“I know he was with me.” Virginia Hunter marks 20-point Buck with his late father’s bow

It was mid-afternoon on October 19 when Cameron Parham left his car and walked alone to a ladder stand on a 55-acre property south of Richmond, Virginia. The stand was located in an old food plot near some mature white oak trees that were raining acorns.

Carrying the bow that his father used before he passed away earlier this year, Parham took a new route to the oak trees. It was the same spot where he had taken camera photos of a large, atypical buck – one he nicknamed “Double Deuce” because of the dual high beams on the left side.

“There was a change in wind direction, so I walked a different direction to my stand, and as I walked in, I jumped into thick cover with a big buck,” Parham said. Outdoor living. “I thought it was Double Deuce, but I didn’t get a good look at his rack when he ran away.”

The 23-year-old fighter jumped four more times when he arrived at his stand around 4:15 p.m. He was discouraged, thinking he had already hit his target, and he took out his Bible after settling into the stand. About an hour later, while engrossed in Proverbs, Parham heard a stick break. He looked up and saw a good 8 points from 50 meters away. The buck was feeding on acorns and heading to his stand.

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After watching the box for 10 minutes, Parham considered taking the 8-point instead of waiting for Double Deuce. He was getting ready to draw when he heard another stick snap, and he turned to see the large, atypical dog walking towards him.

“It followed the same path as the 8-pointer,” Parham says. “Neither buck was scary and Double Deuce stayed right on track for that 8-pointer. Finally he stepped behind a holly bush while the 8-pointer was looking away from me.”

With its head on the ground, the buck gave Parham a light shot from 16 yards away. Parham drew the Mathew bow that had belonged to his father. He took aim and let go, and his arrow hit the buck right behind his shoulder.

It was just after 6:30 PM and still light when Parham climbed out of his stall. He called his brother Wade and then found his arrow. The broadhead had gone through the buck and Parham saw blood and guts on the arrow. He also found a short trail of blood that suddenly stopped.

“[The buck] hit a big back leg kick, which is always a good sign. But when he walked away, he acted like nothing happened,” Parham said. “When I saw intestines, I started thinking that maybe I hadn’t taken such a good photo, and I felt sick.”

After meeting his brother at his car and hearing what a bad blow to the bill might have been, Wade had an idea. He called his friend Jut Updyke, a licensed drone pilot and videographer, who was already in the area and had just helped another hunter find a lost deer. (While the use of drones for deer recovery remains controversial or illegal in many places, it is legal in Virginia and several other states. Virginia Hunting Regulations specify that drones can only be used to take game on private property, and that you cannot hunt on a property on the same calendar day you fly a drone there.)

“I was so worried about losing Double Deuce that it made sense to call Jut.” Parham says. “I didn’t want to walk up to a wounded buck and jump him.”

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He says Updyke reached the property and it took him just 10 minutes to find the buck after sending in his drone, which was equipped with thermal imaging equipment and cameras.

“[Jut] I only had him on for about ten minutes and then he saw Double Deuce curled up in the woods,” Parham says. ‘The buck was dead. He had only traveled 65 yards from where I shot him.”

After loading the approximately 200-pound buck into Parham’s vehicle, they counted 20 points on the atypical rack. The rack had a spread of 19 5/8 inches and an official Buckmasters score of 202 4/8 using the BTR scoring system, according to BTR scorer Anders Blixt. Parham says Blixt told him the buck will be among the five best Virginia bucks ever bowed into the BTR book.

Parham says that since his father passed away earlier this year, the hunting season has been especially tough for him and his family. His father had taught him everything he knew about hunting, and he says being able to use his father’s old bow to target the buck was powerful.

“My father is the one who inspired all of us to love this lifestyle. It hurt my heart that I couldn’t call him first and celebrate with him,” Parham said. “But I know he was with me on this hunt. I used his bow and hunted from one of his favorite stands.