Top End Bow-Kill From Gwinnett Grosses In The 160s

It would be accurate to call David Pope a suburban deer hunter, but it wouldn’t be accurate to define him as such. He hunts with his bow on about 10 different small pockets of land around Gwinnett and Fulton counties, but he also hunts some parcels pushing as much as 4,000 acres elsewhere.

“I do what some people would call suburban hunting,” the Peachtree Corners resident said, “but I don’t hunt where I can see people sitting out back drinking coffee. People don’t like that. I like small pieces of land that back up to rivers or creeks. 

David Pope with a giant bow-kill from Gwinnett County that grosses in the 160s.

“I hunt all over the place. I go anywhere I can hunt. I hunt every way you can—guns, bows. I do it all. I just love to hunt.”

It was at one of those suburban hunting spots where David Pope connected on his deer of a lifetime on Nov. 11 in Gwinnett County.

“I’ve always dreamed of taking a symmetrical 10-point that would score at least 150,” he said. “The fact that I took this 10-point buck that was so symmetrical and it scored over 160 was great. The fact that I did it with a bow was extra special.”

The buck green-scored 162 4/8.

That this buck existed was no one’s secret. Many had seen him and many were hunting him, David said. David’s game plan was just to do his homework.

“I saw him on camera last year,” he said. “He was moving around quite a bit. I hadn’t seen him at all this year. I didn’t know if he was dead. I spent two weeks moving my Spartan game cameras around trying to find him. I finally got a picture of him two weeks ago, and I was surprised how much bigger he was.

“One picture was at 8:30 in the morning of him coming in and a later picture was of him going the other away, so I knew he must be using the area.

“My son had a Veteran’s Day program at school, and I went to that and my plans were to go to my farm to hunt, but I decided to hunt this buck instead.

“I threw on my camo and got into my stand. I wasn’t there long before a doe came through, and he was right on her tail. He was 35 yards away for a quartering (to) shot. I don’t like quartering shots, but he was broadside enough, and I took the shot.

“He ran about 15 to 20 yards and just stood there for about a minute. Finally, he lay down with his head up. He tried to get up one time, but he couldn’t and that was it.”

 David said the big buck was 5 to 6 years old. He didn’t weigh him.

“I really didn’t know how big he was until I got him to the taxidermist,” he said. “His G2s were probably 12 1/2 inches long.”

He said it was his biggest buck ever. 

“I have gotten pictures of bigger deer, but they always seem to get killed before I have a chance to kill them,” he said. “This one was meant to be because so many other people were trying to kill him.

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