Hunter: Yulia Busli
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Fulton
Season: 2016-2017
Hunt Story
I hunt 150 yards from my husband, Ahmed. He saw the buck first when it still kind of dark. I saw him too passing 40 yards behind me. We were not sure how many points he had, and also it was 10 minutes before the legal time to shoot, so we had to hold off. The buck vanished between the thickets. About 15 minutes later Ahmed made a grunt call. The buck ran briskly toward the call and stopped exactly between me and Ahmed. When he stopped to investigate, I took the shot. I got too excited, I don't even remember aiming. Now I know what the "buck fever" feels like. Unfortunately I missed. In the mean time, Ahmed also almost took a shot. Ironically, the buck run toward me even closer. I stopped him by making a grunt sound. He stopped 45 yards broadside and looked at me. That's when I realized that I needed to reload my rifle. The buck watched me while reloading, which was very loud, not to mention my empty cartridge fell down and bumped to the iron platform and tumbled to the ladder before it landed on the dry leaves. From my Nikon 9x scope, at 45 yards the buck covered the entire scope view. Remember, I still have the buck fever. Only worse now... He is so close... I feel I can touch him!!! Now it was the moment of truth. I knew once I squeeze the trigger, there is no coming back. So took the shot. The buck just walked away slowly. Seeing that -- planted the doubt in my heart -- did I hit him or did I not. Thirty minutes later I went down to check for blood. But I couldn't find any. When I described what happened to Ahmed, he suggested to wait for a couple of hours before we start tracking. Two hours later, we went looking for the buck. He found the first blood trail 75 yards from where I shot. Unfortunately, the blood indicated it was a gut shot. While we discussing to wait longer or continue tracking, Ahmed heard a movement, it sounded like we jumped the buck. Then we decided to back out, and give him more time. Six hours later we got back on the blood trail. After 45 minutes of tracking Ahmed found my buck 150 yards from point of impact.
