Big Velvet Buck in Bowman / 2010 Opening Days Success Story

When high school senior William Kirkland of St. Matthews kicked off the school year with a hectic football practice schedule that left only a small amount of time for the start of deer season, he made the most of his opportunity by taking down a 224-pound Bowman buck.
“I chose this club stand because no one on the hunt club had utilized it,” Kirkland said. “I literally put some camo on it the day before this hunt. That’s when I saw a lot of fresh deer tracks, but I’d have to say I’m one of those people that likes to hunt where no one else has hunted.”
The mainframe 9-point with a 22-inch spread, came into a peanut field with a group of bachelor bucks, and Kirkland managed to place the crosshairs of his foggy Redfield scope on the shoulder and make a clean kill.
Kirkland attends Calhoun Academy in St. Matthews, and hunts on his family’s membership in a Bowman hunt club.
The 18-year old hunter had never had a buck mounted before, but now he has a record-book-class deer for his family’s den wall.
Father Danny Kirkland had just returned two weeks earlier from working for two years in Iraq as a private contractor training Iraqi police. Mother Hydie Kirkland had hunted a good bit in 2009 so her husband could live vicariously through her reports – like when she shot her first 8-point buck on her own.
“My father is how I got into hunting back when I was 8 years old, and I’m glad he was back here when I shot this monster,” the younger Kirkland said.
Danny Kirkland was not far away at all and in a different club deer stand Sunday evening (Aug. 22) when William hunted overlooking a peanut field.
“I climbed up my treestand at 6:15, and about 7 p.m. storm clouds appeared and the bottom fell out,” William Kirkland said. “I texted my father to ask if he wanted to leave, but he replied to sit tight. He had shot a nice 7-point in the rain just a week earlier, and maybe he knew something I didn’t.
“I was wearing Dad’s old camo shirt for good luck.”
Kirkland had only seen only one small doe when the rain switched off at 8 p.m. and five minutes later the young hunter heard a noise to his right, looked down and saw four nice bucks not 20 yards from his stand and already one row into the peanuts.
Kirkland lifted his Remington .270 off his lap and accidentally pinged the metal stand.
“All four bucks looked right at me at that point, and I just froze until they all out put their heads back down to eat,” he said. “The wind was swirling and the bucks continued into about the fifth row of the field when I made my shot at about 8:20.”
The ballistic-tip bullet found its mark, and the full-velvet buck was downed, but the other three bucks hardly even moved.
Kirkland called his father, with the bucks in the field, to tell him about the kill, and was told meet his father at the Rhino four-wheeler before going into the field.
“When we got to the buck I had no idea how big he was – just HUGE,” William Kirkland said. “He was with two nice 8-pointers and a 6-point, and I couldn’t tell how big he was.
“Then we had to go back to camp to get two more fellas just to load him up in the Rhino.”
The deer green-scored 141 5/8 inches on the Boone & Crockett Club scale, and aged at about 4 ½ years old.
John Mellis of Bowman's Great Outdoors Taxidermy said looking at the deer’s antlers was deceptive.
“The longest tine was actually an 8-inch brow tine, but it was the circumference measurements that make his score strong,” Mellis said. “This buck is special because it has great mass.”
To view past blog entries about harvesting bucks in velvet click here.
PhotoByJohnMellis: William and Danny Kirkland celebrate a father and son hunting moment