By Jeremy Judd – jjudd@salisburypost.com

It isn’t every year a hunter takes a 16-point buck. In fact, in 28 years of hunting Rowan County, Shepherd had never taken a deer with a rack that big.
He was sitting in his tree stand on the second day of muzzleloader season. The day was coming to a close as dusk was nearing ó it was almost 5 p.m. A few does and one small buck wandered past and disappeared into some brush.
A few moments later the does passed by again, and Shepherd was surprised to see that this time they had a new Romeo in tow ó this one a whole lot bigger.
“I didn’t even know that deer existed,” said Shepherd.
He waited several minutes for a clean shot and then took the whitetail buck with a single shot from his White in-line muzzleloader. It ran barely 30 yards before Shepherd’s carefully placed shot took its toll.
Shepherd estimates the buck at about 200 pounds and believes it to be at least 4 1/2 years old.
As to where he shot it, “Somewhere in Rowan County” was all he’d say. Beside, Shepherd pointed out, “That deer isn’t there anymore anyway.”