Clarke County youngster bags outstanding buck

By By Otha Barham / outdoors editor
Jan. 23, 2004
Last week young Ethan Williams asked his father, Daryl, if they could go deer hunting. The weather was so warm that Daryl tried to talk his son into waiting for a cooler day. But the boy persisted and his dad agreed to make an afternoon hunt.
The elder Williams, perhaps displaying a lack of confidence, selected a nearby stand. Somewhat oddly, his wife, Diane, suggested they go to another more distant green field on land owned by the boy's uncle and aunt, Keith and Molli Thomas. Daryl went along with her recommendation.
At the Clarke County field, the 11-year-old had been stationed with his dad in a tall ladder stand for an hour and a half or two hours when a doe entered the pasture nearby. The deer was high up a hill from the waiting pair. Soon a large buck, that was following the doe, came into view and both hunters got excited.
Daryl recorded the movement of the big buck on his video camera. When the deer came within range Ethan's dad, trying to control his own eagerness, urged him to shoot the buck. Simultaneously, the young Williams was lining up the deer with the scope on his .223 single shot New England Firearms rifle. The youngster was taking his time.
Perfect shot
The buck ran a quick circle and piled up. That is when the young hunter took his turn at shaking uncontrollably "Where did you shoot him?," asked his dad.
When the pair got to the buck and Ethan counted eleven points on the huge rack, his remark was, "Awesome." His father was speechless for several minutes. (Later he was so excited he could hardly tell the story.)The 55 grain Remington soft point bullet had pierced the buck's heart in a textbook shot. And what lay there on the ground was a buck that would later score over 180 Boone and Crockett points and take the lead in the overall category of Jay's Taxidermy/97 OKK Big Buck competition.
When Daryl could speak he said, "I'll go get the truck." Leaving his son with the giant buck, he retrieved the truck for transporting the deer. "When I drove around the corn field and back up to the spot, I could see Ethan through the broom sage and he was looking down like he was crying. I hurried to him and asked him what was wrong," said the proud father. "I was thanking God," replied his son, who had assumed a prayerful position. The insightful boy's reply overwhelmed his dad who was still shaking from the experience.
The stats
The buck weighed 180 pounds and has an inside antler spread of just over 15 inches. The G-3 tines on his 25 inch antler beams are over a foot long, which is quite unusual.
The jubilant hunters showed the deer to all their kin and friends they could think of. The processor called in interested people to look at the big deer.
Ethan Williams is a straight-A sixth-grader at Enterprise Middle School who likes to play baseball. He has done some dove and squirrel hunting, but seems to excel in the deer woods. His grandparents, Ray and Penny Thomas, gave him his .223 rifle, and last deer season he bagged a 10-point buck. "Son, you may never match this buck the rest of your life," his father had told him.
Daryl told the boy the same thing about this year's eleven-pointer and his son reminded him that he had said the same thing the year before.
I won't bet against this young hunter getting an even bigger buck in his future. But I'll wager that the next time Ethan and his father go deer hunting, they will ask the lady of the house which stand to hunt.