Teen Girl’s 158-Inch 12-Point Buck

There are deer hunters who spend small fortunes in hopes of taking a big buck. They lease thousands of acres of land, plant high-protein foods to grow big racks, install cameras to pattern deer and put out feeders to attract deer. During every waking moment they fret over what else they might do to get that wall hanger.

Julianna Breeding is probably thinking: “What is all that fuss about? Deer hunting is easy.”

The 15-year-old will join a host of Georgia’s top deer hunters on July 31  hoping to win a new Chevrolet pickup truck in the GON Truck-Buck Shoot-Out. Her path there was much different than the others.

On the day before Thanksgiving last year, the then 14-year-old 9th-grader from Senoia walked across the street with her older brother to a 100-acre hay field her father cuts for someone. She lay down in the fescue field. An hour later, she had shot a 12-point typical that scored 158 5/8. The Week 11 Truck-Buck winner is the No. 6 buck ever killed in Coweta County, according to GON’s Georgia Deer Records.

No tree stand, no special food plots, no game cameras and no feeders. Heck, she didn’t even want to go hunting that day. She was tired, and her plans were to curl up and read a book.

“I was tired and really wanted to stay home that afternoon,” she said. “My brother told me if I went, I wouldn’t have to get up the next morning to go. That sounded pretty good, so I went.”

The field had some scrapes around its outer edges. In fact, her 22-year-old brother, Jeb, had shot a 9-point buck at one of the scrapes just two weeks before. 

That afternoon, they soon were watching five does and a 4-point. Julianna tried to shoot the 4-point, but the small buck would never turn so she could get a good shot. She waited.

Finally, the big buck with a massive rack entered the field and started following the does. When the buck left the does to check out the scrape, Julianna was ready. She steadied her 30-06, squeezed the trigger and dropped the buck in his tracks.

Julianna Breeding was 14 years old last season when he killed this monster 12-point buck. The tall-tined rack netted 158 5/8 to win Week 11 in GON’s Truck-Buck Shoot-Out and the Youth Big-Buck Contest, and Julianna now has the No. 6 Coweta County buck of all-time at gon.com/deer-records.

“It was in a hayfield that I have cut for a neighbor for about 15 years,” her dad, Jason said. “He lets us hunt there. It’s just hay crops, no food plots. We had never even seen that deer before. My daughter didn’t even want to go hunting that day. She begrudgingly went.

“They called me to come over and bring the truck because Julianna shot a deer. I drove over, and I could see the antlers sticking up over the grass. We counted 12 points.”

Even at her young age, Julianna is no deer hunting rookie.

“It was my fourth buck and my biggest,” she said. “I killed an 8-point when I was 10.”

Julianna Breeding and her tall-tined rack netted 158 5/8 from Coweta County.

Winning a week of Truck-Buck made her somewhat of a celebrity among her friends.

“My friends couldn’t believe it,” she said. “They thought it was pretty cool. I think some of the boys were probably a little jealous. One boy who hunts has never killed a deer. He made me show him the pictures to prove it.”

Jason said he isn’t sure where the big buck came from.

“I don’t really know,” he said. “They are building some subdivisions around here and maybe some deer are getting pushed out of some of their traditional places.”

Julianna says the only way the buck could be even more special to her is if it led to her winning the brand-new Silverado truck from contest sponsor John Megel Chevrolet in the GON Truck-Buck Shoot-Out.

“I’ve been practicing a lot with my pellet gun,” she said.

Her dad said to not count her out.

“She’s a good shot like her mama.” 

Coweta County Best Bucks Of All-Time