Well I headed up to GA to catch up with some great friends of mine in Albany, GA and do some hunting on some of their properties and take advantage of the rut having just kicked off with the recent cold front that was moving in as I headed north on 75 from FL. On Friday, I caught up with one of my buddies to hunt his place, and enjoyed watched a year old 3pt run a group of does from literally sun up to sun down. No big bucks, but it was an exciting day none the less. Around lunch on Friday, my friend Donnie shot me a text telling me he wanted me to come hang a stand on one of his places where he had a "cull buck" that was showing up regularly during daylight and was certain I could get a shot opportunity on him. So we slipped in to this 2.5 acre property around 1pm to hang the stand to find 2 does feeding in the 125yd long, 15yd wide, strip that ran through the middle of the two sides of standing pines. They trotted off the plot, we picked a tree, hung the stand, pulled the memory card from the trail cam, and headed out. Sitting in the stand that evening I get a text from Donnie informing me that the "cull buck" I would be hunting in the morning, was actually there hitting a scrape, 10yds from where we hung the stand, at 0845 that morning. It was at this point I began to feel really good about the next morning's hunt. Naturally, the next morning came, and I woke up 45min late, hauled tail to the property...an 1hour away...and still was able to get settled in and camera gear setup, before first light. I did bump several deer on the way in, but none went very far. First light comes, accompanied by very deliberate steps, I catch movement in front of me to the right as a doe slips into the strip of green. Another meets her at the opposite end of the opening to my left. They feed around for a bit, before slipping off back into the pines. 40min later or so, I hear more footsteps and catch flashes of brown and white, focus my eyes on the movement to see a nice 2.5 year old 8 bird doggin one of the earlier does, pushing her into the clearing. They both feed underneath me for a while at about 10-12yds....before running off into the woods. Another 15min or so go by and one of the does has found her way back out and underneath me again, feeding. After watching her a while, I notice her look back down the strip from the direction I walked in and saw the other doe from earlier making her way down the clearing, only this time I heard a grunt coming from behind her. I get my bow in hand, settle the camera in their direction, and out he steps. Now this is by far the biggest deer I've laid eyes on in the woods (bodyweight wise), he steps out, eyes locked on his doe, stops looks in my direction and it feels like he is looking into my soul haha. After a very brief stare down, he looks back over his shoulder for a few seconds, before the sound of his doe walking away, and toward me, regained his attention. He turns back toward the doe, lets out a grunt and a snort wheeze (after the shot I found out there was a small buck trailing them), his doe trots down past me and he begins to follow. I stop him at 21yds, very slightly quartering to due to the angle of the clearing, settle the pin just over his elbow, the release fires off, arrow disappears behind his shoulder and into the dirt, I watch him make three bounds off into the woods and stop, looking around. His back legs widen, hindquarters get heavy and he slowly fades to the ground. My biggest buck to date made it 15yds from the shot before crashing. Im not exaggerating when I say I probably sat in the stand for 5minutes with my hands over my mouth or on my head in complete disbelief as to what had just unfolded. I didn't know what to say, what to do, I just kinda stood there....with a blank stare in the direction he ran. Haha, then the shakes and celebration came. It was a great hunt, and a great day. I'll shut up now and show the pics, included are the trail came pics from the morning before and the still frame showing the lighted nock disappearing into his lungs. ****One last thing, You will be able to watch this hunt on the Pursuit Channel, with TAK Driver TV, in January. I have 3 of my hunts airing with their show on January 5th, 12th, and 19th at 7pm, would love for yall to tune in and check it out.****
Nice buck! I watch the Pursuit Channel pretty much every day, so I'll most likely see it, that's an awesome hunt for sure Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Tell me about it! Ill post up a picture of this deer from last year where both sides matched...but something happened to mess up the left side. He's a stud to me and will be displayed proudly as a shoulder mount. 5.5-6.5yo buck, ill never complain about being able to kill a buck that old, regardless of score! This was him last year...
awesome... what part of GA ? I get down to Ellijay and hunt with my great friend Bill Harmon a few times a year.. love it down there
Congrats... I need to know if you have any catchy or even corny one liners before I commit to watching any episodes.
Hahaha I would say I do not. I will say "Pin 'Em & Stick 'Em" as it's something me and my dad would say to each other before leaving the truck when we hunt together. But that's the only one liner I have haha. If you find any, let me know and I will remove it from future use haha.
AHHHH....well in that case i gotcha covered haha. Hope you enjoy. I have some of my stuff on my YouTube page (link in my signature). And while i didnt get to edit the footage for the Pursuit channel, i will be putting together my own versions this spring.
