By Billy Davis

A Tate County deer hunter who stalked his 10-point buck for a week is leading The Panolian’s Big Buck Contest.

Eddie Oglesby, of Senatobia, moved into first place with a score of 62.25, squeezing past Eric McCain and his score of 62 points.

A side-by-side comparison shows neither big buck measured the same. The inside spread and main beam of Oglesby’s 10-point beat McCain’s buck, but McCain’s buck, a 12-point, added two antler points and the base circumference was slightly bigger, too.

Hunting from a ground blind, Oglesby said he bagged the buck on private land in Tate County, near Arkabutla Lake. It sported an inside spread of 21 ¾ inches.

Oglesby said he spotted the buck December 1 at a distance of approximately 500 yards, when it walked out of woods into a spacious lane. Primitive weapon season opened the next day and on December 2 Oglesby again saw the buck at the same distance.

By December 7 the deer hunter had set up the blind to close the distance and, with snow on the ground, he set up behind the blind ten minutes before 7 a.m.

“At 10 minutes ‘til eight, he walked out 60 yards away,” Oblesby recalled. “He was looking right at the blind.”

So Oblesby shot.

And nothing happened.

The hunter opened up his single-shot rifle, a .35 Whelen, examined the bullet, then put it back in. On the second try the gun went bang and the buck went down.

McCain, now sitting in second place, dropped the 12-point buck the day before Thanksgiving. The deer was following does in a food plot when McCain bagged it with a rifle at 60 yards.

The 2011-2012 Big Buck Contest runs through January 31. Batesville Gun and Pawn, where the bucks are measured, is co-sponsor of the contest.