Oconee National Forest Bruiser Ends A Perfect Season

By Jordan Conant

When I moved to Georgia to attend college back in 2009, I hardly knew anything about deer hunting. Growing up in Maine, I was an avid fisherman, and although my dad and I had spent several fall days away from the football field in pursuit of deer, we weren’t exactly accomplished hunters. I had only taken one deer in my life at that point, and since dropping that spike-horn as an 11-year-old boy, I had only seen one other buck in the woods while hunting.

During my first semester of college I made a friend whose family had a hunting lease in Hancock County. I had never heard of a “Hunting Club” before, but one look at the bucks on his wall and I excitedly accepted his invitation to join him on a weekend hunt with his dad. An hour into our first sit I spotted a deer moving silently through the pines. Quickly identifying the deer as a 4-point buck, I had my safety off and was hurrying to find the deer in the scope when my buddy stopped me and asked what the heck I was doing. 

What a way to end a three-buck, public-land season for Jordan Conant. This Oconee National Forest buck grossed in the 140s.

“I’m gonna shoot that buck,” I exclaimed.

I had never considered that anyone would actually let a buck pass when presented with an opportunity—that just wasn’t part of the hunting culture I had been raised in. But after a brief introduction to quality deer management and a countywide antler rule, I realized there was a whole world of hunting knowledge and information I wasn’t privy to. I hunted two full seasons with that family, and the things I learned during those years set up my hunting trajectory for the next decade.

I hunted deer and turkeys in three different hunting clubs, gained access to bowhunt on small private parcels around Atlanta and dabbled on various public-land hunts throughout the state. I was able to kill a number of respectable bucks and learned a ton while doing it. Hunting had become my only hobby, and any time I wasn’t out hunting I was thinking about it. However, over that time I also became disillusioned with my private-land opportunities. I felt like I couldn’t scout and hunt as aggressively as I wanted to without frustrating other club members or wearing out my welcome with private landowners.

So in the spring of 2020, I decided I would go all in and hunt public land exclusively. On public land the property lines were the only boundary I had to worry about! I could hike and scout to my heart’s content, bounce around numerous spots on the thousands of acres of accessible habitat and aggressively hunt bedding areas whenever I wanted to. It brought a sense adventure and refreshed excitement to my hunting season that I had started to lose over the previous years. That fall was going to be my last deer season to hunt in Georgia before my wife and I moved to Colorado, and I was determined to make it my best yet. I set a goal of shooting three public-land bucks (I had only shot two public-land bucks in total before that) and was committed to putting forth the effort necessary to make that happen. Thankfully WRD hosts “check-in hunts” on some WMAs that would allow me the chance to shoot a buck and not use one of my two buck tags.

For a few years preceding this decision, I had been researching, scouting, running cameras and intermittently hunting several public lands throughout central and north Georgia. Based on the bucks I had seen on trail camera, and in the pages of GON magazine, I knew there were some amazing public-land bucks to be hunted—it was just a matter of finding them.

Throughout the spring turkey season, I hunted exclusively on public lands I was interested in deer hunting; with nearly every hunt becoming a scouting mission for the fall rather than a chase for an old Tom. Over the summer and early fall I scouted and hung multiple trail cameras in areas I had identified during the spring, trying to locate as many bucks as possible.

By Nov. 1, I had seen a pile of deer but hadn’t so much as laid eyes on a decent buck. I did, however, have pictures of several great deer; one being a stud 10-pointer hitting a community scrape during the middle of the day on Oct. 13.

While I wasn’t hunting that particular buck per-se, I was excited to locate a buck of that caliber along with a number of other quality deer in the areas I was hunting. I had spent almost every weekend in September and October in a tree, and already had work set up so I could hunt 12 of the first 15 days of November. During that time, I planned to bounce between spots I had scouted on Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, Oconee National Forest and Cedar Creek WMA. Over the summer I had promised my wife I would pretty much hang it up for the season after that final two-week November push to spend time with friends and family before we moved across the country. But without a single buck on the ground yet, I was more determined than ever heading into the peak of the rut.

I spent those first few days of November hunting various spots on Oconee, unsuccessfully trying to catch up with one of the nice bucks I had located with my trail cameras. On the opening morning of my Piedmont rifle hunt, I finally shot the first buck of my season. He was a beautiful 2-year-old 8-point buck, and while I had initially hoped to take a bigger buck on that hunt, I wasn’t about to pass my first opportunity at a decent buck.

Jordan Conant and buck No. 1 came from Piedmont NWR.

After that, I again hunted Oconee National Forest from dawn until dusk for a few more days without a single deer sighting. After shooting another small bonus buck on the opening morning of Cedar Creek’s second rifle hunt, I had a decision to make. With only three days left to hunt and two bucks on the ground, I could continue hunting at Cedar Creek where I had pictures of a number of decent bucks and was seeing more deer, or go back to hunting the National Forest spots where I had located the big 10-pointer and one other good buck.

Jordan Conant with his second buck. It came from Cedar Creek WMA’s second rifle hunt.

I decided to return for the second day of the Cedar Creek hunt, and although I didn’t see a deer, I heard a ton of shots in every direction around me. On the third and last morning of that hunt I was driving down I-20, sipping my coffee, and very conflicted on where I should go. Wanting to get away from other hunters, I decided at the last minute I was going to try and turn up one of the big Oconee bucks I had pictures of.

In the red light of my headlamp I quietly hiked to the tree I had picked while midday scouting the previous Wednesday. By 10:30 it was feeling like I had made a bad call as I hadn’t seen a single deer. Although I was still planning on hunting until at least 1 in the afternoon before moving spots, my mind was more focused on where I would sit for the afternoon than on the woods around me. All of a sudden I heard footsteps directly behind my tree. As I peeked around the tree I caught a glimpse of the big 10-point buck I had pictures of walking through the thick brush. There were two does back behind him and the hair on his swollen neck bristled up as he postured toward a nervous, smaller buck I also hadn’t heard sneaking over the pine needles covering the ground behind me. Moving quickly but quietly I stood up on the platform of my climbing stand and got turned around with my forearm steadying the rifle against the tree. I got the buck in my scope just in time to watch him stop and throw his nose up in the air. Time was up. I knew I had better shoot through a hole in the undergrowth.

The buck bolted and I thought I heard him crash, but with a weak start to the blood trail I pulled out to play it safe. There was no way I was going to mess this deer up! An hour later I came back with a good friend and within minutes confirmed I had indeed killed my third public-land buck of the season, and with a score of 144 6/8 inches, he was also the biggest buck of my life!

Walking up on him was the most surreal moment I had ever experienced hunting. It was a perfect ending to all those amazing years of chasing Georgia whitetails. Now as I chase mule deer and elk on public lands throughout the Rocky Mountain states, I am constantly motivated by the hunting experiences and lessons I learned in Georgia. Maine will always be home to me, but my 12 years in Georgia will forever be the birth place of my love for hunting!