Hunter: Jackie Phillips
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Meriwether
Season: 2020-2021
Hunt Story
I have been bow hunting with my 11-year-old son since opening day. He shot a nice bow buck opening day, and then took a break for football. I have been in the woods day in and out, sweating, and just haven't come across a deer I wanted to take yet this season. A girlfriend of mine has never shot a buck before and asked if she could hunt with me, so we planned a girls weekend at the farm. I hunted Saturday night before she got there and saw nothing! Saturday morning, we got up and I drove her to a part of the farm that I don't hunt very often because it is mostly set up for rifles. I figured I would throw her in the stand and then go shower and get ready to hit the woods by myself on the opposite side of the farm. By the time I got her to her stand, it was too late for me to ease into my favorite place, so I decided to go sit in a box and just hang out until she was through with the morning hunt. I was still in my pajamas. I drove through an ag field where we have a box and dumped some Buck Muscle on the ground for fun, thinking I am more likely to see a hog. I drove out of the field and parked up the road and walked to the box. I wasn't in until 6:40 and this is really late for me! It's dark and I know I can't see through my scope, so I grab my binoculars and start looking around. I have walked the game trails back there and seen active scrapes and rubs. It's a spot where the deer funnel around railroad tracks and hop from field to field. ten minutes later I spot a single doe on the Buck Muscle. I couldn't believe it. So, I watched her and kept looking around the woods. I passed the silhouette of something standing just on the edge, but it was too dark to really see what it was, at this point it was a light gray chest and head surrounded by shrubs. Total buck behavior though. He was just standing there watching her. I thought, "Well, this is interesting. It's a little early for real chasing, but he is definitely checking her out." He took another step out, and I could see that this was not a small buck...thick neck, big chest, and then his head came out and I couldn't see the antlers, but just the light gray outline of the rack. It had height, but still too dark. Then he started walking the edge of the field rubbing his antlers against the china berries. He was a shooter. I couldn't ID him though. I decided to go ahead and grab my 270 and see if I could make him out through the scope. It's 7 and I don't quite have enough light. I remember thinking, "He is not going to hang out very long and the sun is about to be up." I waited, I waited, shaking of course, because there is nothing like a little shot of Buck Fever in the morning. Finally, I can see the crab claws. NO. WAY. It was "Imposter," a deer my son named. I had him on camera 4 fields over by the silos, not expecting this at all! He walked straight up to where the doe was standing over the feed and perfectly broadside. I pulled the trigger at 7:18 and he dropped. I love hunting so much. I spend weeks worried about scent control, and I think I am in the perfect spot, with the perfect weather, at the perfect time, and then they shake it up. I am nowhere near my normal spot, I am in my pajamas hanging out, and there he is. This is what keeps hunters going back. They are always full of surprises and it rarely happens exactly how we think it will.
