Bryan Barton’s opening-day monster buck
- cdavis884
- Sep 4
- 6 min read
By Ford Walpole
Bryan Barton of Lexington is one of my hunting buddies at an Allendale County property. Among our group, he is affectionately known as “White Jeep.” The moniker, assigned to him by Duncan “Chuck” Smith, is about as random as are the names of most deer stands. He doesn’t even drive a Jeep, much less a white one, but he has forever assumed his radio handle associated with the vehicle assigned to him to drive around the place on one particular weekend. These days, Bryan navigates the hunting grounds in a Polaris Ranger worth about twice as much as the pickup I drive every day.
Barton had an ideal hunt on this year’s opening day of deer season, a tall order since his early introduction to the sport established lofty expectations. At 12 years old, he dispatched the first deer on which he ever pulled the trigger — a 182-pound, 10-point that scored 119 and ⅞ inches.
At the time, he was hunting with his father, a career law enforcement officer who taught firearms instruction to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The elder Barton tirelessly reminded his son of important, though nonetheless difficult-to-achieve lessons in marksmanship: “Don’t overgrip the gun and be sure to squeeze the trigger without jerking it. This will make the difference between a good shot versus a horrible shot.”
On August 15, Bryan and Porter Smith spent the day spraying deer stands for wasps and changing camera batteries. “The bottom fell out, but since I was almost finished, I kept on changing camera batteries in the rain,” he says. “That afternoon, we had wind, rain, thunder and lightning.”
The rain set in, so Barton and Smith sighted in their rifles under the protection of the shooting shed’s tin roof. The rain eventually subsided, and the sun came back out around 5 p.m. The rain had killed the breeze, so “it was miserable, hot and muggy,” Barton says. Because of the intense heat, and because he knew the deer would not be walking early, Bryan decided to wait until 6:30 to leave for the stand.
As to where he thought he would sit that afternoon, “I went down to Allendale with the full intention of flipping a coin — and probably losing because I never win,” he says. But when it was time to flip for the best stand, Porter was gracious and let Barton sit at his desired location, acknowledging his recent efforts at the property. “He told me: ‘I hope you get him tonight, but if you don’t, I will be all over him tomorrow’!” Bryan recalls.
“I saw this deer on camera last year for the first time,” Bryan says of his target buck. “I was able to go back and find older pictures of him. I identified him by the characteristics of his horns, which never got any wider, but they did get beefier and taller. I have seen him a lot during the past three weeks — like clockwork within a 30 to 45-minute window, and he only came out during shooting light in the evenings. He kept showing up on camera between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. and again between 2 and 3 a.m.” The deer had also appeared at a nearby stand where Porter was hunting that same opening-day afternoon and would see two eight-points.
“The first thing that came out was a small, narrow eight-point,” Barton says of his hunt. “Two does walked out behind him. Then, a wide, short eight-point was next. About 30 or 40 steps behind him was the big one. They all funneled out the wood line 212 yards from the stand and came up through the corner of the clear cut and walked right up beside a big group of gum trees and into the food plot.
“The deer stayed as concealed as they could and then made a beeline to the feeder, which is 168 yards from the stand. They were fun to watch!” Bryan says. “I had eyes on my buck for six to seven minutes. He kept running off the bigger eight-point. He was throwing his head down like a bull to keep that younger buck away from his food!” he notes.
When Barton first saw the large buck, he verified him through his binoculars. Once he was sure he had his buck in sight, he picked up his rifle and watched him through the scope with the safety off. “The seat in that stand is much higher than it needs to be, so it took me a while to get comfortable. I kept inching the chair back, which allowed me to get lower and more comfortable and steadier for the shot,” he says.
After observing the Alpha buck chase the younger deer into the gum trees, Bryan thought he had lost his opportunity. But, “20 seconds later, he came back. He seemed to have gotten his aggression out, and he started feeding, but he was facing away from me. Finally, he turned to the left and looked up. He took steps to the right and stood broadside with his left leg stretched forward to the right. Any hunter knows this position opens up the ribcage and stretches out that side to get the shoulder out of the way. And that’s when I took my shot; he was probably 170 yards away from me. I knew it was a hit because it sounded like somebody slapped the side of a barn with a baseball bat,” Barton recalls.
“There was an exit wound and blood at the hit sight, which we tracked for 25 yards, but then it went to little drops. I told Porter I thought I may have liver-shot him,” Bryan tells us. A liver shot typically proves fatal, but oftentimes not until after a whitetail has run a great distance before expiring.
“The final 50 yards that he ran, there was very little blood,” Barton continues. “He ran a total of 70-80 yards. He shot out of the food plot and made a quick turn to the right back through the corner of the clearing and cut into the woods. We found him 15 yards into the woods,” he says. Bryan’s 165-grain .308 bullet had connected for an upper-heart shot. “I was surprised that the heart shot did not produce more blood than it did,” he says.
Barton was hardly alone in the excitement and pride he experienced when he and Smith discovered his quarry. “I can tell you this: Porter was just as excited as I was!” he says. “He was patting me on the shoulder and high-fiving me. Porter said: ‘White Jeep, we did it!’ He was pumped up, and his dad Keith was the first one taking pictures. Everybody was just super-excited!”
Bryan credits his buck to proper and effective deer management. “Our current deer population is so much healthier compared to past years for a number of reasons,” he explains. “First, we are putting five buckets of corn in each feeder at a time, which gives each food plot four to five weeks with no human intrusion in that area. Second, we switched to a much more desirable seed for the food plots; we moved to a spring mix that includes soybeans, peas, turnips and sorghum. We also increased the lime and the fertilizer.
“Finally, we really have gotten everybody on board for letting deer walk. If a buck looks nice, clean, symmetrical and healthy, but if it is young and has potential, then we pass on it. We all have a gentleman’s agreement that we each get one nice buck per year. And effective deer management is about getting all of the hunters to buy in,” he says.
Though Barton’s opening-day buck is not his heaviest deer, it boasts his most impressive rack to date. The 195-pound buck is nine points in velvet with antler bases five and a half inches in circumference. A consensus of experts has advised that this deer would likely score between 135-140 inches. “But, it will never go in the record books, because the velvet is immaculate,” he declares. “Normally, the velvet on a buck’s antlers is beat up and scarred. It is rare to have velvet this pristine,” he says.
“Because of that, I am not removing the velvet,” Bryan continues. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources adheres to the Boone and Crockett system, which, for purposes of accurate measurement, does not permit bucks in velvet to qualify for SCDNR’s Antler Records Program. “As long as I know in my heart and mind that this is a record buck, then I am satisfied,” Barton proclaims. “I would rather have the antlers in their natural condition and the memories of killing my first velvet buck!” The renowned taxidermist Jim Stout of Blythewood will create the mount and preserve this fine animal.
After the first day of deer season, Bryan “White Jeep” Barton now may enjoy carefree hunting with no further pressure. “In regard to this property, I am done for the year, besides taking another doe or two for the freezer later on. Now, I plan to concentrate on hogs. If another buck comes out this year, and he is reliable, then one of y’all can get on him,” he says. As for the rest of his hunting buddies who share in the pride of the harvest, we are ever-so-slightly concerned that after bagging this trophy, White Jeep’s head might now be a bit too big to fit through the doors of the deer stands.
Ford Walpole lives and writes on John’s Island and is the author of many articles on the outdoors. He teaches English at James Island Charter High School and the College of Charleston and may be reached atfordwalpole@gmail.com.
