Hunter: Amy Atkinson
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Laurens
Season: 2024-2025
Hunt Story
After putting a 2-lb venison meatloaf into the oven and waiting on the timer, it wasn't near done, so I put it back in the oven and turn to my husband and say, "I think I'm gonna go see if I can call one up"... he turned on another timer for the meatloaf, went to play with the babies, and I threw on a camo shirt and an orange vest. I picked up my Savage 6.5 Creedmoor, which we call Princess, and walked out the door. I chose my spot looking down a path leading to the creek where I can see anything walking the creek line or coming up the field to an area with a few small scrapes (which looked like my teenagers bedrooms with leaves and limbs and brushy debris scattered amongst the dirt). I wait about 5 minutes and turn over my lil can call. I could hear something down in the creek bed rustling leaves, I wait and watch but it doesn't get closer or come into view. I waited about 20min and got my can out again. I turned it over about 3 times and put it down. The noise from the leaves got louder and closer, about the time the rustling got into the opening, there he was, a lone armadillo having the time of his life. I relax and turn and look over my right shoulder behind me and see a deer, a buck... but I'm not sure if it's the 4pt I've recently see on camera or a different buck. I wait on him to take a step so some thick brush is between us and I turn toward him. About the time I get settled in my new position I hear something run off into the field and think "how did he see me?" THEN he took a step... he was still there, he hadn't been the one to run. I set my gun into my shoulder and look into my scope, he walked behind a large pine tree and came out into some brush with a small gap between some small scrubby trees, and into my crosshairs, he was a bigger buck than the 4pt. I pulled the trigger and he dropped, he was less than 20yds! I text my husband "got one"... I had been out of the house 30 minutes. He drove across the yard to me and we loaded this deer. At the processor we had him weighed, 198lbs and his neck measured 27.5". My 2nd biggest buck, (my number one was killed last November less than 100yds away, also in less than 30min from setting down (at 4pm!)). For those that care, my husband forgot about the meatloaf with the text announcing my kill, and he burnt the meatloaf, (we just cut the burnt part off and ate it when we got back from the processor).
