Letters To The Editor – October 2021

Hunting Buddy Lost To COVID, Buck Taken In His Honor

Dear GON,

I lost my best friend Andrew Cantrell due to COVID three before opening weekend of bow season. We talked every day, a lot about deer and hunting. I planted my food plot in Barrow County the day before he passed, and that was the last thing I was able to tell him about. 

That’s important to me because he’s the one who told me what I should plant and what he swore by and always planted. 

After planting it, the plot shot up and the deer traffic instantly increased. I had three “hit list” bucks that we talked about, and I had three encounters with the one we determined to be No. 1. 

To make a long story short, after he passed, I ordered a hunting hat that had his picture on it. I wanted him to be there with me. It didn’t come in until Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning, I harvested the buck we talked about in the food plot he told me to plant with a bolt that I had written his name on. To top it off, I was able to capture it all on video. 

I just wanted to share the story so maybe it would touch someone or bring a smile to his family’s face.

Matthew Stephens, Bowdon

Matthew Stephens, of Bowdon, lost his hunting buddy Andrew Cantrell to COVID three weeks before opening day. After killing a buck they both decided would be a good one to take, Matthew took the harvest photo and added Andrew’s image in the top left as a way to honor his best friend of 10 years.

Much Fun For Our Family

Dear GON,

Thank You GON! Our family ENJOYED the Youth Shoot-Out, and we are so thankful to have been a part of it!

The Davis Family,

West Palm Beach, Fla.

Above: Week 16 winner Savanna Davis, of West Palm Beach, Fla., holds up the Realtree jersey she won for being a GON Youth Shoot-Out contestant. Below: Savanna and Week 17 winner Jayden Daniel with their LockedOn 360 gun vises, another great prize that all weekly winners received.

GON Social

GON Instagram: Bailey Combs, of Smryna, took down a Cherokee County Pope & Young bruiser opening morning that should gross around 160. His hunt story for a buck he calls “Full Count” is at www.gon.com/hunting/cherokee-buck-full-count-strikes-out-opening-day.

GON Facebook: Kayson Richards, 12, of Ball Ground, with the buck he shot on Sept. 12.