Truck-Buck Turns 30!

It’s hard to believe GON will give away our 30th new pickup truck after this season’s Truck-Buck Shoot-Out.

There’s no other contest like Truck-Buck, not anywhere, and that’s a testament to three groups of folks—our sponsors, our GON members, and the magazine staff who do all the work behind the scenes to pull this contest off year after year.

There are more than $60,000 in prizes that will be given away in this year’s Truck-Buck contest. Don’t take Truck-Buck for granted! Please thank our sponsors, and get in the game this deer season by making sure you have a GON subscription.

For this 30th year of Truck-Buck, Georgia deer hunters statewide will finally have the same deer season and the same regulations. One state, one season, same set of rules.

GON is also making a big change this year. We’re going back to the original format of Truck-Buck, with no North vs. South preliminary rounds. When you win your week, you automatically earn a huge weekly prize package—a bow, rifle or muzzleloader, plus an HSS safety harness and a Tink’s package. Then weekly winners will have a 1-in-11 chance at one of the two grand prizes—a Chevy pickup or the Beast.

The North vs. South format came about when legislators split our state in half with baiting regulations. We did not want that conflict impacting the Truck-Buck contest, so we implemented a format so hunters only competed against hunters who could hunt by the same baiting regulations.

But the main reason we’re going back to the original Truck-Buck format is because it’s better for y’all. You win a week, you win a thousand-dollar weekly prize package and have a 1-in-11 chance at an amazing grand prize.

We know there’s a perception among north Georgia hunters that folks in the south have all the big deer. We also hear from south Georgia hunters who feel north Georgia bowhunters kill all the bow-week giants. Truth is, over the history of the contest, it works out that about half the field comes from the north and half from the south. If we hadn’t had North vs. South in last season’s contest, the Shoot-Out would have had nine north Georgia hunters and 12 who hunted south Georgia.

There’s another big change for the 30th year of Truck-Buck. We’re adding an 18th week, since Georgia now has one ending date statewide that’s always the second Sunday in January.

Entering the GON Truck-Buck contest is simple. First, be a GON member, which means you have a paid subscription to the magazine. When you kill a buck, take some digital photos, go to www.gon.com to fill out an online entry form, and simply upload your pictures.

If you are 23 and living with your parents, you need to buy your own subscription. Only dependent kids (claimed as a dependent on parents’ taxes) can enter on a subscription. Grandparents, please buy a gift subscription for the grandkids! The kids have their own contest, too.

The Truck-Buck contest is divided into scoring periods that coincide with the weeks of deer season. Each week, the best buck entered statewide wins prizes and earns a spot in the Shoot-Out. You don’t have to kill the biggest buck in the state, just the highest-scoring buck during a week of the deer season.

Hunters can also make the Shoot-Out through four wildcard divisions: Youth, Ladies, Public Land and Runner-Up. The highest-scoring buck by a youth, lady or public-land hunter who doesn’t win a week outright earns a spot in the Shoot-Out and a prize from Havalon knives.

Here are the prizes for the 2018-19 Truck-Buck contest:

• A new 4×4 Chevy Silverado pickup truck from John Megel Chevrolet.

• A new Beast hunting buggy loaded with accessories including lift kit, camo body, front basket, brushguard, headlight and taillight, rear seat kit and custom front seats.

• 12 Browning X-Bolt Stainless Stalker deer rifles.

• 5 Mathews Triax compound bows.

• 22 personalized GON Shoot-Out jerseys from Realtree.

• 18 HSS Ultra-Lite Flex 320 harnesses from Hunter Safety System.

• 18 prize packages of scent products from Tinks.

• A .50 caliber CVA Accura MR SS Nitrade Muzzleloader with scope and case.

There are no check stations for Truck-Buck. Simply be a GON member (paid magazine subscriber), kill a buck, take good photos, and then enter at www.gon.com.

Top-4 Reasons Someone’s Ineligible For Truck-Buck

1. You’re out of college and still live at home, and parent gets GON. You must be a dependent, meaning mom or dad claims you for an IRS deduction, to enter on dad’s subscription. If you’re 23, you’ll need a subscription in your name if you’d like to enter.
2. It’s my grandkid! The rule applies to grandpas and uncles. Please get a subscription that goes to the kid’s house. Hopefully it will fuel their fire for hunting, and it’ll help GON, too.
3. Didn’t get pictures. If you want to enter a buck, you have to take some pictures before the buck is caped out.
4. What subscription? Don’t let your GON membership expire. If you’re not a subscriber before you kill the buck, you can’t enter.