88 Year Old Deer Hunter Not Slowing Down

In my travels of north Georgia a couple years ago, I ran into an older gentleman at a wild-game processing plant. His name is Bob Watkins, and when I asked him who loaded up the big buck he had killed a few hours earlier, he looked up and motioned for me to follow him. We sat down outside, and he explained how he had shot the buck, then tied a rope on it and drug it to the barn. He hoisted it up, field-dressed it, backed under it and lowered it into his truck. Mind you, he was 86 years young when that happened.

We made a friendship that day and have kept in contact. Bob Watkins was born in Todd County, Kentucky during the year 1932. He had to start hunting at 12 years old—mostly for food—during WWII. Bob went on from there to be an expert quail hunter and dog trainer. He traveled to south Georgia for opening day 30 years in a row. He moved to Catoosa County, Georgia and traveled out West in the 1950s, hunting pheasant, chukar, quail and then moved to big game like elk, mule deer and antelope. All this he did before finding out how much he loved to hunt whitetail deer and the joys that came with it, like eating and sharing venison with friends and family.

Bob Watkins with a 9-point he took in Catoosa County in 2019. Mr. Watkins stands with his grandson, Dr. Allen Webster. Bob killed a 10-pointer during the 2020 season at 88 years old.

Since deer hunting was allowed in Catoosa County, he has hunted on his farm and not missed a year without taking a whitetail buck.

Bob called me in 2019 and invited me to his farm, where he had just harvested a 9-point buck. Upon arrival he showed me just what he had been doing since he started hunting deer in Catoosa County, and I was able to see first-hand the stories he had always told me. We tied a rope to the deer, took it to the barn, hoisted it up and he field-dressed it better than I had ever seen it done before. It was obvious that Bob, at 87 years old, was a master hunter.

What a man he is, and I feel so fortunate to call him a friend. He may be the oldest and best deer hunter in the state of Georgia that I have ever met, or that I ever will meet in my lifetime.

GON is hoping Bob makes an appointment with a certified B&C scorer and gets some of those deer on GON‘s Georgia Deer Records. We’re sure he’d have quite a few to add.

Although the year is unknown, here is Bob with a Catoosa County buck. It was the first year deer hunting was allowed in the northwest Georgia county.