Hunter: Trace Hodges
Points: 11 (5L, 6R)
County: Crawford
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
On October 17th, I went hunting with my granddaddy in a tower stand we call the Bird Nest. We had gotten pictures of this big 11-pointer on trail camera leading into deer season. About 5 minutes before dark, a 9-point and the 11-point stepped out. I raised the gun and put the scope on the 11-point, but all I could see was the rack and never could make out the body for a comfortable shot as the light faded. We hunted the stand a couple more times the next few days seeing a doe and the 9-point. The nine slipped by us a lot like the 1-point did the first night and never gave me a shot on the 21st. On Friday the 23rd, we hunted the buck again and did not see anything but did hear a pack of coyotes. The night of the 24th I decided to let granddaddy hunt on his own, so my dad and I went back to the Bird Nest. At 6:15 a doe stepped out in the clearcut and fed her way over to the acorn tree. About 30 minutes later a spike came out and fed. The spike and doe eventually fed off. About 7:10 the 11-point stepped out. My dad told me to get my gun up. I found the deer in my scope right away, but was a little hesitant to shoot. My dad told me a couple different times to settle down. The buck kept walking and was going to be behind some brush pretty quick. My dad said he was going to grunt to stop him and to be ready to shoot. As soon as the buck turned his head around to the grunt I settled and squeezed the trigger. The deer dropped in his tracks. My granddaddy, grandmamma, Mom and little sister Birdie came and we all recovered the deer together. My first shot had broken the buck's neck so I had to finish him off. It was an awesome experience.
