Claire Tucker was hunting alongside her son when she got the opportunity to tag this beautiful 183 6/8-inch North Carolina trophy buck.
March 25, 2025
By Clifford Neames
Two weeks after the North Carolina bow season began, Claire Tucker got a real surprise. Cell camera images revealed that a true giant whitetail was showing up on the land she hunts, which is owned by her father, Terry.
“The problem was he was prowling around out there at night on the days I could hunt,” she explained. “Then when I was dealing with my two children, he would daylight!”
She caught a break on November 27th, however. Her son, Tanner, was out of school, and said, “let’s go hunting!” They arrived at the shooting house about 3 o'clock and spent the next hour and a half enjoying the day together, which included watching a bunch of does and a single spike buck out in the field.
“Then a doe came out at the far end, nearly 200 yards away, so I picked up my binoculars,” Tucker said. “I was watching her when the big buck popped out behind her.”
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That’s when the shaking started!
Claire handed the binos over to her son and reached for her .243. The pair of deer began walking toward the blind as the tension ramped up.
“I was shaking pretty bad, then about halfway to us the doe went back into the woods,” Tucker added. “I was worried he would follow her, but then he stopped and looked over at the other deer and I had my chance!”
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Claire let the .243 eat, and the buck fled into the woods and out of sight.
“I called my Dad, and he said go look for blood,” she said.
There wasn’t anything where she had hit the deer, so she eased into the woods to have a look.
“My light showed a pair of eyes looking right at me, so I backed out and waited for him to come,” she explained.
After a few minutes, the trio cautiously entered the woods again.
“It was darker by then and my light showed the buck dead at the base of a tree with his head pointing right at us!,” Tucker said.
It was over.
The 180-pound buck carries six main points and a big crabclaw on the right side, and five on the left. Each long G2 has a sticker point. Both wide and tall, the rack stretches the tape out to 183 6/8 inches.
