Sidestepping EHD to Tag 175-Inch Virginia Buck

Hunter Herndon of Scottsville, Virginia lives the “old cliché” type of life. He literally married the farmer’s daughter. Well, the order of it all isn’t quite laid out like the cliché goes, but you'll get the picture.

He had already been hunting a piece of property in Albemarle County when his father-in-law decided he wanted to purchase the adjoining farm to expand his sheep farm. It couldn't have worked out any better for the Herndon’s — not just for hunting — but for his growing a young family as well. His wife and children love living, working and playing on the farm.

It doesn’t hurt that in that part of Virginia, the large tracts of land lead to relatively lower hunting pressure, helping bucks reach maturity.

Last season, Hunter and his family started seeing a beautiful 8-point with extremely tall G2’s and G3’s. The deer was seen from one of the farma to the other. He was certainly covering some ground, so they appropriately named him "Walker.

This summer, EHD hit the farm pretty hard. Hunter found 38 dead deer — 15 bucks and 23 does. Unfortunely, a couple of the bucks were some of their bigger ones, too. One measured 153 inches as a 10-point, so concerned leading into this season was obviously quite high.

Walker survived, however, and as Hunter noted, “We had some really impressive (bucks) this season — not nearly as many, but there were some very good bucks this year.”

Walker, as well as two other bucks, absolutely exploded from last year. Walker went from a mainframe 8-pointer last season to packing 17 scorable points this year. And true to his name, Hunter was getting photos of the deer all over the place during the summer.

“There was a period of about eight or nine days over the summer where I didn’t get any pictures of him, so I was starting to get a little concerned," Hunter said. "Quite stressed actually, but he showed back up, and once he did he never stopped. He was on camera constantly.”

Then, a month before season started, he narrowed down his core area and was hitting a couple of cameras consistently.

“Two weeks before season, he began hitting one particular food plot out of the 10 we have on the properties, and that was the only one he would go to," Hunter explained. "He really liked that one for some reason.”

There was no good place to hang a stand, so Hunter set up a ground blind in that plot before the opener. Sure enough, the very night he set it up he got a picture of Walker in the plot. Not only was the deer hitting that plot every evening, but he was doing it during shooting light, too. This set the stage for Hunter’s opening day.

“I was so excited, stressed, everything, leading up to opening day,” Hunter remembers.

So, opening afternoon, he and his brother settled into the blind around 4:30. Walker had been hitting the plot around 6:30-7 every night.

After watching some does and fawns, as if on cue, Hunter’s brother noticed another deer enter the plot at 6:30 p.m. — a smaller 8-point. A few minutes later, Walker entered Hunter’s line of sight.

The first shot hunter had at Walker was at 37 yards.

“I can make that shot, but It was super windy so I decided I was going to wait to see if he would come closer," Hunter said.

And he did. But at 25 yards, he knew something was up and the deer jumped back and paused. He quickly calmed down, but started walking quartering-away. That’s when Hunter drew his bow and aimed for a sport behind the ribs.

“As soon as the arrow hit, I could see blood flying everywhere," he said. " It was crazy and amazing!”

Walker grossed right around 175 inches.

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