Holden Hines Aims To Make Shoot-Out History With Macon County Buck

Fifteen-year-old Holden Hines, of Macon, hopes that good feeling he’s having is being caused by all the planets lining up just right.

“I’m turning 16 in a few months,” the high school freshman said. “Winning that truck would be perfect timing. I’ve ordered the gun we will be using in the Truck-Buck Shoot-Out. I plan to start practicing as soon as it gets here.”

Holden Hines, 14, with a Macon County buck taken Oct. 11 that scored 158 inches. Holden won Week 5 of Truck-Buck and is headed to the Shoot-Out in July.

Holden already won the 2021 GON Youth Shoot-Out where he collected a $3,000 shopping spree at Adventure Outdoors and a dream deer and hog hunting trip with Woods-N-Water outfitters in Wilkinson County.

Winning the John Megel truck in this year’s Truck-Buck Shoot-Out would be the first time anyone has won both GON Shoot-Outs. The buck that got him qualified for this year’s Truck-Buck Shoot-Out is a 9-point, 5 1/2-year-old deer that netted 145 2/8 inches and weighed a whopping 260 pounds.

It didn’t come easy.

“I was hunting on our family land in Montezuma,” Holden said. “We started getting pictures of him for the first time in the middle of the summer. I finally saw him in person the first time a few weeks before I got him. I was trying to get him with a crossbow, but he would never get close enough. 

“We were getting pictures of him every day in the daylight on the days I couldn’t hunt.”

Finally, on Oct. 11, with the rut just beginning in Macon County, Holden and the buck crossed paths again. This time, the teenager was carrying a .300 Winchester Magnum. It was the special Youth/Primitive Weapons week, when kids 15 and younger can deer hunt with a rifle.

“I was in my stand with planted pines on one side and thicker pines where deer were bedding in front of me,” Holden said. “He came out and chased a few does for a while, but he finally gave up and went to a feeder we had out.

“I shot, and he dropped in his tracks.”

Holden said the buck was the result of an intensive management program on the family’s 900-plus-acre farm.

“We feed year-round,” he said. “We put out high-protein feed like Buck Muscle.

“We do some clearcutting. We shoot 20 or so does each year, but we only take two or three bucks a year. They must be at least 5 years old before we can shoot them.”

Holden Hines was 14 years old when he won the Youth Big-Buck Contest Shoot-Out. Here, Holden stands with his mom, dad and younger brother after the Youth Shoot-Out on Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021. He won a $3,000 shopping spree at Adventure Outdoors and a weekend deer and hog hunting trip with Woods-N-Water.The youth contest is open to all GON member kids who are 15 or younger when they kill a buck.

Holden, who killed his first deer when he was 6 years old, says he only had one regret.

“I had a friend who was going to video my hunt that day,” he said. “He slept in that morning.”

The GON Truck-Buck Shoot-Out takes place Sunday, July 31 at the Ag-Pro GON Outdoor Blast in Emerson. The Outdoor Blast, a three-day sportsmen’s show presented by Georgia Drives Chevy and sponsored by Apex Hunting Competitions and Kenzie Optics, is returning for the 15th year. The show features outdoors-related vendors, exhibits and events in the 170,000-square-foot Champions Center at the LakePoint Sports Complex north of Atlanta.

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