DANG NEAR A LEGEND
During the '04 hunting season, the island maintained a 100 percent success ratio, but one outstanding pair of sheds went unclaimed. They were a pair containing drop tines that caught everyone's attention during that season. They'd been rough-scored in the 200-inch category, making the buck that dropped them a true Southern swamp monster. What's more, these impressive hunks of bone came from the natural gene pool, because no transplanted "Yankee" deer had ever been liberated on Brandywine Island.

Since Rod wanted someone to get the mysterious drop-tined buck, several visiting hunters were put in its home territory. However, the wily buck soon became known as the "Dang Near Deer" because one hunter missed him with an arrow and another with a gun. With two near misses, the buck apparently wised up and became a phantom for the rest of the '04 season.

The following year during one of his visits to the island, Mr. Broadhead heard the stories about how the "Dang Near Deer" had been seen and missed on several occasions. He urged Rod to have a go at the phantom during the 2005 season. For a while Rod skirted the issue. Then he made a decision.

"I thought about it long and hard before I said 'yes,' because to my way of thinking my job was to cultivate our deer and not hunt them myself," Rod said. "But eventually I decided to give it a go. I planned to hunt the big one only when no other paying hunters were in camp."

Since all of the island's 2005 hunts were booked for December and January, Rod had the whole month of November to himself. And since the peak of the rut also occurred during this time, Rod had a few windows of hunting time available, and he took advantage of those "prime time" opportunities.

"I bowhunted the early season sporadically," Rod related. "But as you might imagine, there's always something that needs to be done on a hunting property like Brandywine. Finally I had a full day to myself on Nov. 19 during rifle season. Wouldn't you know it -- I saw no shooter bucks at all that day. The next day was Sunday, and I don't hunt on the Sabbath. On Monday the 21st, the wind was right to try a stand near where the big buck had been captured on a trail cam. But as I was cutting through a cane patch, I jumped him up. It seemed over and done with. I figured I'd blown my chances with him, so I hurried off to a different stand."

TAKING ON A RUTTING GIANT
Rod climbed into his second-choice stand and glanced at his watch. The time was exactly 3 p.m. Somehow, even after the mishap of jumping the buck, everything seemed right. Within 10 minutes he spotted two does and a wide-racked 12-pointer of trophy proportions. But Rod had his sights set on a bigger prize, so he sat and watched as the trio walked into another cane thicket.

It was then that a second buck came nosing after the does. This one was a heavy-beamed B&C-class 10-point typical with an attitude. However, immediately after entering the cane thicket the 10-pointer lost his bravado and beat a hasty retreat. Rod assumed that the 12-pointer had squelched that buck's amorous advances. But he was dead wrong. Shortly after watching the 10-pointer vacate the area, Rod watched as the 12-pointer also fled the scene. This put Rod on full alert.

A second set of does materialized and sauntered in. Apparently at least one was in heat, although the tarsal glands of both glistened black in the afternoon sun. The two does abruptly paused outside the cane and cocked their ears toward it. Within seconds, the thicket resounded with crashing cane and guttural grunts. With full authority, a slobbering, bug-eyed brute stepped out. The phantom drop-tined "Dang Near" megabuck had inexplicably returned!

The old boy seemed to instinctively know not to pause too long in the open. So after a quick sneak peek, he disappeared into the dense cover cane and grunted coaxingly in an attempt to encourage the does to follow.

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