Truck-Buck 2019-20: Week 13 Winner, Clay Crawford

Week 13: Clay Crawford, 183 1/8 non-typical
County: Early      Date: Dec. 12

Clay Crawford, of Blakley, had known about a huge buck with a very unusual rack since 2017 when he started getting trail-camera photos of the deer on the Early County family farm he hunts. Clay said the buck stayed close in small area, but that didn’t mean the deer was easy to kill.

“I’ve always been picky about what deer I kill, but I would have killed that buck in 2017 if I had gotten a chance,” Clay said. “He stayed in that one area.”

It didn’t happen during the 2017 season, and in 2018, deer hunting was the last thing on the minds of people in southwest Georgia. Hurricane Michael was still a strong Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds when it slammed through Early County and the town of Blakely.

Week 13: Clay Crawford’s velvet freak was one crazy-racked buck. It netted 183 1/8 non-typical when measured by official Boone & Crockett scorers.

“I was busy helping others clean up from the storm and didn’t put cameras out or get to go deer hunting,” Clay said. “After Thanksgiving this year, I decided to put my camera back out on this tract of land.”

The buck was back.

“He was just giant. He had grown tremendously in two years,” Clay said.

He was also still in velvet, just like he was all through the 2017 season. This buck never shed its velvet, and it apparently also never shed its antlers. Clay’s neighbor and friend is Toby Warr, a good deer hunter who has been in GON and the Truck-Buck Contest several times. He saw the buck after it was killed, and he said the buck had male parts, but there wasn’t anything going on in the sack. It likely wasn’t producing testosterone, whether from injury, or it was just born that way.

Clay’s buck netted 183 1/8 non-typical. In GON’s official Deer Records, Clay now has the No. 5 buck of all-time from Early County, and it is the No. 1 non-typical ever recorded from Early.

Clay will be shooting in the finals to win a new Silverado pickup truck from longtime Truck-Buck sponsor John Megel Chevrolet. He has already won a $1,140 Browning deer rifle and a prize package which includes Antler Addict Mineral and 4S Draw from 4S Advanced Wildlife Solutions, a safety harness from Hunter Safety System and a Shoot-Out shirt from Realtree.

GON’s Official All-Time Cook Early Buck Rankings