Joseph Rushing had history with this buck—and on the evening of August 22, 2025, that history came full circle.
It was a hot, late-summer hunt in Sumner County, Tennessee. At 6:53 p.m., Rushing sat in his climber, watching a familiar holler that led from bedding cover to a soybean field. He’d hunted this farm for the last three years, and the buck he was after wasn’t new to him.
“I’ve had him on camera for three years,” Rushing says. “I watched him grow all summer.”
Rushing spotted the group of bucks rise from their beds on the far side of the holler and make their way to a creek below. They lingered there a while, then began climbing his side, heading toward their usual entry point to the field.
“A small buck came through first, and then he was right behind him,” Rushing says. “I had to watch him the whole way to me, and I just kept telling myself to breathe and focus on where I wanted to hit—not the rack.”
When the 12-point stepped past at 20 yards, Rushing settled the pin and released an arrow from his Mathews Triax. The broadhead buried deep, lodging in the buck’s offside shoulder.
“My first thought was that I smoked him,” he says. “But I was shaking so bad I had to sit down on the bar of my climber.”
The buck crashed into a tree just after the shot but managed to keep going—with Rushing’s lighted nock still visible as it bobbed through the woods. Minutes later, Rushing spotted what looked like the same light again.
“I was on the phone with my buddy, and I saw my nock running through the woods. I started second-guessing everything,” he says.
Rather than rush in, he backed out and waited a couple hours. The buck had made it about 100 yards before expiring.
The rough green score from the taxidermist put the buck at 179.5 inches gross, with one beam stretching 26 inches and the other 26.5. Pictures don’t do him justice. It was not only Rushing’s biggest buck ever—it was his first in velvet.
But the success didn’t happen overnight. Rushing had passed the buck the year before, hoping to see what he’d become.
“If I’d shot him then, he’d be dead and I’d have never gotten to see him now,” he says. “If you want to shoot a great buck, sometimes you’ve got to pass the good ones.”
He credits a few hunting buddies for helping him along the way—Matthew, who loaned him a four-wheeler to haul the buck out; Caleb, who helped with farm access and stand approach; and Halen, who helped drag the buck out and preserve the velvet.
“I’m just thankful God gave me the health and opportunity to be out there,” Rushing says. “This hunt is one I’ll never forget.”
