BRAXTON COUNTY, W.Va. — A Braxton County hunter proved you don’t need a big spread to kill a big buck.
Jamie Suckow and her husband moved into their new home in Braxton County in October 2024. Both enjoy deer hunting and decided to put out cameras see that the new land would hold.
“We put up a camera late last year just because we saw some does and were were curious. We had a couple of smaller bucks coming in and we only had him on camera in a blizzard like once or twice, I said, ‘He’s cool I hope he sticks around.'” said Jamie in an interview for West Virginia Outdoors in October 2025.
They left the cameras up all year and were able to see the big buck reappear with a new rack and literally watched his development for a full year.
“This year he started to show up more and more and we got to watch him grow into himself,” she said.
The interesting thing was, Jamie and her husband only own two acres of ground and that includes the plot their house sits on. But every buck needs somewhere to live and Jamie figured this beast had picked their back lot to call home.
“My husband’s family is all from Braxton County and they literally live the next road over. They all live here and they have a lot of property they can hunt, but this year was the first year we decided to hunt our property,” she said.
Jamie said because it was limited space, she wanted to be selective.
Listen to “Jamie Suckow — Braxton County buck” on Spreaker.
“We had a younger buck that was pretty good, but I thought since we live here I don’t want to just shoot whatever comes in. I’d like to see them get bigger if we can. Then this big guy rolled in and it all worked out for the better,” she said.
When the hunting season opened in October, Jamie made up her mind this would be her target buck. A year earlier, she was pregnant, but continued to hunt. This year she and her husband had a baby girl and would have to split up the childcare duties while the other was hunting. The day the big buck showed up, happened to be Jamie’s evening in the stand.
“He hung out for a minute and he was being a little sketchy, like he may have known I was there,” she said.
Jamie worried with a buck that size and such a small plot of ground, the chances of a neighbor taking him were better than average. So she was thrilled to get him within bow range during the daylight hours from her stand.
“I’m sure he was on a lot of people’s trail cams,” she laughed.
But, as luck would have it the big buck presented himself during the second week of the archery season. Jamie let fly the arrow true.
“He kept turning and his head was toward me the entire time. He would turn and I would get ready and he would turn again. He walked away for a minute and I thought I lost my chance. He came back around and angled just a little bit away from me and I took the shot because I didn’t think I would get another one. It was a dead-on shot,” she explained.
The buck didn’t last long. He went down only a few yard from where she had killed him and he stopped running at the base of a ridge, unable to run up the hill. She and her husband were able to recover the big buck within a half hour.
Jamie was able to accomplish a remarkable feat. She had been able to harvest and recover a trophy buck without leaving a two acre plot of ground in Braxton County. Proving you don’t necessarily need a giant spread to be in the right spot at the right time.