Sam Norton downed his 212-pound buck in Marshall County. The rack scored 167 4/8 B&C points. Photo by Anthony Campbell

Sam Norton was "horn hunting" last fall, but he never expected to connect on a buck like the one he got. While hunting on the backside of Grant Mountain in Marshall County, he shot a buck that had 15 points and a non-typical score of nearly 170 inches. The beast weighed 212 pounds, and it took four men more than five hours to get it out of the woods.

The big buck, which had a gross score of 167 4/8 Boone and Crockett Club points, fell during a mid-day hunt on Dec. 12. That is something of an oddity in itself. Most big deer in this part of the state are taken either at the very beginning of the season, before a lot of hunting pressure has occurred, or late in January during the rut.

Norton's buck is considered by locals to be one of the best to ever come from that area. Northern Marshall County produces several nice bucks each season, but a good deer here typically scores in the 120 to 130 range on the B&C system. Bucks with more than 150 inches of antlers are rare.

The kill was not a case of beginner's luck. When development closed in on Sam Norton in his native state of Florida, he relocated to North Alabama. It then took him awhile to adjust to hunting mountains instead of flat woods, but his diligence finally paid off in a big way.

Sam was hunting a 100-acre tract of property owned by a friend when he got the buck. He likes to get a doe for meat each season and then hunt bucks. At the time he was not feeling any pressure to connect, however, because his daughter Amber had already taken the family's doe, which was her first deer.

"I'd passed up probably 15 other deer I could've killed," he said.

In early December, Norton had been hunting the late afternoons and early mornings and not seeing much, so he decided to go hunting in the middle of the day instead. He got in the woods around noon.

"I'd been seeing a lot of rubs, so I went deeper down into the bluffs than I'd been before," he said. "It's steep and thick, the kind of place no one wants to go. Most fair-weather hunters don't want to go more than 50 yards from the truck. I went down the mountain a half mile and it paid off."

Norton saw three other deer an hour before shooting the buck. They were moving fast through the woods, well below his position, and all he could see were "glimpses of hair and horns."

He also saw a dog and guessed the hound had probably jumped them. He thinks all three of the deer were bucks.

"I said, 'Well, there goes my chance,' " he recalled. "But I decided to stay put. I was gambling a little bit."

Just at 3:00 o'clock, the big buck came sneaking back in from the opposite direction the others had run in. Norton thinks it was probably easing back to where it had been before the dog came through.

There are "benches," or "shelves," on the back of the mountain -- sort of natural terraces. This buck was about three benches below the hunter, roughly 140 yards through the woods. Norton was about 35 feet up in his tree stand.

"I could only see part of his antlers, but I felt he was a pretty good buck, so I drew down," Norton said.

He then had to follow the buck in his scope and wait for an opening. He eventually shot through a hole "about the size of your hat."

At the shot, the deer ran about 60 yards and stopped. Norton could still see him, so he shot again. The .300 Win. Mag Browning pump did its job, and the deer collapsed.

"I went down to check on him, and I just kept going deeper and deeper," he said. "When I got to the buck, I grabbed one side of his horns to look at him, and he rolled and slid another 80 feet down the mountain."