Hunter: Michael Jordan
Points: 17 (8L, 9R)
County: Oglethorpe
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
Back in late winter of this year, some rabbit hunters found a nice set of sheds along a field edge where I had seen some big tracks during the 2014 season. I had hunted this area some late in the 2014 season and had some nice bucks on trail cam but nothing seen while hunting. This season I had left this area alone until after the rut hoping to catch this buck when he was back on his regular feeding pattern and maybe less observant after all the rut activity. I hunted this area on the 24th and saw some hogs and a few does, found several well traveled trails in the field closer to the club road, so I checked out a few possible trees I could hunt with a portable climber on my out that afternoon. On the afternoon of the 25th, I had to walk in to a different area and get a climber stand then drove over to the rye grass field. The first tree I came to had too many limbs, so I looked for another tree in the area and found a pine tree in the tip of a ditch finger a few hundred yards away. When I got to this pine it was too big to get my stand around, so I had to settle for a popular tree down in the ditch. I had to climb up and down this tree several times to get limbs cut off and the stand adjusted. Once I got settled in, I was not real happy with what I could see from this tree but decided to just hunt the afternoon and look for something different on Friday. I had been in the stand about 30 minutes when this doe ran out about 1,000 yards out and then right back in the tree line. Then he came out and did the same thing. I did not get a real good look at this deer but could hear them running and grunting in the ditch to my left and then it got quiet. It was about 15 minutes later he popped out about 250 yards out along the edge of another ditch finger and started eating the rye grass. I had to watch him for about 20 minutes until he fed out past some small trees. The only issue was he was on the back side of a hill, and all I could see was his neck and he was working toward a thick patch of pines. I knew my gun was on, so I ranged him at 300 yards and decided to take the neck shot. I slid down into my climber so I could steady up, and once I was sure I could hold it, I took the shot. He dropped out of the scope, and I could not see him anymore. I waited about 30 minutes and climbed down to go look at him. This was one of the only times I walked up on a deer and he was actually a little better than I expected. I counted his points three times and got 17 all three, and then the work began.
