Coweta Teen Flips The Script, Kills Big Bow Buck

Mason Geeslin, 15, of Senoia, changed the way he accessed his stand, and it paid off with this nice Coweta County 11-pointer.

Hunting a big buck that knows that you are there—and doing it with a compound bow—is a battle of wits. It’s a battle that is usually lost on teenagers because of their notorious lack of patience.

Mason Geeslin, 15, of Senoia, is special. Mason hunts a 45-acre piece of private property in Coweta County. Three seasons ago, he spotted a 2 1/2-year-old buck that he vowed he would take one day. He wanted it to be larger. It was an ambitious goal.

“I had taken several bucks with a gun through the years, but I wanted more of a challenge,” Mason said. “I decided to start hunting with a bow and never pick up a gun again.”

On slow days of hunting through the years, he stood fast in his goal, even though the buck was getting larger every season. Mason estimates he passed up 10 shots on the buck over the three seasons.

Finally, this season, the buck reached a size Mason wanted. The only problem was that it had gotten smarter.

“He knew how to get me downwind,” the 15-year-old Trinity Christian student said. “I couldn’t close the deal because of the wind. He always outsmarted me.”

On Sept. 16, Mason changed tactics.

“He knew my access to the area,” he said. “He always knew I was in there. I decided to walk in a different way.”

Late that afternoon, Mason watched as the area filled up with deer.

“There were 15 deer in the field in front of me, and two were does 20 yards away. It was high grass in that field, but there was some Buck Muscle in there, and that was what I had been feeding the deer all year.

“The field was to the right of me, and woods to the left. The does were staring at me. They were trying to work their way behind me to get downwind of me. They eased behind me into the woods.

“About 20 yards behind me was a trail that led to the field. All I saw was a big rack. I took my bow off the hanger, and I drew. The buck kept walking right to me. At 30 yards, I made a perfect lung shot, and he ran only about 40 yards and fell.

“My change of access made all the difference. All the times before, he knew I was in there. He didn’t know this time.”

On closer inspection, the buck turned out to have 11 points. It was Mason’s largest buck ever.

“The buck hasn’t been officially scored,” Mason said. “A rough score put it at about 130 inches.”

Mason’s biggest mistake? He wasn’t yet a subscriber to GON, so he was unable to enter it in the Truck-Buck contest. They’ve already corrected that—there’s a GON showing up in the Geeslin mailbox this month

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