Hunter: Leigh Davis
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Taliaferro
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
We have been trophy managing our property in Taliaferro County for a few years now. This year started off very well seeing numerous small bucks such as 14-inch 8-pointers. But I've been hunting since I was seven years old and I wanted a buck I could put on the wall and be proud of. I had even passed on a decent 8-pointer already that had a good bit of white on him. I had hunted really hard starting mid October. On November 6th I checked my trail camera and had this 10 pointer on video at night. This got me even more excited knowing there was a true trophy on our property. So I hunted that afternoon in our powerline stand and sure enough he crossed but never slowed down enough for me to make a good shot on him. My hunting property is over an hour from my house so for the next eight days I took my son to school and drove back and forth and spent as much time in the woods as I possibly could. On Sunday morning November 15th I had planned on coming home after my hunt but that morning he crossed 400 yards chasing a doe on the opposite side of the dirt road which wasn\'t even on our property. This discouraged me thinking he had got on a hot doe and I may never see him again much less get the opportunity to kill him. Excited seeing him I decided to stay the afternoon and give it one last try as I knew the rut would be winding down before I could get back to hunt. And I knew that would slim my chances of seeing him in daylight hours even if he did happen to find his way back on our land. So that Sunday afternoon I got right back in that same powerline stand about 2:30 and had not seen anything until 3:55 when a doe come busting out of the woods with a smaller buck chasing her, then my 10-pointer came behind the smaller buck and then another spike behind him. I was shaking and so excited that I couldn't control myself. There was a lot of action going on. They crossed back and forth running fast three times, and he would not respond to a grunt, a Primos can or even me hollering at him. The 4th time they crossed I knew he was behind the smaller buck so I had my scope up ready for him and the minute he stepped into my scope at 100 yards I squeezed the trigger on him. He didn\'t fall where I shot, he continued into the woods behind the doe. A few minutes later the doe and spike came back across. But neither of the bucks with any size was with them. After a few minutes I looked for blood and didn't see any so I just got back in the stand trying not to disturb what was such an awesome hunt and was trying to not disturb my husband and sons hunt as well. So for two hours I sat there not knowing if I would find him. At 6 pm we got down, and my son found him 50 yards from where I had shot him, and it was a perfect shoulder shot. I don't think I have ever been so excited in my life as I was to put my hands on those horns. I had hunted him so hard and put many long hours in the stand the last few weeks. It was an awesome reward and worth every minute of it! All the hard work had finally paid off, and now I have a trophy buck that I am truly proud of. When you put so much time into hunting, it really makes a buck like this very special!
