Caroline Winters and her family had watched the deer grow over the last three seasons<\/p>\n
![\"mississippi](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/mississippi_thanksgiving_buck.jpg\")
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Caroline Winters with the 13-point buck. Courtesy Caroline Winters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
As soon as the feast ended on Thanksgiving, Caroline Winters and her husband Rick headed for the deer stand. They rushed to their family\u2019s farm in Mississippi\u2019s Tallahatchie County and got there by mid-afternoon. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were later getting into our blinds than we wanted,\u201d Caroline tells Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cI didn\u2019t get into my elevated box blind until 3:45 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n The wind wasn\u2019t right at her usual spot. So, she\u2019d gone to a blind that her husband Rick usually hunted from while he went elsewhere. The elevated box blind she was in looked over a standing soybean patch.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great place that deer just love, with beans situated between two woodlot brakes,\u201d Caroline, a senior at Mississippi State University, says. \u201cAlmost right away there were does feeding in the beans, and I figured I wouldn\u2019t see the big buck we were after because the rut wasn\u2019t really kicked in yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cbig buck\u201d was one that she and her family had been watching over the last three years. In 2022, it was a tall 10-point that they estimated around 160 inches. They\u2019d nicknamed it \u201cTT\u201d (short for \u201cTall Ten\u201d). This year, the buck had grown even bigger, with 13 tall tines in total.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually, younger bucks showed first on that bean field, and I wasn\u2019t real enthusiastic about seeing TT that evening,\u201d the part-time Mississippi Department of Wildlife employee says. \u201cBut about an hour after I got in the blind, out he stepped from a woodlot and started pushing around some of the does like he would in pre-rut.\u201d<\/p>\n The giant buck was 170 yards from Caroline when it turned around to chase the does. But at 200 yards, it stopped and turned broadside. Caroline took careful aim with her scoped .30-06 and squeezed the trigger.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like I made a good shot, but he didn\u2019t really run. He just moved off into the woods 10 yards away and disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n She immediately called her husband and father, who was also hunting nearby, and they headed her way. Soon after, they went to where Caroline had last seen the deer and searched for a blood trail.<\/p>\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t much we could see, and I was getting anxious and wanted to stop looking and call for a tracking dog,\u201d she says. \u201cBut just as I told Rick that, my dad found the buck in the woods. TT only ran about 70 yards.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"mississippi](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/mississippi_thanksgiving_buck_2.jpg?w=1550\")