Rut-Crazed Dawson County Buck Is A Hoss!

Mornings in the Georgia deer woods like Timothy Vaughan experienced are what get hunters excited about the potential of the rut. Peaceful stillness in the stand can be transformed immediately into unexpected, exciting action—an adrenaline rush people who don’t hunt could never imagine.

Timothy Vaughan with his Dawson County buck killed on the morning of Nov. 21 as the woods were stampeding with rutting deer.

“It was a very quiet, calm and cool morning…” That is how Timothy described the start of his Nov. 21 hunt on a 12-acre tract in Dawson County.

“I didn’t think I was going to see anything that morning, but I was just enjoying the beautiful morning. Then out of nowhere two does came barreling from the neighboring woods to my right, across the opposite ridge from me… kinda giving me a shock! It was about 9:30 that morning. Him and four smaller bucks were chasing the two does, it was pure chaos!”

The “him” that Timothy was referring to was a huge buck he first saw on a trail-camera picture the week before.

The 2020 Georgia Rut Map

“At first I didn’t have clue he was in the group, then one buck stopped at the bottom of the ridge where I have my trail cam. That’s when he turned his head, and that’s when I saw the forked G2 on his right side and knew then it was him. I’d only been hunting him for about a week, morning and evenings. I figured it was a fluke I got him on camera to be honest, but I was giving it a shot to see if I could at least see him with my own eyes, since it was the rut after all.

“I almost got a shot off when he stopped the first time, but he took off chasing, grunting and snorting. Again my heart sank, thinking it was over. The woods all around me sounded like a stampede of horses running through them. It was craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed hunting, that’s for sure.

“I sat there almost sick, thinking that was my one and only chance. I prayed they’d come back, and luckily they did. This dude stopped at the same spot he did before, giving me just long enough to make the shot, and down he went, without even a kick,” Timothy said.

“I knew he was big and definitely the biggest I’d ever seen hunting anywhere, but when I got up to him I saw just how big he really was, and WOW… what a buck he is. A buck of a lifetime to say the least.

“Never knew he was around until about a week before when I checked my trail camera for the first time since back in early October, and I was absolutely flabbergasted at his size. I knew we had some pretty big bucks around, but not like this, or at least I haven’t seen them.

“This is my first year back hunting since being diagnosed almost 11 years ago with lyme disease,” Timothy said.

Long tines stack up on the buck’s left side beam.

The buck’s rack is a main-frame 5×4 with two kicker points. 

“I rough green-scored him at 155 and some change, but this is my first deer I’ve ever had score worthy, so I’m sure I’m off,” Timothy said. He measured the G2s at 11 6/8 inches on the right and 10 2/8 inches on the left. Even the brow tines had great length—the left brow is 7 inches and the right is 5 3/8.

“I’m going to get him officially scored when the 60-day drying period is over but hope he is a 150-class buck or close,” Timothy said.

The all-time record for Dawson County is a buck killed in 1988 by George Beck that netted 153 1/8. It would take a 140 6/8 net score to crack the all-time Top 10 for Dawson County.

Dawson County Best Bucks Of All-Time