Hunter: Anthony Whitley
Points: 12 (6L, 6R)
County: Tift
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
It was Monday Jan. 4, 2016, the fourth day of the new year. The weather had finally turned cooler, and I was getting excited about being able to hunt a few days before having to return to work after the holidays. Myself and a close friend had hunted that morning, the temperature was in the 30s with a slight northeast wind. Hunted all morning and did not see anything. I decided to change stands for the afternoon hunt going into some pines on the edge of a creek bottom. I got into the stand about 4 p.m. and settled in for the afternoon hunt. I had hunted the same stand the afternoon before and saw a good deer and a small doe crossing a row of pines about 125 yards in front of me. So I had focused all my attention on where the deer had crossed the afternoon before. I sat there till it was getting dark and had not seen anything. About the time I started to get down, I looked to the left side of the opening and saw a deer. I tried to get the scope on him, but he turned and was walking down a row of pines away from me. I was hoping he would go down to the trail that turned right and come across in front of me. After about 5 minutes he walked out of the bushes and into the opening at about 100 yards in front of me and started to eat corn. I put the scope on his right front shoulder and fired. He bolted off, and I thought oh no I did not miss. I got down and went down to where I thought he was standing. All I could find was two small pieces of white hair. All I could think was that I had shot low. I walked down through the pines the way I thought he had went, not seeing any sign of blood, just looking. About that time my Dad and my buddy got to me, and we all started looking for any sign just walking and looking. After about 30 minutes of us seeing nothing and it had got dark. I was about to decide I had just grazed him in the belly or leg and he was gone. I just looked down and a spot of blood was between my feet, and then we started to find a blood trail and followed it for about 25 yards and I rounded some bushes and he was laying there dead. That is when I finally realized just how big he was and that it was the one with the 2 sticker points sticking out on each side that I had pictures from a trail camera of and was wanting to get bad. So when I found him I could not believe it was the big boy and I was a very happy. He is the biggest deer I have taken in my life.
