Got your deer yet?

In Alabama, the white-tailed deer is the number one game animal, and about 180,000 deer hunters spend a combined 4 million days in the woods trying to bag a deer.

The hunting frenzy reaches its apex in January, as breeding season, “the rut,” has bucks on the move looking to mate and less likely to be cautious during daylight hours. Deer season in many parts of the state ends Jan. 15, Jan. 27 or as late as Feb. 10 through most of the state.

Alabama hunters kill more than 300,000 deer a year, on average.

While many hunters hunt on leased land in rural areas, deer are quite common even in the state’s most populous counties. There may even be a monster buck lurking just outside your back door.

See also: Big cat country? Daytime photo of bobcat in Graysville raises eyebrows

On Jan. 15, Greg Robertson of Shelby County got in a stand overlooking a power-line right-of-way about 100 yards from his house. He poured himself a cup of coffee as daylight broke.

“There was a doe that came out and she stood around and laid down in the wide open for about 45 minutes,” Robertson said. “She got up, went to a couple scrapes, then started to ease off the power line. About 10 minutes after she eased off, he came out right where she went in.”

That’s when “Scoops” made his appearance. Robertson had seen night pictures from his game camera of a giant buck he nicknamed “Scoops” because its antler rack had an upward scoop in front.

“As soon as he stepped out, I had a coffee cup in one hand and an Oreo in the other hand,” Robertson said. “I dropped the Oreo and set the coffee cup down. I picked my rifle up and put him in the scope.”

The buck had 15 points, although one drop-tine nub was less than an inch long, so not scoreable on the systems that measure antler racks.

An official scorer rated it as 154 7/8 as an eight-point, or 170 1/8 as a non-typical with 14 points, based on the Alabama white-tail scoring system.

“He’s enormous,” Robertson said.

Robertson said he usually hunts in Lamar County in North Alabama, but the season peaks there a little earlier, by Christmas week or New Year’s Day.

He decided to hunt on his own land for only about the sixth time, and he’d only seen two deer while hunting there, never sighting “Scoops” until that day.

Although he’s only killed two of his three-deer limit, and could keep hunting until Feb. 10, Robertson said he thinks he’s done hunting for the season.

This week, he dropped “Scoops” off with a taxidermist for mounting.