Fab 40 Bucks Of The 2002 Georgia Deer Season

As deer seasons go, last year was just a tad out of whack. Throughout the fall, GON reported on lower numbers of deer being brought to the coolers, lower numbers of Truck-Buck entries, and hunters repeating the same themes… too wet, too hot, too many acorns — all excuses for why they weren’t seeing as many deer. The 2002-03 deer season in Georgia was, in a word, odd.

What about the highest-scoring bucks taken from across the state? What did it take to make GON’s Fab 40? In terms of eye-popping racks, hunters in Georgia had a respectable season last year, but overall the number of bucks scoring above the 150 mark was down.

As it stands at press time, the 2002-03 season produced 14 bucks that scored above the 150-mark — a 20 percent drop from the number of 150-class bucks killed in the 2001 season and only half of the number taken in 1997, the best season on record since GON starting tracking such numbers 11 years ago. The 1997 season produced three B&Cs, 10 bucks that scored over 160, and 28 that scored above 150.

Our average seems to be two Boone & Crockett bucks a season. Last year, for the second season in a row and for the fourth time in the past five seasons, Georgia produced two B&C bucks. The minimum net scores (after deductions) for a buck to make the Boone & Crockett record book are 170 for a typical-racked buck and 195 for a non-typical.

While the number of 150 and better bucks was down last season, all indicators point toward a big-buck bonanza in Georgia this year. We had a tremendous acorn crop last fall, plenty of rain this spring and summer that provided excellent food, and there’s the simple fact that last year’s buck harvest was down — more, older-aged bucks will be in the woods this fall.

Here’s a look at the best bucks our state had to offer.

No. 1: 204 6/8 Harris Co., Lauren Atwell: When a buck has a name, you know it’s a good one. Thanks to a couple of trail-camera photos snapped last summer in Harris County that appeared in GON, a buck named “Big Moe” was on a lot of hunters’ minds. He was obviously a monster, but no one was even close to guessing just how high Big Moe’s rack would score.

The buck was living on Rocky Branch Plantation, Callaway property that was open for pay hunts for the first time last season. Rocky Branch was being managed by Glenn Garner of LaGrange, who had recently worked for Realtree’s television show and has been seen in GON many times over the years, including a cover and Truck-Buck appearance in 1999 when he shot a Pope & Young.

Georgia’s No. 1 buck of the 2002-03 season was this monster from Harris County known as Big Moe. The 18-point, non-typical rack net- ted 204 6/8 Boone & Crockett points, and put Lauren Atwell and Harris County in the all-time B&C record book.

Big Moe’s fate had a direct link to GON. Glenn was bringing high-dollar deer hunting — like you’d find in Texas or Canada — to Georgia, and it got the attention of another friend of mine, Steve Croy of Savannah. Last summer, Steve and his brother lost their lease in Dooly County, and they were looking for a place to hunt. I mentioned what Glenn had going on in Harris County, and Steve ended up booking several hunts at Rocky Branch. On one of those hunts, he invited a friend and business associate, Lauren Atwell of Jacksonville, Fla.

On the afternoon of October 24, Lauren and Big Moe would cross paths. At 4:30 p.m., Glenn dropped Lauren off near a stand that had a view of a big food plot. As Glenn drove away, Lauren walked toward the stand, and as he came up a slight rise he saw out into the plot — and there was Big Moe.

“We hadn’t seen him,” said Lauren. “He ran out of the food plot. I called Glenn and told him how big he was. Glenn told me to calm down and to get to my stand, and keep my fingers crossed that he would come back out.”

Around 6 p.m., the food plot began filling with deer.

“The does started coming into the food plot,” said Lauren. “Next came a 3-pointer, then a 4-pointer. I saw two 8s, and two 10s. I was actually seriously thinking about shooting one of the 10-pointers that would have probably gone 125 or 130 inches. I was watching him in my scope, and out of the corner of my eye Big Moe came trotting out into the food plot 175 yards away.

