Close-to-Home Buck Might Be Carroll County Record

Sometimes the biggest bucks might be hiding right under your nose, even in your own backyard.

That was exactly the case for Nathan Lipscomb, 57, of Carrollton, when he first discovered a pleasant surprise in 2018. After seeing the buck on camera for two seasons, Nathan finally got the buck this November while hunting with his bow. 

Nathan is an avid bowhunter and enjoys traveling to the Midwest in search of bigger bucks, but he was shocked to find that there was a trophy whitetail taking up residence near his own home, which is located just outside the city limits of Carrollton. 

The buck was a main frame 5×5 and was green-scored at 143 6/8 inches (gross, before deductions) with a broken brow tine and split G2. Nathan is eagerly awaiting for the 60-day drying period to pass before his deer can be officially scored. The buck might just be a record-breaker for Carroll County, where the official county record for a buck taken with a bow stands at 130 4/8 net. Note: All official records are net scores, and all bucks have some side-to-side symmetry and many have abnormal point deductions.  

“I had just bought some new trail cameras last year and put them up in my front yard to test them out,” said Nathan. “When I checked the photos, I couldn’t believe the buck that I had pictures of.” 

Nathan got trail-cam photos of the Carroll County buck in his yard off and on for two season

Knowing he had a massive buck right outside his front door, Nathan began making efforts to harvest the buck. Over the next year and a half, the buck would occasionally show up in trail-camera photos and even on his home-security camera system. 

“One night in October, our security camera alerted me that there was something in my front yard at about 1:30 a.m.,” said Nathan. “I got up to check and saw this buck walking through my front yard!” 

Nathan worked throughout the past two seasons to try and figure out the buck’s pattern. When Thanksgiving was right around the corner, he hunted on his property for six days straight, but he only managed to catch rare glimpses of the buck on trail-camera footage. 

He took to the woods again on Nov. 29 and had no luck yet again that morning. Nathan decided to return to his stand later that evening, settling into his tree shortly after 5 p.m. Not long after, the buck finally made an appearance. 

“I started to position myself for a shot,” said Nathan. “He stepped behind a tree and I took the opportunity to draw my bow and aim.” 

Nathan loosed an arrow that hit the buck right behind the front shoulder. The buck lurched and dashed away only to fall just 20 yards from where he stood when Nathan’s arrow found him. 

Nathan has killed plenty of impressive bucks in Midwestern states, but he says that this one from Carroll County is special. 

“I’ve killed a lot of big deer in Kansas, but this one is special because it’s right here in my backyard,” said Nathan. “I always laugh when people say that there just aren’t any big bucks in Georgia—this is proof. If people would just give them time to grow instead of shooting young bucks, we could have some giant bucks right here in Georgia.”