Trophy Button Buck Set Free

My Trophy Button Buck, before being set Free

The first really cold weather of the Fall means that most deer hunters will return to the woods, free to wear layers of camo clothing to ward of the chill in the air. Deer movement is enhanced this same time of year due to factors like the rut, and the need to forage more in direct relation to the temperature drop. As the chance increases for hunters and deer to cross paths, so does the traffic at venison processors, and the chance of big bucks arriving at the taxidermist. The 2019 deer season brought a different kind of trophy into my lifetime of deer hunting experiences when I found a young button buck seemingly unharmed but trapped inside two sections of hog wire fence, and in need of my assistance.

            

Royce Herndon cutting hog wire fence with
young button buck watching and waiting

Part of the history of rural Colleton County is that farmers and small landowners would keep their cows fenced into their woodlands, allowing them to graze on natural vegetation. In today’s modern practices, cows are fenced into pasture land where they are sure to receive proper food, water and medicine. Although the old woodland fence is no longer in use to restrain cattle, remnants of the fence network remain intact. Like so many things from the days of home place farming, the old fence was built to last, and the fat-lightered fence posts remain strong today. During a late October afternoon walk along one old fence line, I found my trophy button buck inside two adjacent sections of hog-wire fence, that hemmed him in like a pen.

My grandmother used to joke about me having to wrestle with a buck one day during my hunting exploits. Could the trapped button buck be that scenario? Drawing on all my experience as a woodsman, I recognized this as once in a lifetime territory, and that returning in the morning to free the young buck would be the best course of action. The possibility that his buck could be newly orphaned, made me more sure that I would do whatever it takes to set him back on natural path to becoming a mature buck one day. I decided that I would need to call a friend to come help me, thinking that one man could deal with the buck while the other cuts with the fence. My call went out to veteran cattleman Royce Herndon, and to his credit he agreed to come and meet me at 8 a.m. the following morning.

To view the entire feature story in the newspaper click on Colletonian.

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