Upson County Lady’s Cover Buck Could Make B&C

This giant non-typical Upson County buck is said to gross 208 inches and could make the Boone & Crockett record book, if it nets above the 195-inch minimum. Susie Tate, a GON Truck-Buck entrant for Week 12 North, killed the buck just before dark on Dec. 2.

Susie and her husband, Billy, spend half the year at their home in Thomaston, where they hunt their 275 acres in Upson County. The other half of the year they live in Highlands, N.C.

Susie says hunting for her is just as much about relaxing and watching deer as it is shooting a deer, but she did have the giant non-typical buck on her mind as she sat in her stand on the afternoon of Dec. 2.

They had three different trail-camera photos of the buck from their property. The first shot was taken in September. The second shot was on Nov. 18 about a quarter of a mile from where Susie killed the deer. The last shot, taken on Nov. 30, was only 300 yards away. The buck also had a giant rub 350 yards below her stand.

And the big buck wasn’t afraid to show itself. Several days earlier, the Tate’s son, Jimmy, spotted the big buck, but it didn’t present a shot.

The afternoon Susie killed the buck a nasty cold front was blowing through. However, the deer were still moving. By 5 p.m. she was watching five does and a small buck from a big tower stand overlooking a food plot known simply as Susie’s Plot. Susie’s Plot was green with a fall mix from Faithway consisting of wheat, oats, rye, clover, rape and winter peas.

“I was watching them with my binoculars. They had their heads up and were looking back. I wondered what they were looking at,” she said.

With the binoculars still to her eyes, Susie scanned over to see what the deer were checking out.

“I looked down that way, and there he stood,” said Susie. “I dropped my binoculars and got my gun up, and got it out the window, and got it on him and shot before I could think too much about it and start shaking.”

The deer ran out of the food plot and into the woods. Susie didn’t see the deer fall but got on her cell phone and texted Billy three words—It was him.

When Billy arrived, Susie was still in the stand, gun loaded just in case. Billy started looking for the buck.

“He got off into the woods and started hollering,” said Susie. “When he started hollering, I knew he had found him. I was hollering at him to come get me, and he was down there hollering about the big deer. I’m up in the stand shaking and can’t get out of the stand. I was shaking pretty good.

“I finally did work my way out of the stand. I got down there to him and went to pieces. We knew he was big, but he surprised us. He said, ‘I’ve got to call GON.'”

Susie has to bring her deer rack to one of the GON scoring events. It’ll be exciting to see if she’ll add her name to the list of 99 other Georgia Boone & Crockett bucks. It could be No. 100.