Lamar County Deer From 1971 Surfaces

Gaines Abernathy admits that in 1971 at the age of 15 he didn’t know much about deer hunting. And little did he know he would kill a deer that 50 years later would be in the top-15 all-time for bucks taken in Lamar County.

“My good friend and I had begun deer hunting the year before. We had a few chances, but I failed to take anything,” said Gaines.

By 1971, Gaines said he had been bitten by the deer hunting bug and was ready to kill a deer.

“I had received a Marlin .35 caliber for my birthday and felt confident that I could shoot a deer with it,” said Gaines. “Little did I know what kind of deer it would be. We had been reading all kinds of articles in Field and Stream, and I kept a page about how to field-dress a deer handy just in case.”

The day before the 1971 season started, Gaines and his friend were scouting around a large grown-up field just outside Barnesville where they had gotten permission to hunt the week before.

“My friend jumped a large buck and started screaming,” said Gaines. “I never saw it, so I wasn’t sure about how big it was, but we both knew where we would be when the sun came up.”

Gaines Abernathy with the mount of his 1971 buck from Lamar County.

Back then tree stands were not manufactured or on the market, so some folks who deer hunted made their own stands.

“A few of us had spray painted step ladders and sat on them,” said Gaines. “That is what my stand consisted of the next day. I had it backed up in some thick stuff in the back of an old home place and was ready for the sun to come up. I began to hear some croaking-type sounds out in the field in front of me, but it was too dark to see anything. The landowner had bush-hogged some strips in the field, and I could see up one strip in front of me and one to my right.”

Just as it began to get light, Gaines looked up the strip to his right just in time to see the back of a deer quarter disappear into the thick stuff.

“I was sick. I thought I missed my chance,” said Gaines. “I got well in a hurry though because in just a minute all I could see were antlers. The big deer stopped in the middle of the cut path and looked straight at me. I had to scoot around on the ladder to get a shot because he was 90 degrees to my right. When I shot, it looked like all four legs spread out like he was trying to keep from falling. The next thing I knew he was running. Every time he bounded up high enough for me to see him, I would shoot again. I emptied my gun. I was shaking so bad that I had to get down to reload. I kept my extras in a brown paper bag and had a hard time reloading I was so nervous.”

Even at 15, Gaines knew he was supposed to wait before trying to look for a deer, but he just couldn’t help himself.

“I started running to the spot I thought he had been standing,” said Gaines. “At first I did not see anything. I walked a little farther and saw a lot of bright red bubbles. I began to follow the bubbles, and before I got out of the field I stumbled on the biggest deer I had ever seen. I was the one doing all the yelling now. My buddy got there, and we jumped up and down for a few minutes, and then he took off to the landowner’s house to call his dad to come get us. It was during this time that I took out my field-dressing instructions and went to work. We made the mandatory trip through town to show off the deer and then went to my house to begin the skinning process.”

Just as Gaines got started, his mom came out and said he had a call from Mr. Billy.

“He was the local barber and deer expert,” said Gaines. “He asked if I was going to get it mounted. I had not thought too much about it. He told me he had been hunting a long time and had not seen one that big. He suggested I enter it in a local contest. I did and I won a free mount and processing. Total value was $86. Wow what a deal. That mount followed me all the way through college and now holds a place in my man room. Every time I look at it, it seems like just yesterday.”

Gaines finally had his buck officially scored at the Buckarama on Aug. 23, 1987, and it came out at 142 4/8 inches.

GON’s Official All-Time Lamar County Buck Rankings

Editor’s Note: We’re adding photos and hunt stories online to GON’s Georgia Deer Records nearly every day. If you have old photos of the bucks you see listed online, or maybe you’d like to write your story of a buck killed years ago, that’s what gon.com is for. We want you to have a place in our online record book for your great-great grandkids to look at one day. Send what you have to [email protected].