Coastal Georgia Buck Scored As Charlton County’s No. 2

This past deer season, Greg Boatright, of Patterson, harvested the No. 2 buck of all-time for coastal Georgia’s Charlton County.

Greg killed the buck on Oct. 22, 2016, and it has now been officially scored at 149 2/8 inches.

“My girlfriend and I went hunting on opening morning and got in the tree stand before daylight,” said Greg. “At about 10 o’clock, I glanced to my left and saw the buck coming up behind me. I actually had him dead in about five seconds. He saw me, and I saw him, and he kind of ducked like he was going to sneak away, so I got my rifle up and spun around and dropped him in his tracks.”

This was the first year Greg had joined the hunting club he was on, but there had been others hunting the monster coastal buck for the past three seasons.

“My friend on that club had been hunting him for a couple of years, and they had never seen him but one time in daylight hours,” said Greg. “When my buddy saw him one morning the year before, they saw him at 300 yards, but he didn’t take a shot because he didn’t want to miss him.”

Greg said he just so happened to show up late that fateful morning on Oct. 22.

“We’d been bear hunting for all the bear days, and then on Sunday after bear season, I put out three cameras for the buck and actually had him on camera about three different days, so I knew where he was at,” Greg said.

“I’ve hunted in Illinois, Iowa and Kentucky, and that’s still my biggest deer. Normally you wouldn’t even think to see a buck that size here, so I feel pretty lucky.”

Greg said the 2015 trail-camera pictures reveal that the buck had 6 points on the right side and 5 points on the left, but when he killed the deer in 2016, the rack was identical but swapped sides, having 6 points on the left side and 5 on the right. The 11-pointer grossed 158 6/8 inches and netted 149 2/8.

The current No. 1 buck for Charlton County was killed by Cameron Crews in 2012 and netted 167 1/8 inches.

“My girlfriend and son said I was hogging the stand, and usually I let them get the big ones, but I told them, ‘I’ve been letting y’all kill all the big ones, so I’m going after this one,'” said Greg.

Greg said it was pretty exciting to have been able to harvest the No. 2 buck of all time for Charlton County.

GON complies and keeps the County-by-County Big-Buck Rankings for Georgia. To have a deer added to that list, you must first have your deer scored by a certified deer measurer. You must use a certified Boone & Crockett or Pope & Young measurer. A list of measurers is located on their websites: www.boone-crockett.org and www.pope-young.org.

After the scoring is completed, GON will need a copy of the score sheet. There are three ways you can get GON that copy: e-mail a copy of your score sheet to [email protected]. A picture with your smart phone of the front and back of the score sheet and then emailed is acceptable. Fax front and back pages it to (706) 342-2022. Or mail a photocopy to: GON Big Buck Rankings, 4331 Seven Islands Road, Madison, GA 30650.