Miracle Morning In McDuffie County

After suffering a horrendous fall out of a tree during the 2020-2021 hunting season, Willie Ware didn’t think he’d ever hunt again. However, a year later, the Appling sportsman downed his largest buck ever.

“My ability to turn my neck is very limited because when I fell out of the deer stand, I broke my neck in three places and my back in one,” he said. “It’s a miracle that I’m alive, much less able to walk and still hunt.”

Willie Ware’s McDuffie County crossbow buck is extra special because Willie wasn’t even sure he’d ever hunt again after a terrible tree-stand accident.

Ware belongs to the Red Acres Hunting Club, which hunts on about 800 acres. The McDuffie County property borders two creeks and mostly consists of timber pines and some hardwoods with abundant brush. On Sunday, Oct. 3, Ware started his hunting day preparation routine a little earlier than normal.

“I usually wake up around 3:30 a.m. when I’m going hunting, but my dogs were barking and woke me up at 2 a.m.,” Ware said. “I had already loaded up. I had been splitting some firewood with my dad the day before and had it on a trailer to take up to the hunting camp. I was going to unload that wood after I hunted, but I left the house about 3:30 a.m. and got up to the club early, so I unloaded all that wood in the dark.”

Working up a sweat unloading wood didn’t help Ware’s scent protocol. Then, another hunter planned to meet Ware at the camp. They were going to hunt the same general area, but the other sportsman didn’t hunt that morning.

“We were both going to get off at the same spot to hunt, but my friend was going to walk about another 400 yards farther than me,” Ware said. “If he had walked in where he was supposed to go, I probably wouldn’t have shot that deer because that deer came from that area.”

Alone in the woods that day, Ware reached his stand about 18 feet up in a tree an hour before shooting hours began. The stand overlooks a food plot. Two pine trees stand between his stand and the food plot. A narrow shooting lane built for gun season runs about 100 yards through the pine forest. In the darkness, Ware watched some deer in silhouette walking through his area and in the food plot.

“I decided to hunt this food plot because it just started coming up really tender,” Ware said. “We call it Rushton’s Plot from Rushton Metzler, a member of our club. Also, there’s a mineral lick on the side of it. As it was getting lighter, I could see some movement in the lane but couldn’t see anything in detail. Once it got brighter, I didn’t see anything, but I heard a little movement.”

In 2020, club members captured images of a 10-point typical buck on game cameras in the area. This year, the deer showed up on camera again, but always at night. Nobody ever saw the deer during daylight hours.

At about 8 a.m. on this special morning, a large deer stepped out of the brush at the far end of the shooting lane. The big buck cautiously took several steps and stopped periodically to look around and sniff the air. It gradually worked its way down the lane closer to Ware’s stand. Ware needed the deer to get within 50 yards to take a shot with his scoped TenPoint crossbow.

“I wouldn’t feel confident taking an ethical shot with the crossbow at more than 50 yards,” Ware said. “The big deer stepped out on the right side of that lane and then took a left toward me. When I could see it better, I knew it was a big buck. Once he was about 75 yards away, I could see how symmetrical his rack was. I’m was thinking he might be the big 10-pointer we’ve been seeing on the cameras. When I saw how big he was, I started praying, ‘Lord just please let him come.’”

The deer kept inching ever closer but still well out of crossbow range. Before getting into his stand earlier that morning, Ware put some estrus scent on one side of the food plot. He added some more about 10 yards from the base of the tree holding his stand. Coming from downwind, the big buck undoubtedly smelled that scent and tried to find the source.

“It was magical,” Ware said. “He just kept that pattern of walking about 4 feet, stopping, looking around and smelling. The rut has been kicking off early in our region for the past several years. Once he got through that lane and entered the food plot, I knew it was that 10-pointer we had seen on camera last year.”

At about 60 yards from the tree, still out of effective crossbow range, the buck entered the food plot. The buck kept up his deliberate slow stop-and-go pattern—pause for a few moments and then move again. Finally, he walked to the middle of the food plot, still looking and sniffing for does. Miraculously, the big buck stopped perfectly framed between the two pine trees in front of Ware’s blind at about 45 yards away in the food plot.

“I was a whole lot calmer than I thought I’d be when he walked almost to the middle of the food plot,” Ware said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better, especially since it was all downwind. Even after I unloaded the wood from the trailer that morning, he was throwing his nose up looking for the does. When he stopped between those two trees, I put the scope of my crossbow on him and made a noise. He stopped, checked up and looked at me. That’s when I shot. He folded like a wet rag and went straight down in the food plot.”

The deer carried a 10-point typical rack above his 21-inch neck. The deer weighed about 198 pounds on the hoof. Ware did a green-score measurement that grossed 142 3/8 inches. He estimated that the rack would score about 138 6/8 inches after deductions.

“This is the biggest deer I’ve ever shot in my life, with a gun, a bow or anything, much less with a crossbow,” Ware said. “He picked up a lot of mass over the past year. He also picked up some blades. He had three blades on his rack with some width to them. He was still a 10-point, but he picked up some character for sure.”

Although, Pope and Young Club does not accept crossbow kills in its record books, a new organization, the Bolt & Quarrel Club, established in 2020, does keep records of big game animals killed with crossbows. 

GON‘s Georgia Deer Records program compiles scores by various weapons, including crossbow bucks. Ware’s buck is a close contender to be the new No. 1 crossbow buck ever recorded from McDuffie County.

McDuffie County Best Crossbow Bucks Of All-Time

“I owe all this blessing to the Good Lord,” Ware said. “I’m privileged and honored to be able to take a deer this big. I’d like to thank the members of the Red Acres Hunting Club for all their quality management,” said Ware.

For more information on the Bolt & Quarrel Club or to learn how to submit a crossbow big-game record, see bolt-quarrel.org.