Solomon Lakey got off work early on Nov. 7. The rut had started in Massachusetts and Lakey, a middle-school teacher, had just enough time to squeeze in a short hunt before dark.
“Right out of work I headed to a public hunting area I knew very well,” the 45-year-old bowhunter tells Outdoor Life. “I knew the red oak ridges of the area were perfect for cruising bucks.”
It was about an hour before sunset in Northwest Massachusetts when Lakey stepped out of his truck. He grabbed his Lone Wolf climbing stand and headed into the hilly timber. On his way in, he jumped an 8-pointer with a doe.
“I kept on walking to that tall ridgeline full of red oaks … and I found a massive fresh scrape from what I figured was a giant buck,” says Lakey, who lives in Deerfield. “That looked like a prime spot, so I found a good tree to climb that had lots of sapling cover nearby.”
Lakey says he purposely made lots of noise as he readied his climbing stand, believing the sound would draw in rutting bucks.
“I only had an hour to hunt, so I was breaking branches, using my grunt call, making all kinds of noise that I usually wouldn’t for a hunt. I wanted to sound like a buck fight. Then I settled in to wait for the last and best hour of the day.”
Over the last two years, Lakey and some hunting buddies in the area had gotten trail camera photos of a huge typical 10-point. It was a buck they all dreamed of taking, but it was, old, wise, and elusive — the kind of deer that keeps hunters scratching their heads.
Conditions were perfect that early November afternoon, with a light breeze and temperatures in the 40s. And as the sun was sinking behind the ridge, Lakey looked up and saw a deer. When it turned its head, he saw a huge rack that could only belong to one buck.
“He was looking around, and I grunted to him,” Lakey says. “He immediately made a beeline straight toward me. He didn’t run, just kept a solid pace downhill my way. If I hadn’t had the saplings around my tree, he might have spotted me. But he kept coming.”
The buck stopped at 15 yards, slightly quartering to him.
“He stuck his nose high up in the air trying to catch the wind. I knew it was the best chance I’d get at him, so I drew, anchored, and released my arrow.”
The arrow buried deep behind the deer’s shoulder, and the lighted nock indicated the arrow had hit exactly where he was aiming. But then the buck turned and walked back up the hill.
“That was weird, because most deer run downhill after a shot. But I knew I made a good shot, and I watched the buck disappear, with the Lumenok glowing.”
Lakey called his friend Tim Winslow and told him which deer he’d just shot. He could still see the Lumenok in the woods above him as darkness set it.
“But 10 minutes later I see the green light coming back down the ridge,” Lakey says. “It was about 75 yards away, and then the light just disappeared. I figured he fell right there.”
Lakey then went back to his truck, where he phoned his wife, Christa, along with another friend, Brian Rose. After his buddies arrived, the three men returned to the woods to track the deer.
“I wanted to go to where I figured the buck fell, but Tim said we should find the spot where I hit the deer and follow the blood trail to it.”
That’s exactly what the hunters did, and after covering about 150 yards they found the buck at the same spot where Lakey thought he saw the buck fall. Lakey’s 70-pound bow and 100-grain expandable broadhead had done quick work on the giant whitetail.
The buck has wide bases and massive beams, with distinctive curls to the end of many of its tines. They field-dressed the deer and dragged it downhill to the truck before heading home to show his wife and friends.
The following day they put the 10-pointer on a scale, where it weighed 176 pounds. On Saturday — after the 60-day drying period had ended — the buck was officially scored by Mark Penfield with the Northeast Big Buck Club. Penfield, who notes the buck is a “wide monster” on the scoring sheet, gave the typical rack a gross score of 168 and a net score of 162 4/8 inches.
According to state records kept by the Boone & Crockett Club and the NBBC, Lakey’s deer is the highest-scoring typical buck taken in Massachusetts since 2013, when Scott Thurston killed a 175 7/8 inch buck. The buck could also rank with B&C as the No. 16 typical whitetail in the Massachusetts record book if that score is confirmed by B&C. The current No. 16 buck scored 161, while No. 15 scored 162 7/8.
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“We’re building a new house, and we’re trying to figure out where to hang him,” Lakey says. “I think my man cave in our home basement is where he’ll end up.”
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