Hunter: Vince Cannon
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Henry
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
Earlier in the year I was selected to hunt in the 2015 adult quota hunt at the Henry County Water Authority property in McDonough. On Saturday November 7, 2015 at approximately 5:50 am, I was driven out and placed in a blind that I had drawn the night before. While I was being taken to the blind, The employee that took me there told me that there had been a good buck seen in the area that they had named "Houdini." Around daylight the rain started to fall and fell pretty steady until about 8:00 am. I had not seen a deer at all up until this point. At around 8:05 or so, the rain had pretty much stopped. At that time I decided that I would blow my grunt call a few times. I had been looking down at something and I heard what I thought was a grunt. I looked up and I saw a doe trotting away from me. I thought to myself "now where did she come from?" I then took my doe estrus bleat call and blew it to see if I could get her to stop. She didn't even pay me any attention, she was getting out of there in a hurry. I then looked to my left and saw another deer. All I could see was rack coming through the woods. The Buck walked into my shooting lane and stopped at about 45 yards. I raised my shotgun and pulled the trigger. The buck jumped and started to run. I quickly pumped the gun and fired another round of 3 1/2" buckshot at him. The buck then trotted about 10 or so yards in front of me into a pine thicket. I could only see small areas of brown at this time and I could not ethically shoot in that direction. I texted my brother who was also hunting that day and I told him that I had shot a good buck but didn't see it run off and that I could see brown but wasn't sure if he was down or not. After what seemed like 10 minutes (probably was only 2) I began to see movement in his direction. I saw that the buck was headed in the same direction that the doe he had followed in went. I steadied my gun and tried to calm my nerves the best I could and I said "if he steps into the trail that the doe traveled then i'll have one more shot". He stepped in the same trail and stopped. I fired the last shot that I had in my gun, and the buck dropped. I gathered my self together and made my way to the biggest buck that I'd seen in the woods. Once I reached the buck, I realized that I had indeed taken the buck named "Houdini".
