Big Buck Down Only The Beginning For 12-Year-Old Hunter

Twelve-year-old Jet Thrasher with his biggest buck to date, a Morgan County 9-pointer that is entered in Week 8 of GON’s Truck-Buck Contest and the Youth Big-Buck Contest.

A 12-year-old made a 130-yard shot to take a big Morgan County 9-point buck, and who knows, he might have a chance to make some more shots that could earn some great prizes — even a brand new pickup truck. Because his family has a GON subscription, the Social Circle youth is eligible for both of GON’s big-buck contests. Jet Thrasher was hunting with his dad in a buddy stand overlooking a cow pasture on Saturday evening, Nov. 3.

Jet has always enjoyed spending time in the woods, but his love for hunting has grown a great deal in recent years. “He volunteers to hunt, he wants to go,” says his dad, Jeffrey. “He’s an avid hunter.”

Already during his young hunting journey, Jet has successfully harvested six or seven deer, with the last one entered in the 2023 Truck Buck contest. Jet’s dad says last year’s buck is close to the size of this year’s deer, although Jet contends this is his biggest buck to date.

According to Jet’s dad, one big buck came out into their view chasing some does, but disappeared off to the side too quick for a shot. Accidentally adding to the tension, Jet and his dad decided to switch spots on the stand. Jet’s dad says, “When he propped the gun on the stand, the magazine fell out. I said, ‘Well, you only got one shot now!'” During the active chase, Jeffrey told Jet to “watch the does!” Not much later a 9-pointer entered into the field. “The buck walked straight away for about 50 yards toward the does before offering a broadside shot.” They’re not certain it was the same deer, but regardless, it was a good buck, and Jet made it happen when the opportunity arose.

During youth week, Jet shot at a 9-point buck, but it just missed over his back. Then one Friday during a muzzleloader hunt, another shot went over a big 10-pointer’s back. On the evening of Nov. 3, Jet shot at his buck at 130 yards, which happened to be the same buck from youth week. Jet’s dad said, “Soon as he pulled the trigger, he said, ‘Daddy he went down!'” While Jeffrey thought he saw the deer run off, Jet was adamant about the deer being down. The 9-pointer ran about 10 yards before dropping. Upon approaching the buck, Jet said, “I told you I got him.”

Jet is entered in GON’s Truck-Buck Contest, where the weekly winner earns a spot in the Truck-Buck Shoot-Out with the chance to win a brand new pickup truck. All Truck-Buck entries from kids 15 years old and younger are also automatically entered in GON’s Youth Big-Buck Contest.

In the Truck-Buck Contest, a GON subscriber with the highest-scoring buck each week earns a spot in the Shoot-Out for the chance at the grand prize John Megel Chevy pickup truck from John Megel Chevy. The second-best shot will earn a Fiminator G-3 from Ranew’s Outdoor Equipment.

In addition to qualifying for that grand-prize Shoot-Out, the best-scoring buck each week of deer season earns a super weekly prize package. Obsession Bows, a Georgia-based company founded by Dennis Lewis, is our new Truck-Buck bow sponsor. Weekly winners during gun season again earn a Savage rifle, and the Youth/Primitive Weapons winner gets a  CVA Optima V2 muzzleloader. Weekly winners also earn an HSS safety harness, a prize package of products from 4S Advanced Wildlife Solutions, plus Doe Estrus Heat and Bowhunter’s Fatal Obsession from new sponsor Scrape Juice.

Four wildcard winners earn Shoot-Out spots and get a $250 gift card from Agri Supply, 4S and Scrape Juice products, a high-performance ultralight cooler from Rugged Road Outdoors and an HSS safety harness. The wildcards are for the highest-scoring buck by a youth, lady or public-land hunter that doesn’t win a week. There’s a Runner-Up Wildcard for the highest-scoring buck that doesn’t win a week.

Kids 15 and younger who enter a buck are also in the Youth Big-Buck Contest, where there’s also a winner every week of deer season and a spot in a BB gun shooting contest to earn a $3,000 shopping spree at https://adventureoutdoors.us and a weekend hunt at https://www.woodsnwaterinc.com. The runner-up prize in the Youth Big-Buck Shoot-Out is a CVA Scout break-action .243 centerfire rifle from BPI Outdoors. In addition to those grand prizes for the Shoot-Out winners, each weekly winner—all 17 weeks of Georgia’s deer season—earns a Rugged Road Outdoors 45 V2 Cooler ($300 retail), the all-new Stealth Cam Flashback trail camera ($99.99 retail) and Bowhunter’s Fatal Obsession and Doe Estrus Heat Plus from Scrape Juice. Each youth weekly winner also takes home a one-of-a-kind personalized Shoot-Out jersey with their name on the back—priceless!

Entering the Truck-Buck Contest and Youth Big-Buck Contest is simple. First, be a GON subscriber, which means you have paid for an annual or two-year subscription to the magazine (the monthly $2.99 subscription does not make you eligible for Truck-Buck). When you kill a buck, take digital photos before you cape the buck. Then go to www.GON.com and fill out the online entry form and upload your pictures. There is also an entry form in the August issue that can be mailed. Click here for the complete official rules for the contest.