Page 5 - 2016Hunting&Sporting

Local hunter reflects on prize-winning buck
By Brittany Williams
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — After teach- ing himself how to hunt with a bow, Josh Pittman never thought he’d have a prize win- ning deer on a mantle.
“I saw it a couple years ago and told everybody that I saw the biggest deer I ever saw in my life. I thought I’d never see it again,” Pittman said. “I started getting pictures of it on my game camera around September. Two weeks before I killed it, I drew back on it but it was still too early.”
On judgement day, the deer came in and out of Pittman’s sights several times before he had a clear shot — the shot that would change Pittman’s life forever.
“The fourth time it came out, it was about 10 minutes after 7 a.m. and it was bright enough to shoot it,” he said. “I shot it and I knew the deer was going to hear my heart beat. I don’t remember aiming or anything. I just pulled back and let it go.”
After 20 minutes, he left his
deer stand and found his dead game. He ran to his house, got his four-wheeler and brought the “Pope and Young” deer home to his wife and friends, who encouraged him to enter it into some contests.
“I knew it was big, but I didn’t realize how big it was. I ended up taking it to the Simmons’ Sporting Goods Big Buck Contest in Bastrop, La., the same day and they scored it at 184 and two-eighths. I would’ve never believed that.”
Pittman won in the archery category of the Simmons’ con- test and won the adult division prize in the Goodwins ETC Big Buck Contest. He also placed third in the bow category for Relyance Bank’s Arkansas Big Buck Classic.
The Big Buck winning bow hunter didn’t always hunt using his Mathews Creed bow with lighted sights. He got his start rifle hunting with friends and their families.
He said, “It probably took me
See PITTMAN Page 7
BrittanyWilliams/News-Times
Prize Winning Trophy: Josh Pittman and his son, Daxton, show awards from Simmons’ Sporting Goods Big Buck Classic, Goodwins ETC Big Buck Contest and Relyance Bank’s Arkansas Big Buck Classic.
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