Hunter: Cody Hammock
Points: 9 (4L, 5R)
County: Baldwin
Season: 2016-2017
Hunt Story
The place I hunted has a good stand of oaks and hardwoods mixed with young pines on the other side of a big power line. The particular area where I hung my climber gets torn up with scrapes and rubs every year and is thick as all get out. I chose to hunt there on purpose because the longest shot opportunity is about 30 yards, which is about as far as I am comfortable shooting with a bow. The day before this hunt, in the same stand, I had a 4-point come in to a grunt call and walk all under me in the same spot and work a scrape. Fast forward to this hunt the following day, and I decided to hit a grunt around 6:15 to see if it's effective again. After a few minutes, I think I hear grunting and chasing in the bottom below me. Then a yearling doe runs up under me looking back down in the bottom, and I for sure hear a buck chasing and grunting. I'm thinking, "Here comes that 4-point again." Next thing I know I see this big boy coming up the hill to my left carrying all that headgear, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to get the shakes under control in order to ready myself for a clean bow shot. I drew back as he walked from left to right in front of me. After about 5 steps, he gives me a clean quartering toward shot at about 20 yards, and I let an arrow fly. I immediately felt that I had hit him good and heard a crash not long after. The fletching of my arrow and blood trail confirmed that the shot was good, and I only had to track about 50 yards before I found him laying in thick privet hedge. This is the first buck I've killed with a bow, and second overall bow kill. I've been a gun hunter mostly since the age of 9 (now 29), and I only started taking bowhunting seriously this year. Needless to say this was an exciting hunt, and the rifle may get left at home a little more often!
