Hunter: Todd Jones
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Laurens
Season: 2018-2019
Hunt Story
My son and I had seen this buck three previous times this season, but each time he was 200 to 400 yards away. And with my son Gunner only being 6 years old, I couldn’t let him take a risky long range shot. So yesterday I checked my camera and saw the buck had returned to the area just before daylight. When I saw the pictures I knew he had to be bedded close by. We are harvesting some of the timber on the property right now, and the loggers had finished one area around 12 p.m. then moved across the property. Knowing this, I had a good suspicion this would push the buck and maybe he would show himself in the afternoon. I decided to go sit in the area where we had seen him previously, now a large clearcut. About 5:15 two does ran across the powerline around 250 yards from me. Then five more ran across with two bucks running after them. All the deer crossed and went in the woods on the other side. A couple minutes later they came out around 300 yards away at my feeder, and they settled down and began feeding. As I watched them with my binoculars, I saw one buck start looking in the woods, then the other buck started looking and raised his nose smelling. After a couple minutes, the large 8 stepped out and just watched the other deer. I ranged him at 310 yards, then propped on my shooting sticks and took aim. I had my 7mm08 and I had it zeroed at 200 yards. I figured I would have around 10 inches of drop at 310 yards. I lined up behind the shoulder and at the top of his back, then took a deep breath and slowly squeezed off and Boom! I watched him fall in my scope. I ended up making a good shot and hitting him right in the heart. He’s a good buck to get at my house and a great ending to a super hunting season for me.