“I put the scope on him, and I could tell immediately he was a big deer. I had no idea it was Big Moe, I just knew it was a big deer. I fired my first shot and missed. He started running parallel down the food plot. I bolted another shell in, and when I tried to get back on him he stopped. The second shot hit him in the neck, and he dropped right there.”

Big Moe’s incredible rack had it all — 25- and 26 5/8-inch main beams, six tines that measured between 10 1/8 and 12 7/8 inches long, and mass that started at 5 4/8 at the bases and held 4 3/8 inches at the fourth circumference. The buck was a main-frame 11-pointer that had seven abnormal points, and it scored best as a non-typical rack with a net B&C tally of 204 6/8.

No. 2: 200 1/8 Colquitt Co., Jacky Stanfil: On November 7, Georgia produced another big non-typical that made the record books. Jacky Stanfill of Moultrie killed a 14-pointer in Colquitt County that netted 200 1/8 Boone & Crockett points.

Jackie Stanfill’s Colquitt County buck netted 200 1/8 non-typical.

Because he was a GON subscriber, Jacky’s buck earned him a spot in the Truck-Buck Shoot-Out this month at the Perry Buckarama.

No. 3: 164 1/8 Clay Co., William Leaptrot: Last January, GON ran a photo in the Scrapbook section that we predicted would be the new No. 1 buck of all-time from Clay County. Again, like with Big Moe’s trail-camera photos, we were fooled by this picture. William (Billy) Leaptrot’s 11-pointer not only shattered the county record, but the buck’s whopping typical score of 164 1/8 Boone & Crockett also points made it the best typical from Georgia last season, and the No. 3 buck overall from the state. (To compare typical versus non-typical racks, divide the net score by the B&C minimum to get a percentage.)

Billy Leaptrot with his Clay County buck that scored 164 1/8, the best typical of Georgia’s 2002 season.

The buck was killed on a 128-acre tract of timber land near Fort Gaines that was leased by William and a friend.

“That was the best property I’ve ever hunted,” William said. “He sold it, so we won’t be hunting it this year.”

The tract had powerlines running through it that formed a “T,” and the hunters built a 4×6 shooting tower with a roof at the intersection of the powerlines.

“I kind of owe this buck to my wife,” William said. “I usually hunted in a bottom where there were some big cedar rubs. She decided to hunt the ‘Gate Stand,’ where we kept seeing an 8-pointer. I dropped her off and went to my climber in the bottom. It started drizzling right after daylight, and she had a cold. At 7:30 I heard her shoot. I got down and drove to her. I had bought her a new red-dot scope on a Ruger 44 mag, and she hadn’t shot it very often. I walked his footprints out, but it was a clean miss. She said, ‘The deer are moving. Let’s go sit in the tower out of the rain.’

“It was probably about 8:45 when we got in the tower. We had a thermos of coffee, and we were just talking quietly. Those box stands are nice, we just sat there and talked and drank coffee. She said, ‘Look, I see a deer coming.’

“They came right out of the bottom where my climber was. A doe was running, and she made a 75-foot loop out into the powerline. He had his head down, grunting. I saw the horns and knew I was going to shoot him. I was getting on him. The doe never stopped, she made a loop and went right back in the trail she came out on. The buck stopped per- perfectly broadside right before going back in the woodline. That’s when I shot him, and he went down.”

The buck’s longer main beam measured an incredible 26 7/8 inches, and it had an inside spread of 20 7/8 inches. Great tine length and good mass contributed to a gross score of 172 4/8 before deductions brought the net down to 164 1/8.

More of Georgia’s Fab 40

One of the most impressive bucks killed during the 2002 Georgia deer season was this Emanuel County 10-pointer that netted 149 4/8 points. The buck scored as a main-frame 8-pointer, with two additional small points counting off as deductions. And it had two tines more than 12 1/2 inches long. Randy Ansley, of Lyons, killed the buck on November 5, a weekday, while still-hunting on a club that is dog-hunted on the weekends.

