"On Oct. 22, 2024, I killed the biggest deer I may ever kill in my life," said Emma Claire Starkey, 16, of Eudora. "It was one of the best days of my life. I thank Jesus for this day and constant experience."
Starkey said the story began in 2023 after she and her father, Adam Starkey, put out trail cameras before archery season began.
"One summer night, my dad and I got a notification from the camera," Starkey said. "It was two giant bucks wrapped in velvet.
"We couldn't believe it. After seeing those bucks, we immediately start excited about the soon-to-begin bow season."
"This deer was ginormous," Starkey said. "On the left side of his rack, he had a kicker on his G2.
"After noticing this, my dad and I decided to give this deer a name. That name was Kicker. After trying to hunt this deer for quite a while, we discovered that he was challenging. He would only come out around midnight."
The two hunted the buck at every opportunity, but he wasn't cooperative and remained nocturnal. However, one Sunday evening, they got a notification from a camera, and there was a photo of him. The two rushed to the stand, only minutes from their home. They couldn't get close enough for a shot with Starkey's crossbow, but they saw him firsthand.
"When my dad and I laid eyes on this deer, our faces immediately lit up," Starkey said. "Our adrenalin was through the roof.
"Kicker was even bigger in person. My dad and I couldn't believe what we had just experienced. We both walk back to the truck in disbelief. After seeing him in person, we had him back on the camera a couple of times, and after that, he was gone."
Starkey wondered what had happened to the buck. Had he been hit by a car, killed by a hunter, or maybe just moved on? Those questions were answered less than two weeks before archery season opened this year while Starkey was at her school's homecoming dance.
There she was, in a room filled with teenagers dancing, strobe lights flashing, and loud music, when she received a message from her father. It said that Kicker was back, and he sent a photo of the buck, too.
"I couldn't believe it," Starkey said. "I thought this deer had disappeared for good."
This year was shaping up to be a repeat of 2023. The Kicker was nocturnal. They had one close encounter with him on Oct. 20 when they received a photo of him in daylight and tried to sneak up on him but couldn't get a shot. The fact that both close encounters were on Sundays didn't go unnoticed.
"On the way home, I started thinking, this deer did the same thing to us last year on a Sunday," Starkey said. "How crazy was that?"
Hunting the deer had become a daily routine, but a week after her encounter with the buck, Starkey said she was exhausted. However, she felt that if she didn't go, the buck would show up during legal shooting hours because that works in the deer hunting world. So, that afternoon, she was back on the stand with her father.
"I was exhausted," Starkey said. "I sat with my head facing down, and my eyes closed most of this hunt."
While half asleep, she felt her father tapping her leg.
"I looked out to see giant horns facing my way," Starkey said. "I immediately started breathing heavily and shaking."
The buck took his time and slowly made his way toward the stand.
"It took probably 15 minutes for that deer to come into range, and I thought both of us would pass out. Our hearts were beating so hard," her father said. "She couldn't hardly hold a conversation."
The buck gave Starkey a shot at 45 yards, and Starkey pulled the trigger on her crossbow. They went to the site where he was standing, and her father eventually found a drop of blood.
"I said, 'Emma Claire, look at this,'" her father said. "She instantly started crying."
The two didn't track him because they thought he might still be alive and run, so they left the area. They came back later that night and found him just 60 yards away.
"She reached down and grabbed those horns and said, 'Oh, my God. He's even bigger than he was in pictures,'" her father said.
Her father estimated the buck's score to be between 140 and 150. When Final Approach Taxidermy in Hernando scored the buck, it was a good bit higher.
The bases measured 5 1/2 inches and 5 1/4 inches, and the inside spread was 17 1/4 inches. The main beams were 23 1/4 inches and 24 inches. The left G2 was 12 inches, and the right G2 was a whopping 14 inches. The total score was 156 1/2.
"She was happy," Starkey's father said. "That deer didn't have any ground shrinkage."
Congratulations to Emma on getting a ginormous buck named "Kicker" in our great Mississippi outdoors! hat's awesome!
