DeKalb County Non-typical Nets 174 7/8 Inches For Taylor McCann

Redemption is a powerful thing. Most hunters who miss the buck of a lifetime only serve to educate the deer, perhaps never even gaining another look at it.

But Taylor McCann, who missed a big buck on opening afternoon of the 2003-04 season, got another chance just a few days into the 2004-05 season, and he made his chance pay off. Taylor’s buck not only won Week 2 of the Truck-Buck contest, it was also the biggest non-typical bow-killed buck in Georgia last season.

The 34-acre horse farm where Taylor killed the buck has a small stand of woods near the property line. Adjacent to that is nearly 70 acres of woods. In the small patch of woods, Taylor found about 50 persimmon trees.

Before the 2003 season opened, a worker on the farm told Taylor he had been seeing two nice bucks together. On opening day, Taylor saw the deer for himself.

“I was sitting there when I heard a twig snap behind me,” Taylor said. “I looked around, and there was a nice, symmetrical buck almost under me, and this huge one about eight yards away.”

Taylor McCann’s DeKalb County monster bow-kill, which netted 174 7/8, was the largest non-typical archery kill in Georgia during the 2004-05 deer season.

Taylor drew and shot quickly at the big buck, which bounded away unscathed.

“I got my yardage wrong on that one,” Taylor said. “I put the pin on his back and shot. All I could find was a little hair and nothing else.”

Taylor hunted the stand several more times that season, trying to no avail to get another shot at the buck. When the 2004 season started, Taylor went back to the same tree where he missed, only to see no deer.

Taylor put out some scent and let the spot rest for a couple of days before going back to hunt. The move paid off in a big way on September 20, when the buck Taylor missed just the year before came to within 30 yards of his stand.

“The deer were using the edge of a field to come to those persimmons,” Taylor recalled. “I saw two deer together, but all I could see were legs through the underbrush. Then all of a sudden, I saw one side of a rack come out from behind a tree.”

Taylor knew from first glance the buck was impressive. As the animal walked, he saw just how impressive it was.

“His head came out and then his shoulder was behind a tree, and then he took one more step,” Taylor said.

Taylor already had his arrow nocked, so when he saw the buck, he eased to the edge of his stand, clipped his release through the string loop on his bow, and drew.

“I get nervous on any deer I shoot at, but my peep sight and the pin on my sight were doing the ‘Cha-Cha’ when I tried to aim at him,” Taylor said. “My heart started beating so hard I could feel it in my eyes, and when I tried to aim, I was just doing circles around the buck. I had to wait for my hand to come back around and I let it fly.”

The arrow was true, sounding to Taylor like it had struck “a wet bag of concrete.”

Taylor climbed out of the tree and looked for blood. His arrow was covered in pink, frothy liquid, so he knew his aim had been good, but after not being able to find a single drop of blood on the ground, Taylor called in a friend to help. The two tried to find the buck for a little while before giving up the search.

The following evening, Taylor’s friend provided him with the number of a trailing-dog owner in the area. The dog was brought to the scene and was able to locate the deer in a few minutes.

Taylor has been hunting small tracts of metro-Atlanta land for several years. The practice is allowing Taylor to see plenty of deer, and he hopes it will someday produce a deer bigger than the 174 7/8-inch non-typical buck he arrowed during the 2004-05 season.

Taylor likes hunting funnel areas between neighborhoods. And he likes to bowhunt. In fact, thanks to last year’s success, he’ll probably take the stick-and-string approach to deer hunting more often.

“I’ll probably bowhunt more this year,” Taylor said. “It has been a real ride since I killed that deer.”

The buck, which had massive, heavy antlers, grossed over 170 inches. The buck’s main beams were 25 and 26 inches, and both G2s measured over 10 inches. But the rack’s mass was most impressive.

Scorers take four circumference measurements on each main beam. Taylor’s buck had antlers that measured more than five inches in circumference at their base and remained four-inches thick or better to the fourth circumference.

2004-05 Truck-Contest Weekly Winner Hunt Stories
Week 1: Gary King’s Worth County Record-Class Bow Buck
Week 1: Marshall Compton’s Rockdale County Non-typical Earns Shoot-Out Spot
Week 3: Forgotten Lock Key Leads To New Hunting Spot And Coweta Winner For John Lewis
Week 4: DeKalb County Pope & Young Puts Brian Mitchell In Shoot-Out
Week 5: Phillip Harper’s 145-Inch Muzzleloader Buck From Meriwether County
Ladies Wildcard: 15-year-old Samantha Linhart’s 150-Inch Worth County Buck