Story Behind Last Month’s 1968 Butts County Buck

Lois Schell was kind enough to drop by the GON office and share information about her late husband’s Butts County buck. She still has the original photo from that very cold 1968 morning.

Last month GON published a photo of a buck killed in 1968 in Butts County by Bobby Schell. The deer had never been officially scored, and we had no clue where the buck ended up. Well, thanks to a strong and committed GON family, we got some answers.

A phone call came in from Clifford Shott, who is a regular GON reader, who now lives in Saint Augustine, Fla. Clifford is an old friend of Bobby’s, and they used to deer hunt together. We learned from him that Bobby passed away in July 2021. Clifford said that Bobby killed the giant buck on a very cold morning while sitting on top of a fold-out step ladder. He went on to say that the day the big Butts County buck fell was on Bobby’s very first morning ever of deer hunting. Unfortunately, the buck was lost in a fire in the 1980s and was never scored. 

Then Lois Schell, Bobby’s widow, dropped by our GON office. 

“My husband was so proud of that deer and told his story many times,” said Lois. “Thank you for putting it in your magazine. I still subscribe even though he passed away a year ago. I hunt some, and I enjoy reading it.”