Another Mountain Monarch For Chestatee WMA Record Holder

Chase Hemphill, of Blairsville, with his beautiful 10-point buck killed at Chestatee WMA on a frigid Dec. 6 morning during the second of three five-day rifle hunts held on the area during the 2024 hunting season.

Chase Hemphill has a love-hate relationship with Chestatee Wildlife Management Area and deer hunting the mountains of Lumpkin County. The 39-year-old public-land hunter from Blairsville has had remarkable success with two special bucks… but they are bucks killed five years apart that bookend countless unsuccessful hunts. 

“I love it when it’s right, hate it when it’s not,” Chase said. “It’s a lot of walking, some rough country. This year the hogs are so bad you can’t tell hog sign from deer sign from bear sign. You don’t see many deer, but when you get in that high country, when you do see one, it can be a good deer.”

An indicator of how low the deer population is on Chestatee WMA—there are no either-sex days. Even archery season is buck-only. Chestatee has three five-day buck-only rifle hunts.

In December of 2019, Chase killed a 13-pointer that was officially scored at 137 4/8. It is currently the WMA record, and the buck earned Chase the Public-Land Wildcard spot in the 31st annual Truck-Buck Shoot-Out. Chase said hunting pressure is key to success—or the lack of it—when hunting public-land like Chestatee WMA, which encompasses 27,000 acres of National Forest land in Lumpkin and White counties. Chase was born and raised in the mountains, and other than college in Tifton and a few years living in Metter, it’s been home. Most of Chase’s hunting is on WMAs and National Forest land.

“I hunt a little on private, but there’s not a whole lot of private tracts up here anymore that are much size,” said Chase, who was heading to Chattahoochee WMA to hunt the day after he spoke with GON.

Chase went to his area on Chestatee WMA during the first of the three rifle hunts this season.

“The first year when I found that area, I had to cut my way in there,” Chase said. “Then when I killed that buck, it started to get a lot of pressure. The path in there went from me having to cut my way in to it being beat it down pretty good. This year was the first year it didn’t look like there was any pressure.

“After checking a camera during the November hunt, I had several photos of this buck. However, the camera had died in early September and all the pictures I had were from mid summer until the end of August, and there was very little buck sign in the area. I hunted two full days during that hunt with zero results. I knew the deer was probably still in the area and took off work for the December (rifle hunt.) The first two days were mostly uneventful, but I hoped the low winds and cold temps would have the deer on their feet. The morning of Dec. 6, I was in the stand just after 6 a.m., and it was cold, like 9 degrees cold.”

Chase said he had ice on his beard and mustache from the steam from his breath.

“When day broke on the ridge, the only thing out and about were a few squirrels intent on finding acorns and chasing each other; until they all left the ground and started barking for no obvious reason. As I started looking for whatever had spooked them, I heard the cause coming through the ivys. When I turned, three does came busting out of the thicket with the 10-point I was looking for hot on their heels. When the buck cleared the brush, I shouted, trying to stop him, with no effect other than stopping two the does 20 yards to my left, while he ran the other doe back into the thicket. I thought it was over and thanked the Lord for the chance to have at least laid eyes on him, then as quickly as he had left, him and the doe came running straight back toward me, him head down grunting every step. When the doe reached her two companions, she stopped, and he followed suit about 30 yards behind and started walking to them.

“I had the buck in the scope, but it was too thick to try a shot as long as he was still heading my way. Soon enough he hit a small opening where my crosshairs were waiting. At the report of the rifle, the buck folded and hit the ground. He was still moving a little and I wasn’t chancing him getting away, so as soon as he tried to lift his leg, I shot once more and the hunt was over. I had prayed hard that the Lord would just give me a chance, and he not only did, He guided my first shot as I had shot through a birch sapling the size of a golf ball and still hit the buck through the spine. God is good all the time, Amen.”

Chase he said pulled a tape on the rack, and “he was not as impressive as I thought he was going to be when I first saw him on camera. I am no expert at scoring, but the numbers I came up with are 139 1/8 gross and 130 5/8 net.”

That would put Chase’s 2024 Chestatee buck at No. 2 all-time for the WMA, behind only his 2019 13-pointer that netted 137 4/8.

“I am beyond blessed to have had the opportunity to take another great buck off a WMA I love and hate at the same time,” Chase said.

Chestatee WMA All-Time Buck Rankings