Hunter: Michael Segars
Points: 9 (4L, 5R)
County: Madison
Season: 2018-2019
Hunt Story
I got in my stand on a small tract of private family land on 12/15/18 about 20 minutes before daylight. It had been raining the whole day prior and the night before, but there was a break in the rain that morning so I figured the deer would be on their feet. At about 7:45 to 8:00 it started raining again and it continued off and on just enough to make the woods noisy and get you wet. At 8:30 to 8:45 after no luck I decided to get down and slowly walk out and hunt my way back out of the hardwoods to where I parked that morning. The leaves were wet so you could literally slip around undetected in those hardwoods which doesn't happen often. I got up on a trail that led through the hardwoods to an agricultural field and as I was easing my way out I caught a glimpse of the deer bedded in the hardwood bottom across the trail from the stand I was originally hunting that morning. I knew the deer was a shooter, but did not realize how good he really was. I raised my gun to see if I could make an ethical shot and my scope was blurred from all the rain that morning. I proceeded to clean my scope as slowly as I could without spooking the buck to his feet and out of my small tract of land forever. I had no way to get close enough to a tree for a rest and I had already spent enough time with the scope cleaning and trying to pick a shot that I figured my window of opportunity and luck was soon to run out on a buck of this caliber. I got my scope clean enough where I could make out the deers shoulder and I shot him free-handed at about 50 yards. The closer I got to the deer after I shot him the bigger he got and it took me a minute to realize what caliber of deer I had actually harvested. After some prayers and thank you lords I finally got calm enough to get the deer out of the woods!! Just goes to show always be alert when out in the woods whether your in the stand or going to and from your stand you never know what you will run across and you never know where that buck of a lifetime may be. A little luck and being at the right place at the right time and a little help from the good lord above made for a very memorable hunt.
