Graham Smith killed a 9.5-year-old North Carolina non-typical buck after a five-year pursuit, arrowing it on the second day of the 2026 season at 25 yards. The buck's BTR gross score of 203 3/8 inches ranks it the number 2 bow-killed irregular whitetail ever scored by Buckmasters in North Carolina.
Graham Smith watched this massive North Carolina buck for five years. The deer first appeared in 2022, and even then, it was a fully mature whitetail. Smith had several in-person encounters with it in 2024 and 2025, all occurring from late October to early November. None of those sightings worked out, he tells Field & Stream. And now, he’s glad they didn’t.
Smith finally killed the buck on September 13, 2026, the second day of the North Carolina deer season. The weather was hot with a heat index of 104 degrees and a slight breeze. He was hunting a big hardwoods area with a cutover behind him and oaks down in front.
He says he watched a doe and her fawn walk out in front of his setup early on in the hunt. They were followed by two small bucks and two more does. Then, around 7:30 P.M., the big buck he’d been after showed up with a smaller 8-point. Smith settled in and floated his pin over the buck’s vitals. The quartering, 25-yard shot connected, and the deer dashed off.
“I keep thinking how blessed I am to harvest an animal of this caliber in North Carolina,” Smith says. “He’s definitely a once-in-lifetime deer.”
By the time Smith shot it, the buck was 9-and-half years old, he says. Its non-typical rack sported a whopping 23 points with a rough B&C green score of 191 and 5/8 inches. For context, the largest B&C non-typical on record in North Carolina measured 228 and 4/8 inches. Don Rockett killed that buck in Person County back in 1998.
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According to Buckmasters (BTR) scorer Wayne Cox, who scored Smith’s deer in late September, it had more than 183 inches of total antler growth. Its BTR gross score of 203 and 3/8 inches makes it the number 2 bow-killed irregular whitetail ever scored by Buckmasters in the state of North Carolina.
Five years of patience, multiple failed encounters, and a willingness to let encounters that didn’t feel right walk away. That’s the actual story behind a 191-class North Carolina non-typical. Smith’s hunt is a reminder that mature bucks at this level don’t get old by being easy, and hunters who give up shooting opportunities they aren’t fully confident in are often the ones who eventually tag a deer worth remembering. The heat, the late evening movement, the quartering shot at 25 yards — none of it was dramatic. It rarely is when a long-game plan finally closes.
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