Old-School Bow Takes Grady County’s First Record Bow Buck

In this era when archers gather to brag about arrow speed, Chip Wells likes to talk about arrow lethality.

All that old-school thinking for the Cairo native made it possible for him to take what could prove to be the biggest bow-taken buck ever from Grady County. Rough measurements show that the buck will likely end up with a net Pope & Young score of 135 to 140.

“When I started bowhunting, everybody was shooting what would now be considered to be heavy arrows and broadheads,” Chip, a banker, said. “I got out of bowhunting about 15 years ago, and when I came back to it, everybody was shooting for speed.” 

Not Chip. He started following the teachings of Dr. Ed Ashby and the Ashby Foundation. He also studied tactics shared by John Eberhart. One of the tactics of the Michigan hunting legend involves when to scout. 

“John’s instructions are to scout from the end of the hunting season to April, and then I stay out of the woods,” Chip said. “Two weekends after the season, I was prepping trees and marking coordinates on my map.

“I also shoot heavier arrows and broadheads. There has never been an arrow faster than the speed of sound. An arrow can’t outrun a deer’s ears. I tune my bows and arrows for 10- to 20-yard shots. I haven’t had a deer jump the string yet.”

Chip purchased two different sets of arrow spines and five different sets of broadheads and did a lot of practicing. He found that a 250 spine arrow pushing 345 grains upfront, which includes insert and broadhead, gives a total arrow weight of 675 grains and flies best for his bow.

That proved to be the ticket when an opportunity for a buck of a lifetime presented itself on Dec. 13.

“In my scouting, I found a creek where the bottom was the same level all across the creek,” he said. “According to Eberhart, deer like to cross a creek better at a point like that.

“Four weeks prior to Dec. 13, I hunted that area from 2 p.m. in a slight drizzle. I saw a few scrapes, but that was it. Two weeks later, I hunted until lunch and didn’t see anything. I went back in there a little later and I crossed the creek and found some virgin timber. Two does came in looking back over their shoulder and I thought ‘Here we go.’ A 4-point was following them.

“On Dec. 13, it had been raining so I carried a pair of hip boots with me to cross the creek. Before I left the truck, I followed my routine of dropping a knee and asking God to keep me safe. As soon as I stood up from that prayer, I heard shots and realized some duck hunters were hunting the area. I got into the tree anyway, and I was sweating. I took off my bottom shirt so I could air-dry and my coat fell to the ground. I decided to just leave it there.”

On the hunt where everything was going wrong, things suddenly got worse.

“I hadn’t even gotten situated when a buck was 16 yards in front of me,” he said. “He had five points on one side and just one on the other. He started walking toward the tree, and when he was only feet from my tree, most likely smelling my jacket, he ran 30 yards, stopped and started blowing. He was on my weak side, so I couldn’t turn to shoot him. I thought my morning was shot. I started grunting to see what he would do. He eventually left.”

At 8:05 Chip sent his wife a text letting her know where he was and what just happened. The next text to his wife was much more upbeat. At 8:19, his text read “I just shot a monster!!!!!”

“My bow rope was still hanging from the tree, and I was about to pull it up,” he said. “I saw the buck, and he was licking his nose. He lowered his head to the ground and when he raised it, there was a leaf stuck to his nose. There was no doubt that he was a shooter. He looked away from me, and I grabbed my bow. When he looked back toward me, I froze thinking, ‘Man, he’s pretty.’ He looked away again, and I drew. I aimed at vitals and shot. He was 19 yards away. I saw the arrow go into his shoulder, and it was pushing a heavy, double bevel broadhead. I knew it was a good shot.

“That’s when I started thinking: ‘What if? What if?'”

Chip could see his arrow on the ground. It appeared to have blood on it. He decided to sit and wait.

“I sat for an hour and a half,” he said. “I finally decided to get down and look. I saw my arrow was covered in blood. I started slowly following the blood, and I came on a tree that was blown over on the ground. I peeked around the tree and there he was dead. He hadn’t gone 30 yards.

“My childhood dream has always been to take a Pope & Young buck from Grady County.  To beat that by 10-plus inches is just unreal.”

Amazingly, Grady County does not have one single entry in GON’s Georgia Deer Records listing for a bow-kill buck. Once Chip gets his buck officially scored after the required 60-day drying period, it will be the lone entry, and what a good one it will be!