Rockdale County Non-typical Earns Shoot-Out Spot For Marshall Compton

Marshall Compton of Conyers will shoot as the week one representative on the strength of his non-typical buck, which netted 146 5/8 inches.

“I was happy with second place, and then GON called to see if I wanted to shoot,” Marshall said after Gary King relinquished his Week 1 first-place spot so his daughter could shoot as the Ladies Wild-Card winner for the 2004-05 Truck-Buck Contest.

Marshall was hunting the same private, 190-acre Rockdale County tract he has had permission to hunt for the past four years. And though Marshall has killed a couple of nice bucks off the property, none were as impressive as the one he arrowed last September.

The land Marshall hunts was a pasture 20 years ago. However, over time, the land has grown up, and what used to be only grass contains some great whitetail-deer habitat.

Marshall Compton will be the Week 1 representative in the Truck-Buck Shoot-Out with his Rockdale County buck that netted better than 146 inches as a non-typical.

Marshall says he scouts a good bit before the deer season, but his success can be tied to one thing… persimmons.

“I look to see which persimmon tree is producing the best that season, and that’s usually the area I’ll hunt first,” Marshall said.

The Friday before the season opened, Marshall scouted the property and found a productive persimmon tree. However, he elected to hunt a different area on opening day.

The next day, Marshall returned to the property, sitting in a lock-on stand in a water-oak tree near the persimmons. There were more water oaks behind Marshall’s position, persimmon trees to his left and front, and a heavy thicket to his right. He anticipated that deer would travel through the area to feed on the fruit and mast.

Marshall had seen some large rubs in the area and knew a nice buck was making them. Marshall gave a couple of short blows on a grunt call and waited to see the deer he guessed would be visiting at feeding time.

At about 8 a.m., Marshall’s guess was proven correct, as a doe and a fawn came in to feed. Marshall thought the fawn looked small enough to be nursing, so he just watched the two deer for a few minutes. About 20 minutes after the pair moved away, Marshall was startled as he saw a nice buck out of the corner of his eye. Though the deer was walking steadily toward Marshall’s location, it came from behind him, so the waiting game was on.

“He would take a step or two, stop and smell, and then take another step or two,” Marshall said. “I don’t know if he was coming to my grunt calls or not. I had to wait until he got behind a briar patch to draw, and then he stopped, and I had to wait for him to take a couple of steps before I could shoot.”

The buck finally committed, stepping from behind the briars. Marshall had a shot archers like to see, with the deer quartering away. Marshall took a deep breath and let his arrow fly, hitting the deer in the back of the rib cage. The arrow exited in front of the deer’s right shoulder.

“I found a piece of the arrow about 10 feet from where the buck was standing when I shot,” Marshall said.

Marshall left the area for a little while, and when he returned with his father and a friend, he immediately found a blood trail, but soon lost it. The trio picked up and lost the trail a couple more times before Marshall’s friend, who had walked ahead a little way, hollered for Marshall.

“He was about 40 yards away, and I went running over to him,” Marshall said. “The buck was headed downhill toward a creek bottom, and he never made it. He went maybe 130, 140 yards from where I shot him.

“I have seen some bucks on that place that were nice, but nothing as nice as this one.”

Marshall’s buck had 20 scoreable points, including 12 on the left beam and eight on the right.

2004-05 Truck-Contest Weekly Winner Hunt Stories
Week 1: Gary King’s Worth County Record-Class Bow Buck
Week 2: Taylor McCann’s DeKalb County Bow-Buck Nets 174 7/8 Inches!
Week 3: Forgotten Lock Key Leads To New Hunting Spot And Coweta Winner For John Lewis
Week 4: DeKalb County Pope & Young Puts Brian Mitchell In Shoot-Out
Week 5: Phillip Harper’s 145-Inch Muzzleloader Buck From Meriwether County
Ladies Wildcard: 15-year-old Samantha Linhart’s 150-Inch Worth County Buck