointer with distinctive brow tines. He felt he was in for a good bow season, but he also knew it wouldn’t be easy.
From Reece's door to his spot on the lease, it takes him nearly three hours—including a 25-minute side-by-side ride and a 35-minute hike for a total elevation gain of 900 feet. He also needs to winch that side-by-side over 4-foot mounds that were cut for drainage, and climb rocks on foot to reach the tree he hunts from with his saddle. With all of the work ahead of him, Reece decided to wake up at 2:20 for the morning of his first hunt, which got him up a tree well in time for first light.
“There are about 3,000 acres on one side of the road and an 800-acre section on the other,” he says. “The guy I got on the lease with told me that nobody was hunting the 800-acre piece, and it was obvious why after I scouted it. It is extremely rugged terrain. I’ve never hunted anything so hard. The way that the land rolls there, it creates what I call a skinny pinch that’s only about 35 yards wide at my spot.”
Reece doesn’t like to hunt over bait. Instead, he looks for terrain features to exploit during the rut. “In that spot, I have a shot at anything that comes in there, as long as it doesn’t wind me first. When I scouted it out, there weren’t any scrapes or rubs, but there was a lot of grass and briar thickets, and the mountains created a nice funnel to put a stand.”
Even though Reece had logged a few images of the monster 17-pointer near his stand, he wasn’t convinced he would get a shot. “I just didn’t think the buck would ever show in daylight or in range,” he says. For his first two sits, he didn’t have anything to shoot at. Then on his third morning, things started to heat up.
Third Time's A Charm
Reece left home just before 3:00 a.m. and got up in his tree at about 5:30 a.m. after a long ride up the mountain. He had about one hour to kill before shooting light. “I wanted to be there good and early,” he says. “I work for the railroad, so time really doesn’t matter to us. We work all hours of the day and night.”
When the sun came up, things were quiet at first. Then, at about 7:00 a.m., a button buck walked past his stand. “The button buck kept looking over his shoulder, so I thought I’d better get ready in case anything comes walking in behind him,” he says.
Shortly after the button buck passed, a buck with tall brow tines came into view. “I just saw legs at first, then I got a quick look at his rack,” he says. When the buck got closer, Reece says the deer saw him standing in the tree, but the button buck was also distracting him.
“He walked in at 25 yards, all I could see were tall brow tines, I couldn’t see the splits,” he says. “I thought, man, I don’t think that’s him. I was contemplating passing on him. A lot of buddies say I should probably get my eyes checked. But it was only my third sit, and what my friend had told me about waiting for that buck was in the back of my mind.”
The buck closed into 18 yards, and though Ben still didn’t think it was the same buck he’d seen on camera, he knew it was a shooter. “He turned sideways, and I was like, man, he’s got six points on just one side. I figured it was the best buck I’d ever had a chance at, so I thought I’d better shoot.”
Ben made a perfect shot into the buck’s vitals and watched the deer run about 50 yards before it fell at the bottom of a steep ridge. With the deer down and in sight, he ran over to it and immediately checked the brow tines. Sure enough, it was him. “In 35 years of deer hunting, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he says. “I almost couldn’t believe what I was looking at.”
Reece immediately got on the phone with his wife and started sending pictures to friends. There was so much chatter and picture taking that he almost ran his phone out of battery. “Several buddies wanted to help me pack him out of there, but I was so far in, I couldn’t even get them to where I was at before dark.”
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With a long packout ahead of him, Reece got to work. It took him until 4:30 p.m. to get back home. After getting some rest, he dropped the cape off with the taxidermist, who let him take the antlers home until it was time to put together a shoulder mount. Reece’s friend, David Linkous, green scored the buck at 186⅝ inches with an inside spread measuring 19⅛ inches. Reece is looking forward to getting an official score later this year.
“I was 24 years old when I put my first deer on the wall, and I’m 48 now—that’s 24 years later,” he says. “I can’t wait to see what happens when I’m 72.”
THE 1871 CLUB
