First Things First

For purposes of establishing my bona fides, be advised that I’ve known Len Sams since he was Lenny Sams.

Just how far back that was is approximately none of your business, but rocks HAD been invented at the time. Len is a taxidermist and has been for the past couple hundred years. Or at least you’d think so from looking at his work. The guy can mount and make look  life-like anything from a mole to a blue whale.

But what I like best about him is that Len Sams is straight up. My sons, who know me better than anyone on the planet, will tell you that Dad uses that term very rarely and that it’s my highest standard on the people scale.

Len also has sons, and you can tell a lot about a man from looking at his boys—while they’re working beside him in the business.

If you’ve attended GON’s Outdoor Blast, you’ve likely seen Len’s Trail’s End Taxidermy work and met his son David. I tend to pal around with David the whole weekend of the Blast every year and ask that you please hold that against neither of us.

Speaking of the Blast…

We give away a truck, right? You are familiar with the Truck-Buck Shoot-Out, correct? And how you gain entry?

Pretty simple: kill a big buck without cheating, enter him in the contest and hope nobody takes a higher-scoring one during that week. Oh, there are other tidbits and conditions, articles, sections, subsets A, B and C, etc., but you got the ground rules.

However…

Right out of the gate, from the get-go, horse ahead of the cart and a host of other cliches, there is ONE requirement that if unfulfilled negates all the others: Must Be A Paid Subscriber BEFORE You Take Your Georgia Buck!

Along those lines…

In checking records as far back as possible, we found that Len Sams has been a GON subscriber for better than 25 years. He says that when he first heard of a Georgia Outdoor News, he was all in and has been ever since.

Len Sams, a well-known taxidermist in Bibb County, has been a part of the GON family for 25 years. He finally killed the buck of a lifetime and realized he forgot to renew his GON subscription, which made him ineligible for the Truck-Buck contest. Shortly after that, Len, renewed with a 2-year subscription.

He also says this: “I don’t kill big deer. I mount a lot of big deer, but I just don’t ever seem to kill big deer.”

Until now!

That buck pictured with Ol’ Sams in a 148-incher. Oh, I know: there are plenty of bigger ones out there. And your grandma’s uncle on your first cousin’s brother’s side took a near world-record typical out of his turnip patch with 200 grains of garden hoe.

But to be honest, even when there’s a lot of 148-inch bucks out there, that’s still not very many. And there’s a really good chance that this one could have been a weekly winner and earned a spot in the Shoot-Out.

Except for one thing…

“I was all ready to enter him—and then I realized that my subscription had run out a couple of weeks before,” Len said with a rueful grin. “All those years and I never killed one like this and never let my subscription run out…”

And here I was thinking nobody else had luck like mine…

Figured the least I could do was give you guys a heads-up about how these things work.

I didn’t hear the tale until dropping by his place, on Hawkinsville Road between Warner Robins and Macon, last month.

At which point all he could do was grin and bear it—and pony up a check for a 2-year subscription! One of the great things about whitetail season is the anticipation of maybe even topping 150 inches on that next trip. And qualifying for the GON Truck-Buck Shoot-Out.

OK, Len ol’ buddy, you’re good to go subscription-wise and can even enjoy months of great reading and photos right up until bow season. Now about that buck…

Order your copy of Daryl Gay’s books, “Rabbit Stompin’ And Other Homegrown Safari Tactics,” $19.95 plus $3 S&H and “Life On the Back Page,” $14.95 plus $3 S&H from www.darylgay.com or 16 Press, 219 Brookwood Drive, Dublin, GA, 31021.