Letters To The Editor: December 2024

Bruce Doster’s photo would probably have never run in GON because he’s a humble guy who wouldn’t send his picture in. However, his daughter wanted him to get some credit for this buck.

Proud Of My Daddy

Dear GON,

This letter is about my daddy, Bruce Doster. He would never send in a picture of himself, so I’m doing it in hopes of getting him a shout-out!

I’m 24 years old, one of seven kids, and have been deer hunting with my daddy for as long as I can remember. Some of my favorite Saturday morning memories are of being in the deer stand with him. He was with me when I got my first deer and my first big buck, and he was as excited as I was just to be with his baby girl and see my excitement.

I was with him when he killed an 8-pointer chasing a doe and he had to take the shot kind of quick and didn’t have time to tell me to cover my ears. That shot from his .270 made my ears ring, but I was so excited it didn’t matter. It was such a fun day and one of my all-time favorite memories with him.

He truly loves to be in the woods, and he’d just as soon be in the woods with his kiddos than be by himself. Apart from being at church with his family, being in the woods is his next favorite thing. He rarely gets to go hunting by himself, but he tells us he’d really rather hunt with one of us anyway. He always seems to see something and get one when he goes by himself. Maybe because his kiddos like talking to him more than sitting still and we don’t see as much. But again, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

I can only think of two or three deer in the last 10 years that he has gotten himself, and one of those was just a few weeks ago.

On Friday, Nov. 1, Daddy got to go deer hunting by himself. He was hunting in a double ladder stand in a swampy part of our hunting land, and he waited quietly and patiently. He saw a doe but let her walk. He saw a spike but let him walk, too. Then he saw a stud and definitely wasn’t going to let him walk if he could help it. He told me he saw his body first and thought it was a big deer, but then he saw his antlers and said (and I quote), “Wow, holy smokes!”

He told me he whispered a prayer of thanks saying, “Lord, if you allow me to get a shot, I’ll take him. Thank you either way.” The deer stepped right into a clear spot, and he took the shot and dropped him in his tracks. He was hunting with his daddy’s 30-30 lever-action rifle that was bought for less than $100 back in the day. His dad passed away a few years ago, so my dad was so tickled that he shot this buck with his daddy’s rifle.

He then thanked the Lord and called my mama as excited as one of us kids would’ve been. He then called me, and I was so proud for him. I told him he should mount it, and that I’d even pay for it, but he wouldn’t let me spend that kind of money on him. He wouldn’t even let it be a Christmas present. However, he is getting a friend of his to do a Euro mount and is going to mount it on a cyprus stump from a tree he planted in our yard when he and my mama first moved into our house 30-plus years ago.

The deer ended up being a funky-looking 12-pointer with what looks like a tine that split into two separate G2s. It’s pretty gnarly! It’s nice for sure!

Proud for and proud of you, Daddy! And as Pop would say, “Love ya!”

My daddy has always encouraged me and has been an amazing teacher in and out of woods, so I thought I’d try to get him a shout-out in his favorite magazine!

Anna White, Statham

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Cole Dickerson with a Henry County bow-kill from Nov. 17.

Carly Lennig, 15, of Dacula, shot this Oglethorpe County hog on Nov. 2. Carly has been working with a Georgia legislator in an effort to allow pink to be used in addition to hunter-safety orange. The idea was well received earlier this year but simply didn’t make it up for a vote by the General Assembly. Maybe in January 2025, Carly!