North Carolina Hunter Bags 24-Point Buck After Missing It the Same Day

Like many folks, North Carolina hunter Gavin Glance has always dreamed of owning a place where he could live and hunt. Last spring, he finally got the opportunity. He’d narrowed his choices down to two farms after looking at several other properties in his area, and he eventually chose the one that he thought gave him the best combination of a place to build a new home and to be a good spot for deer hunting.

North Carolina’s Gavin Glance always dreamed of taking a giant buck off his own land. All images courtesy Gavin Glance

After purchasing the property, one of the first things Glance did was put out a few trail cameras, and he spent the summer watching a nice bachelor group of bucks. While none of them were giants, it was enough to make Glance eagerly anticipate the fall hunting season.

After purchasing the property, Glance was excited to get trail camera photos of some nice bucks. Then he got a photo of a giant.

He’d had his cameras out for about four months when an incoming photo caught his attention. It was an eye-popping monster of a buck. Glance had heard neighbors talk about a big deer in the area, but this was the first time he had seen him on his camera. The big buck showed up a few more times, usually 10-12 days apart, but with no real pattern.

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As soon as archery season opened, Glance started hunting, hoping for another glimpse of the big buck. He believes he had an encounter one morning, right at daylight, when an obviously mature buck stepped out at 80 yards. Glance believes it was the big deer, but it spooked before getting close enough for a shot. The hunter ended up shooting another buck, a nice 9-pointer, on October 12. North Carolina allows hunters to take two antlered deer per season.

Glance believes he had an encounter with the big buck right at daylight during the archery season, but the buck was just out of range.

Once the muzzleloader season opened, Glance was back out and hoping the rut would get the big deer on its feet. He headed to his stand the morning of November 9th and was excited to see several bucks chasing and lots of activity. Around 9:30, he heard a grunt in a nearby thicket. Turning to look that direction, Glance was shocked to see the giant buck chasing a doe at 75 yards. He grunted repeatedly, trying to get the deer to stop for an open shot. It didn’t work. As the buck got farther and farther away, Glance finally just belted out a loud, “HEY!” The buck stopped, at 250 yards. It was a long shot with a muzzleloader, but one Glance thought he could make. He took the shot, only to watch the buck run after a clean miss, jumping a fence and standing right in front of a neighbor’s shooting house.

“They were supposed to be hunting that morning. I’m not sure why they didn’t, but I’m sure glad they weren’t there,” Glance said.

Glance got a shot at the big buck with his muzzle loader as it chased a doe, but didn’t connect.

Glance climbed down and went home to check his muzzleloader to see if maybe it had gotten knocked off at some point after he had sighted it in. Something was definitely amiss. The gun was on out to about 120 yards, but was shooting high at longer ranges. Not wanting to take a chance on messing it up, Glance cleaned the rifle and reloaded for an afternoon hunt, vowing to take only shots inside 120 yards.

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He went back to the same area where he had seen the buck that morning, and was quickly back into the action. He’d already seen three small bucks when he looked into the thicket where the big buck had disappeared that morning, and spotted the bruiser again. The deer stepped out, but just out of range. Glance watched as the biggest buck of his life stepped closer. At 140 yards, the buck turned to go around a large downed tree. Glance fretted that he had missed his opportunity. But after an agonizing five minutes, the big buck finally stepped back out on the near side of the downed tree. He was at 120 yards and getting closer. Glance steadied his rifle for a shot.

After checking his muzzleloader, Glance headed back to the same area where he had missed the buck earlier.

When the giant buck postured at a smaller buck, he stopped broadside at 100 yards. Glance squeezed the trigger. As the smoke cleared, Glance couldn’t believe what he saw. The giant buck from his trail camera photos had fallen in its tracks.

Glance made the most of a second opportunity, dropping the big buck in his tracks.

Gavin Glance’s buck had 24 scorable points, 25-inch main beams, and a 19-inch spread. “He actually had a lot more junk and odd points than I thought. From the trail cam photos, I thought he was a 17 pointer,” Glance said. When he dropped the buck off to be caped, his taxidermist, who had been working in that area of North Carolina for years, told Glance that he thought it was likely the biggest buck ever taken in Lincoln County by a wide margin. “All I know is that he is the biggest buck I had ever seen and it was really neat to take him on my own property,” Glance added.