Appling Buck Falls Pushing Does

By Adam Shaw

On a logging road I’ve traveled 100 times, I noticed multiple fresh scrapes along a treeline. On the evening of Oct. 9, I decided to hang a climber with my bow in range of two scrapes.

The next morning it was 70 degrees, and I got in my climber 30 minutes before daylight approximately 45 feet up a loblolly pine. I pulled my Mathews No Cam Bow up and hung it on the tree.

Adam Shaw with a 115 3/8-inch buck that he killed earlier this bow season.

As the sun came up, I saw a young 6-point pushing a doe. This buck hit both scrapes coming within 30 yards of my bow, but he was not the buck I’d been after. I decided to pass on him and drink some coffee black and eat my Pop-Tart I had packed for the hunt.

Two hours later, about 9, I heard what I thought was a grunt, but I talked myself out of it telling myself I was hearing things. Not long after, I heard subtle grunts again. I looked up and a big mature doe was headed toward me from the planted pines across the road. Behind this doe was a large mature 8-point, the biggest I had ever seen in Georgia. He was the same deer we had been chasing for four years. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

As the doe fed toward me, the Big 8 continued grunting, chest out, head up and looking in mine and the doe’s directions. However, he was about 50 yards out and behind a lot of scrub-oak understory. As I stood with my bow in hand, it felt like a lifetime waiting on him to move closer. Finally, the doe turned and kept the attention of the Big 8 coaxing him forward. He grunted the whole way.

I pulled back my Mathews bow with a Ted Nugent arrow fixed with a Montec Broadhead and readied to make the shot. I had a two-by-two window just enough I could make out his front shoulder quartering to me. I sent the arrow in flight at 30 yards. When my arrow connected with the deer, I was instantly shaking, and the buck took off ripping through the brush. I was unsure of the shot and questioning myself yet again.

I waited one hour, got down and located blood. He was hit! Dark red blood. I backed out and picked up my wife at camp. We went back together and tracked the deer approximately 100 yards from where I had shot it. There he was, the biggest Georgia buck I’d ever taken with my bow. I will always be a fan of hunting scrapes in October and bucks pushing does!

I’d like to dedicate this Appling County, Altamaha giant to Mr. Eugene Jolley, who passed away this year. I killed the deer from his climber. My dad and him both played a big part in my introduction into hunting and the outdoors. He always said, “Climb where no one else will go, and you’ll kill the big one!”

I will pass down this tradition to my children. Our time on earth and in God’s Country is a blessing from God, and my best days have always been in a tree!

The buck was scored by P&Y scorer Justin Bullard at 115 3/8 typical inches. Jared Mallard at Mallards Fowl Life Taxidermy aged the buck at 6 1/2 years old.

Editor’s Note: If you have a buck in GON’s Georgia Deer Records listing, and would like to include a hunt story with it, email [email protected]. 

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