Classic Cat-And-Mouse Hunt Story For Cobb County 12-point

In football terms, there were just seconds to go in the fourth quarter. For Spencer Guthrie, a field goal wouldn’t do. He needed a touchdown.

The Acworth hunter used his crossbow to take a magnificent Cobb County 12-point buck that scored 144 1/8 inches. The touchdown came with almost no time remaining on the clock.

Spencer Guthrie finally got a crossbow bolt in a buck that taunted him for much of the season.

“I was hunting a piece of property in a suburban setting,” the 23-year-old explained. “It was under contract to be sold to a developer. I took this buck on Friday, Nov. 12. It was my last hunt there. The sale was finalized on the following Tuesday.”

If it had been a football game, the back-and-forth battle between Spencer and the big buck would have no doubt been called a classic.

“I took a 161 7/8-inch 11-pointer from the same stand with almost the same exact shot last year,” he said. “I had been watching this buck that I took on Nov. 12 last year on camera, but he was just a 10-point then.

“Last December, he just disappeared from my cameras. I thought he might be dead. I never got him on camera again until this September. He’d be on my camera a day or two, then disappear for a week. Then he’d show up on camera again. It was a real cat-and-mouse game. It was lucky for me that I ran back into him.”

Spencer got married on Oct. 23, and of all days, his trail camera had sent pictures of the big buck to his cell phone that morning. It was a close-up picture of the buck standing just 6 yards from his stand.

“I hunted him three straight days as soon as I got back from my honeymoon,” he said with a laugh. “My wife gave me permission. I didn’t see him. I got out there one day about 1 o’clock and the photos showed that he had been there at 12:30.

“I was getting pictures of him regularly from noon to 12:30, but that is when I was at work. In one of those photos, he was 10 yards from my stand.”

It was a frustrating cat-and-mouse game that Spencer seemed to be losing. He knew the big buck was using the area, but over 16 or 17 hunts, he never got sight of him.

“The November rut came in and there were some smaller bucks coming in and they were running about eight or nine does non-stop from 6 o’clock until dark,” he said. “It was a great place. I had a food plot near a creek drain by a hardwood ridge. Acorns were falling everywhere. I could have shot some smaller bucks.”

On Nov. 5, Spencer was convinced the big buck was tormenting him.

“On Nov. 5, I was the boat captain for a high school team fishing at Clarks Hill,” he said. “I got photos of him standing 10 to 15 yards from my stand for an hour and a half. This time, though, he was there at daylight. He apparently had made where my stand is his rutting area.”

On Nov. 12, just four days before the property was sold, Spencer climbed into the stand knowing time was running out.

“I was in the stand and at 1 o’clock two does came in and fed,” he said. “Then they bedded down right beside my stand. They eventually got up and walked off. From 3:30 to 5:15, I didn’t see anything. I grunted several times hoping to get some attention. Two does came down the draw, then another doe came barreling down the draw to join the other does. That’s when I heard him barreling down the hill. I got my binoculars and saw the mass and the six points on one side and knew it was him.

“He put his head down and started chasing the does. He finally got in front of my stand and there was about a 2-foot gap between some trees where I could get a shot. I hit him and he ran about 30 yards and stopped. I could see blood dumping out from an entrance hole and an exit hole. He started running in about a 50- to 60-yard circle around my stand and then he fell dead about 10 yards from my stand.”

Cobb County Best Crossbow Bucks Of All-Time