Atlanta Crossbow Buck Grosses Mid 150s

As urban sprawl continues across Georgia, much of the state’s deer herd continues to be forced into smaller and smaller pockets of land. As a result, what once seemed unimaginable—trophy bucks within the city of Atlanta—has become a reality.

YouTube shows such as Seek One have alerted many hunters to the bonanza awaiting in the state’s largest metropolitan areas. Jackson’s Brian Carver is a believer.

Brian Carver’s mid-150 buck came from inside the city limits of Atlanta.

“My introduction to urban bowhunting was just by happenstance,” he said. “I was hunting with my dad and one of my old fraternity brothers in south Georgia. My old fraternity brother told me about a guy he works with who has a small piece of property in Fulton County. He said the guy was from California and doesn’t hunt and we should check out.

“I forgot about it, really. My dad asked me later if had checked into it. I said I forgot. He said I should check with the guy.”

Brian contacted the man and was told he could hunt the 15 acres, as long as he could get some sausage if he killed a deer.

“I went to scout the place last January,” he said. “It was in a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood near 285. It was in kind of a rough neighborhood. A lot of garbage had been dumped. There was a high school that was pretty close. There were actually some mansions that weren’t too far away. It was in the city limits of Atlanta.

“There was so much deer habitat in there. There were water oak trees. The only worry for a deer was getting hit by a car. I have never seen so much deer sign. I put up some cameras.”

Brian returned in July and put up more cameras and put out some corn. He was shocked at the quality of deer he began seeing. He knew he was going there once the season began.

“It was surprisingly quiet in there,” he said. “There was a little hum in background from the traffic on 285. You could hear some dogs barking every once-in-a-while, or someone blowing off their driveway.

“There were never any run-ins with the neighbors. No one ever asked what we were doing. We’d slip in and slip out and no one ever knew we were there.”

On Oct. 8, Brian climbed into his stand that he had erected on the property, turned on the Georgia-Auburn game on his phone and waited. It wasn’t long before the big 10-point he had seen on camera appeared. Brian dropped him with his crossbow at 25 yards.

The buck scored 155 1/8.

“My old fraternity brother had killed a nice 8-point in there opening day,” Brian said. “My dad killed a nice buck in there two weeks ago. There’s also still a big 10-point in there we know about.”

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