Mercille Not Only Has A Nice Buck To Mount, But A Good Story, Too

Submitted by Deanna Mercille

This is ‘Bucky’, Gage Mercille has been getting pictures of him on his game camera for 3 years.

Gage said he wasn’t feeling very lucky and and so he was laying back in his stand with his feet up watching tic toc videos with the sound up. He heard rustling and a doe walked under his stand and stood. He made some sounds and watched her for a while because he didn’t want to shoot her because she was young. He said while he was watching her another deer came running down the hill and all he saw were horns and when he got into view he looked up at Gage.

He was still laying back with his gun resting beside him. As soon as the deer looked away he pulled his gun up and sat up quickly all at once. The deer looked up at him and started off and that’s when he said he had to take the shot. It wasn’t the shot he wanted but he said he wanted that deer because it was ‘Bucky’.

He thought the deer ran down the hill but he looked over and there was one running up the hill so it took him a while to figure out which way ‘Bucky’ ran.

He tracked the blood trail and the deer was at the bottom of the hill right in front of his stand. He came and got the rest of the family and we went over with them to try to drag it out.

He field dressed it and it was all we could do to get it on the four wheeler to drive it up the hill. C.J., his dad, took it to the shop and it weighed 198 lbs.

Gage plans to get it mounted and put the 3 pictures from his game camera on the wooden board with the trophy buck. When Gage began seeing him he was a small 8 point. C.J. estimates the buck at about 5 years old.