Hunter: Jeremy Jones
Points: 11 (5L, 6R)
County: Grady
Season: 2017-2018
Hunt Story
I had pictures of this deer last year as a 10-point but never saw him on a hunt and had decided not to shoot him if given the opportunity, as I thought he had the potential to be something special given some time. Fast forward to this year and he had not shown back up on camera. We had just put a box stand up the Sunday before in this location, and I thought the deer would be bedding in the pines and coming to feed in the harvested corn field in the evenings. The cooler than average weather we've had this past week seems to have been getting the deer on their feet a little earlier than normal for this time of year, and with the bucks still grouped up in our area, I thought sitting on a food source might be the ticket. I got in the stand around 5 p.m. and it was pretty uneventful until I saw a small 4-point that I recognized as a buck that had been running in a bachelor group with some bigger deer enter the end of the food plot we have planted along the edge of this corn field. He kept looking behind him but eventually walked out of my view. Light was fading pretty fast when I looked out into the corn field and noticed three more deer standing in the waist-high stubble about 150 yards out with their heads down feeding. They had skirted the end of the food plot and came out of the thick planted pines into the edge of the corn field. One looked to have a bigger than average body, so I grunted at them to get them to pick their heads up. I could tell the bigger deer's rack was outside his ears and that his body size was significantly bigger than the other deer with him. At that point I made the decision to shoot him. He was quartering toward me slightly and was about to step out of the mowed lane in the corn field when I put it on his shoulder pulled the trigger. He ran off back into the pines he came from along with the other deer, and I couldn't determine whether he was hit or not. I got on down after a few minutes and went to check the shot site. I couldn't find any sign of a hit but while I was standing down there I heard what I thought was a deer fall in the thicket. Unsure of the shot and not wanting to jump him, I decided to back out and come back in the morning with my German Shorthair Pointer, Deuce, who has been good to several of my friends and family in the past on trailing wounded deer. Needless to say it was a long night. I came back at daylight the next morning and when I got Deuce to the spot where I thought the buck was standing he wasted no time dragging me to the edge of the woods and at that point threw his nose in the air and I could tell he was winding the deer. My good friend Andy and I followed him into some of the thickest, nastiest cover I've ever been in but it wasn't long and we had walked up on my best buck to-date. He had managed to avoid the cameras all summer but I guess the cooler weather had him in the corn field 5 minutes too early. Thankfully the night was cool and I was able to get all of the meat off of him. He was by-far the biggest bodied deer I've ever been blessed enough to take. Special thanks to Andy and Deuce on the recovery, and to my dad and uncle for planting the hunting seed deep in my soul at a young age. I am forever grateful.
