Hunter: Storm Bradley
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Monroe
Season: 2018-2019
Hunt Story
Sunday morning Storm (11) and his mom (Nicole) got in our stand we call "Shot Plot" around 6:15 am. It was the coldest day so far this season, and we were not seeing anything. We were about ready to call it quits until this buck came out just before 9 am. I wanted to give it a little longer, so I got out my grunt call. We had some young bucks chasing the night before and grunting, so I thought why not. Storm wanted to "show me how it's supposed to be done" with my Primos buck roar deer call. He hit it a few times and actually sounded pretty awesome. About 15 minutes later Storm says "Mom, there is a buck, I think it's an 8-pointer" and never took his eyes off him after that. The buck was about 100-130 yards away from our stand across a creek. I confirmed it was a good buck with my binoculars and told Storm to get his gun ready. The buck walked straight down the trail and made/checked a scrape. He did not pay us any attention and was taking his time moving around behind a small clump of trees. I took video with my cell phone, but could not see the deer in my camera. I turned it off to help Storm take his safety off, and did not get a chance to record the actual shot because Storm was on him and fired. I could not see the buck from my position but Storm immediately said "I just shot my first buck, he mule kicked and everything". Storm had the happiest tears running down his face and could not stop shaking. I still had my phone in my hand so we called his Dad (Tony) who immediately knew why I was calling. He just said "I am on my way". (Dad and little brother Asher (7) decided to sleep in) I had to get the gun from Storm and eject the shell for him, he was so excited. We got down and went to our hunting buggy, put all our guns up and drove to the other side of the creek straight down the same trail he walked. We thought we would try to locate the location he was standing before Tony got there and find the blood trail. Storm did say he ran after the kicked but I did not see the deer after I looked at him through my binoculars so I was no help. Storm was having trouble finding the exact location the deer was in so he started to get discouraged. While Storm checked the ground I walked in the direction that the deer ran, and saw he was only laying a few yards away, we just could not see in that direction from where we were. All this seemed like it took forever, but when I checked the times it was only a few minutes had passed. I did get my camera back out to film Storm when I asked him if he wanted to wait on his dad or did he want to go get his buck. At that point he ran to me, and said "do you see him" when Storm spotted him he immediately started "OH MY... mom he's still alive" The deer was still twitching a little so we backed off and waited for his dad to come. We did not have to wait but a few minutes when he got there, Storm and Tony eased up to the buck and determined he was good to approach. (I also got that on video) Asher and I joined them and I think we all cried a little when we saw it was actually a 10-pointer and not the 8 Storm thought it was. (we may have been crying for different reasons, j/k) We took lots of pictures and cried some more. I was so happy he did not go far because there was no blood at all, so no blood trail to follow. The bullet entered quartered away but did not exit. When the 4 of us pulled and pushed him up on the back of the buggy, was when the blood finally came out (mostly all over me, who was doing most of the pushing while dad pulled from the front) Storm has been hunting with me and Tony since he was old enough to climb in a stand. He had killed a doe 2 years prior but was waiting on the right first buck to take. His patience paid off on Sunday, and he took an awesome buck. It never crossed my mind to kill this one myself, even though his dad nor I have killed a 10-pointer before. I enjoyed watching him way more than anything in the world, we thank God that we had a successful hunt, and stayed safe. This was an awesome experience and I hope to have many more memories like this with both my sons. Storm has still not stopped talking about it and his "bragging rights", he even went home and instead of watching YouTube videos of games, he looked up GA big buck hunts. I think I may not ever get to hunt by myself again, and will have to listen to advice from my "expert hunter".
