Hunter: Luke Warren
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Laurens
Season: 2016-2017
Hunt Story
Saturday morning when the alarm went off, my dad asked if I still wanted to go hunting. I finally got up and was ready to go. We were running a little late. You could see that it was starting to get daylight already. We got into the tripod stand that sat on a gas pipe line set with food plots, and everything looked great. As the sun began to rise we saw tons of squirrels feeding all around us. About 30 minutes after we had settled into our spot, two deer walked out about 400 yards away from us. As we looked at the them through the scope, we could see it was two young bucks. My dad said they were too far to for me to take a shot, even though I thought I could make the shot. After the two deer left I thought I had missed my chance. My dad said just wait and see what might come out. My dad was going to let me shoot a doe when one came out. After about an hour, a lot of deer started showing up and my dad kept looking at the deer but no doe. Just buck after buck came out at one time. I could not believe it, there were 17 bucks in the food plot and one doe at one time but still 250 yards away. They started leaving one by one following the one doe. I just knew I had missed my chance again, but as we waited, about 45 more minutes, the doe came out about 100 yards away. My dad said there's your chance, but I asked him if I could wait and see what else might come out next. I was right, not 5 minutes later the 10-point buck came out and my dad said there he is. I was so excited, so I got my gun up and got ready. I watched him for what seemed like forever but finally he turned sideways and gave me a shot. My dad said take your time son and make sure to make a good shot. As soon as I shot he hit the ground hard but pulled himself up and dashed into the tree line. I wanted to get down right then and see but my dad said wait a while and give him some time. After about 45 minutes we got down to see where I had shot it. There was a lot of blood on the ground so my dad told me to track him. As I followed the blood trail, I only went about 15 yards, there he was. I told my dad I had smoked him. I was so glad he had not gone too far. I want to thank my dad for showing me how to hunt all my life. My first deer was when I was 5 years old. Now I am 10 and this is my first buck. I want to thank Ronnie Bates for the opportunity to hunt this stand. I think him and my dad were as excited as I was.
