BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — When you’re nearing age 77 and you’ve hunted all your life, chances are you’ve killed a few good bucks during those years. However, for Bridgeport resident H.E. “Sarge” Travis 2016 produced a milestone.
Sarge and a friend hunt on a farm in Barbour County about 20 minutes from his home in Bridgeport and they also lease two adjoining farms which gives them control of nearly a thousand acres of hunting land. Sarge says they are very selective when hunting.
“I’m very picky,” Sarge said during an interview for Northside Automotive West Virginia Outdoors. “I don’t shoot anything unless it’s bigger than one I’ve shot before.”
The buck he killed on the first Saturday of the 2016 rifle season definitely qualified.
“I have seen a lot of big bucks and a couple actually bigger than this,” he said. “But this is actually the biggest one I’ve ever shot.”
The 12 point buck featured a pair of split brow tines. The distinguishing marks made him recognizable to Sarge but it wasn’t a buck he had actually planned to kill going into the season.
“We had him on camera, but he was on camera at a different location,” said Sarge. “Where I shot him I was after a big nine-point that had been coming in there. Actually I thought that’s what I had shot until I got down to him. It was ten after 7 when I shot him and I was down in a hollow and the sun hadn’t come out very good that morning. In fact it was misting rain a little bit.”
Sarge observed a doe about 150 yards from his stand and in the low light decided to take a look through the scope of his rifle. When he got the doe in view he noticed another deer behind her and saw it was a buck.
“I said ‘Oh Lord there’s my nine point!” Sarge explained.
But even after spying the buck through the glass, he still wasn’t completely convinced it was the buck he was after. He stared a while longer and convinced himself his nine point had arrived and dropped him where he stood. However, he didn’t immediately leave the blind to go get the buck. He opted to wait a couple of hours on another prize.
“I have a permit to shoot a bear during buck season and I was really looking for a 400 pound black bear I’ve been hunting and waiting for him to come in there,” said Sarge. “I finally about 9:00 went down there and couldn’t believe my eyes.”
The massive whitetail weighed over 200 pounds and was more than five years old. The rack’s inside spread was 15 inches, but the outside spread was 17.5inches which is a testament to the mass of the buck’s antlers. The old buck gave quite a thrill to the old hunter.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” he said. “This was the nicest one I ever took.”