It had been raining, the kind of weather that shuts a search down before it starts. We caught a little break in it and went looking for a giant Baldwin County buck.
We found him. And when the hunter finally got his hands on the rack, it was obvious this was not an ordinary deer — mass carried through the entire rack, and a close look at the bases showed a third antler growth just starting. The biggest deer we have found to date.
Our part of a recovery ends when the screen shows a heat signature. The part we remember is what comes after: walking a hunter to a buck he could not find on his own, in weather that had already taken the trail away from him.
When we posted this one, Baldwin County showed up — 145 reactions, 31 shares, and a comment section full of “absolute giant” and “that's a hammer.” One hunter said he had trail-cam pictures of this buck going back a year. Deer like this one are known. Losing one to the weather is the kind of thing that stays with a hunter for life — which is exactly why we went out in the rain break instead of waiting for morning.