Shane Casper’s 160-inch Morgan County Buck

Prior to the 2001 deer season, Shane Casper, of Rutledge, received permission to hunt a 48-acre tract of land not far from his Morgan County home, but it was the second week of gun season before Shane and a friend had time to scout the property.

Shane picked a spot along a small creek. Facing down the creek bottom, there were 7-year-old planted pines to his left, and a small clearcut to his right.

On the morning of November 21, Shane sat in his stand along the creek bottom waiting for daylight to break. It was 30 degrees with a light frost covering the Morgan County woods.

“After it got good and light, I heard the soft grunts of a buck. Looking toward that direction, I never saw anything. After about 30 minutes, I looked the other way to my left and caught a glimpse of a nice buck. He was headed towards those planted pines,” Shane said.

Unfortunately, it was too thick for Shane to get a clean shot. He tried making a grunting noise with his mouth. It stopped the buck, and it looked in Shane’s direction for a second, but quickly the deer put its head down and disappeared into the pines.

“I thought he was gone,” Shane said. “About 15 minutes passed, and all of sudden the buck appeared again, coming down the hill out of those pines. I didn’t waste any time. Raising my gun and putting the scope on the buck, I pulled the trigger, and he dropped right there.

The buck was an extremely symmetrical 10-pointer with very long tines. Both main beams measured more than 24 1/2 inches, and four tines were longer than 10 1/2 inches. After only 1 5/8 inches in deductions, the net score of Shane’s deer was 162 2/8 B&C points, making it the fourth-best buck taken in Georgia last season, and giving Morgan County two of the Top-4 bucks of Georgia’s 2001-02 season.