Cameron Whitehead poses with "Ghost," an 8 1/2-year-old Mississippi buck that her family had been chasing for several years.
September 16, 2024
By Clifford Neames
Cameron Whitehead’s husband, Mitch, thought she needed an upgrade for deer hunting in the 2023 season. So, he bought a new .270 to replace her .243, and presented it to her as an early Christmas present. What happened soon after was an even bigger surprise for both of them.
The couple has been hunting and raising a family together for years. Sometimes their busy lives get in the way of getting out in the woods, but taking shifts with the kids allows some room in the schedule.
On December 9th, Cameron had been tied up all day with family duty, but her thoughts kept drifting to Ghost — the giant buck they had been after for several years. So, the next day she decided to cash in her “free day” ticket.
“I really needed the break”, she says. “So, I asked Mitch to take care of the kids so I could hunt!”
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Mitch suggested she go sit on a lock-on stand that her son hunts. But the cold wind had a serious bite.
“I balked at that idea, telling him I was going to sit in a shooting house instead,” she laughed.
The trail camera photos of "Ghost" make it easy to see why he occupied the top spot of the 2023 hit list. That turned out to be a very good decision. Cameron climbed inside the stand at 3 p.m., while Mitch took their son to an event at church. The afternoon was slow with no deer sightings early on.
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“I was just enjoying the peace and quiet,” she added. “But it was not looking like I had chosen a good day to hunt.”
Ghost had been passing through their hunting land just after dark, and Cameron was not really expecting to see him.
“But at 5 p.m. I decide to stick my rifle out of the window just in case,” she continued. “Mostly because I have been known to make noise at all the wrong times and spook deer!”
Ten minutes later, she saw a huge racked buck step into the shooting lane she was watching.
“At that point, I wasn’t sure about anything other than it was way bigger than any buck I had ever seen and I knew I was going to shoot it," she explained!
The buck moved slowly forward as she lined up her shot and pulled the trigger. He dropped his head and put it in high gear when the bullet struck.
“I grabbed my phone and called Mitch, telling him ‘I got him, I got him, I got him!”
Mitch told her to stay in the stand, and he was headed that way.
“I really tried, but after a few more minutes I had to get down and look!”, Cameron laughed. “There wasn’t much blood, but I was sure I had hit him, and thought I had made a good shot.”
Once Mitch arrived, they decided to call in Bart Chancellor to bring his Black Mouthed Cur tracking dog, Smoke, to assist with the recovery.
It wasn't long after that the group was standing over the double split brow-tined giant. Ghost was aged at 8-plus and his massive rack presents a wall of tines on each side, scoring 187 4/8 inches BTR.
“I was was in disbelief when I put my hands on him,” Cameron concluded. “It was surreal. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen in Mississippi for sure!”
