Hunter: Steve Gould
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Fulton
Season: 2018-2019
Hunt Story
I was in my tree stand before daylight, and I saw several groups of does between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., then as the wind picked up there was very little movement. Even the squirrels stopped running around. I decided to get down around 10:45, and while walking up a path along one side of a ravine, I spotted this buck bedded down across the ravine in a a thick bushy area covered in kudzu. He was perfectly positioned to see anything that approached him, and I am sure he saw me making my way home. I retreated a few steps to where I was behind a large tree that was covered in ivy and could watch him from a filtered view. Still think he knew where I was, but at about 150 yards away, he knew he could bolt if I came his way. I sat until around 1:00 p.m.. He wasn't budging and I was getting hungry. I snuck out to check if he was there several times, and finally saw him get up and graze around 4:00 p.m., before just going back to the same bedding spot. I sat in a semi exposed position where I had a 50 to 55 yard shot on one of three paths I thought he would use. Around 6:00 two does came down the ravine on my side, and saw me sitting. They didn't spook, I didn't twitch, but they crossed the small creek and headed up the other side of the ravine. THAT got him moving - he walked over, they avoided him, and he chased them a bit. They then left back the way they came, and he started heading down the ravine in the direction I knew I had about a 10-foot shot window. When he stepped into the window, I fired and heard that thwack of a solid hit. He jumped, but just started slowly walking back up toward where he was bedded down. When I lost sight of him, I put my crossbow away and took a long roundabout way to cross the ravine and check my arrow. It was covered in red blood, and I quickly found a small blood trail. Found him maybe 10 minutes later in some really thick stuff on a really steep hill. His tarsals were black, swollen, and quite stanky!