While we obviously can’t go into the hunt stories on all 40 of Georgia’s best bucks from last season, there is one buck that we can’t resist giving special mention to — the No. 5 buck taken in the entire state last year came from a middle Georgia Wildlife Management Area!

The 16-pointer killed December 5 on Oaky Woods WMA netted 160 1/8 Boone & Crockett points, which we think is the second-biggest buck ever taken on a Georgia WMA, behind only the 215 7/8 B&C killed on B.F. Grant in 1974.

The Oaky Woods buck had a rare 6×6 main-frame rack, plus great mass to go along with good tine and main-beam length. The buck was killed by Eddie Watson of Lula.

The No. 5 buck taken in the entire state of Georgia in 2002 came from a middle Georgia Wildlife Management Area. The 16-pointer killed Dec. 5 on Oaky Woods WMA netted 160 1/8 Boone & Crockett points. It was killed by Eddie Wilson, of Lula.

Eddie was getting prepared to head to Tuckahoe WMA for a hunting trip with his nephew Shannon, until Shannon called and said he’d read an article in GON about Oaky Woods.

“He said maybe we could get a deer or a hog, and the drive was half as far as it was to Tuckahoe,” Eddie said.

They arrived at the WMA on December 2 and found timber cutting going on and lots of small planted pines. They were wondering whether they had made the right choice — then they found the buck sign.

“We parked on an old logging road, got out, and started walking down the road,” Eddie said. “About 50 yards down the road we noticed a big pawed-out spot in the road under an overhanging bush. We walked a little farther, and about every 75 yards there was another scrape.”

The next morning it was raining, so Eddie and Shannon slept in.

“About 8:30 the rain quit, and I told my nephew, ‘Let’s go get in the stands.’ By this time it was 9 a.m.”

Eddie was barely settled into his stand when he heard a stick break.

“I looked up and there he was walking broadside to me. I looked through the scope and could only see a blur because by this time he was only 20 yards away, and my scope was on 6x. I dropped down to the iron sights and fired the shot.”

Many of the other bucks included in our Fab 40 list have already have appeared in other issues of GON. In this August issue alone, six of the Fab 40 bucks appear in the “How the Weeks Were Won” article.

• No. 6: 157 6/8 Laurens Co., Ronnie Bates; our cover buck.

• No. 10: 152 3/8 Peach Co., Joel Lewis.

• No. 13: 150 1/8 Macon Co., David Brannen.

• No. 14: 150 0/8 Morgan Co., Jimmy Thompson.

• No. 18: 148 5/8 Sumter Co., Tifton Pace.

• No. 20: 148 3/8 Newton Co., Richard Yancey, also appeared on January 2003 cover.

The following Fab-40 bucks will appear next month in GON:

• No. 7: 179 2/8 Non-typical Fulton Co.; a bow-kill by William Hudson.

• No. 8: 155 6/8 Peach Co., bow- kill by Travis Harvill.

• No. 9: 154 3/8 Fulton Co., crossbow-kill by John Evans.

• No. 12: 151 5/8 Wilcox Co., Adam Baldwin, Truck-Buck winner.

• No. 19: 148 4/8 Worth Co., Steve Strickland, Truck-Buck winner.

• No. 21: 148 0/8 Macon Co., bow-kill by David Austin.

• No. 25: 169 1/8 Non-typical Webster Co., Roger Pollock, Truck- Buck winner.

• No. 37: 143 5/8 Dougherty Co., bow-kill by Jacob Paschal.

• No. 40: 142 7/8 Polk Co., bow- kill by Dutch Copelan.

In just a few months, we’ll start having monthly updates on the bucks killed this season — and from all the signs, it should be a banner year for giant Georgia bucks. If you kill a monster, the first thing on your mind should be 1-800-GET-GONE. Our editors are ready to roll to get cover shots, but you have to call before the buck is caped out!