Hunter: Kevin Marshall
Points: 32 (15L, 17R)
County: Wilkes
Season: 2017-2018
Hunt Story
I prefer hunting from a ground blind, or box stand - and discovered this new spot on the creek bottom a few weeks earlier. 8:20 am. What most people will never believe is that this buck let me get four shots off at him with a muzzleloader! The 1st shot was a hang fire at 35 yards (I neglected to clean the rifle from the Saturday before when I shot at a pig). It was a clean miss. He ran and stopped at 55 yards. After what seemed like forever, I finally got reloaded. 2nd shot was perfect. He ran another 20 yards, stopped and staggered. The next reload was a little faster. Shot three hit him high. Another run of 20-30 yards. Another stop and stagger. Another fumbled reload. Another high hit. This time he had had enough. I could see him clear the creek bottom. I went to spot 2, found blood, marked it and went to camp. Nerves shot. Three hours of waiting - felt like three days. We went to the blood I marked and started trailing. After about 150 to 200 yards, we lost blood. We searched for about an hour and backed out to look for a trailing dog. I called Jeff Andrews from the GON trailing dog list. He showed up around 4:15 p.m. with his dog Copper. I've never used a trailing dog, so this was a first for me. Copper went to 1st blood (remember - it has been 8 hours since I shot) he started trailing. He lost it for a few minutes then went to the creek bottom, and 400 yards from last blood I heard Jeff yell. Copper found him. I think we were all in shock. I knew he was different, but what we found was more than I expected. We have counted several times. 32 points is what we keep coming up with. He is a true cactus buck. No testicles. He was aged at 6.5 years old! This is my first muzzleloader buck. And the 1st deer with my new CVA
