Hunter: Billy Segars
Points: 12 (7L, 5R)
County: Hart
Season: 2021-2022
Hunt Story
12 point Gross 145 7/8 with inside spread of 18 1/2 Hart County Sitting #8 in Hart county before deductions but we have fingers crossed he will stay in the top ten. My husband, Billy Segars, has been hunting Northeast Ga since he was old enough to walk. Literally. His father would let him tag along to the hunting club since around three or four years old. He has always sat by himself, the pair never to this day have sat in the same stand. Close but never together. To begin with he started hunting with an air blower from his dad's automotive shop because it resembled a pistol. After a couple of seasons with the air blower he graduated to a pellet gun. And finally once he was responsible enough to carry an actual gun he got to carry a 12 ga automatic into the woods but he only got to carry one shell at a time. Every fall has looked the same for our family, we even had to schedule our wedding around the rut. We’re in the woods 10-14 times a week from September to January every year. As a wife you can either hate it or learn to love it. I chose to love it with him. He has 5 Hart County bucks in the mid to high 130s on the wall, but he finally got a chance at his biggest to date this year. We got velvet pictures of a group of nice mature bucks running one of our places back in July and we decided then it was going to be a group effort to get one of them in the back of the truck. These bucks are smart and it takes time, patience, and persistence to even get a chance. Before this season we only hunted the same property a handful of times together, we always went our separate ways mid afternoon and then met back up at home after our hunts. This year we’ve loaded up all but two times together trying to catch one of these bucks. We added new stands to this property in hopes of cutting them off when they’re coming and going. During bow season these bucks never showed back up. We had cameras all over the property trying to pick up on somewhat of a pattern but they just stopped showing up. Around October 20th we finally started getting some fresh scrapes from what appeared to be our mature bucks. On Friday October 29th at 7:19 we got a nice trail camera picture of what we thought was the perfect 10 of the group. He finally was getting closer to us during shooting hours. On November 2, 2021 we had plans of going to another property because I have a target buck over there that’s showing his face. I’m not quite familiar with the hardwoods there yet, so my husband has to walk me to my blind each hunt. We woke up later than normal so I told him we’re just going to have to go to “grannies” since it’s closer to the house and we can still get in the stand at a decent time. We get settled into our stands and the trail camera goes off at 7:40 with my target buck at the property we didn’t go to. To say I’m frustrated is an understatement. At 8:13 I hear my husband's 300 mag go off and I text him “what was it,” and his reply was “I thank a nice one couldn’t see threw my scope fogged up but he’s down.” He calls me at 8:24 and tells me it’s the buck we’ve been chasing. I may have shed a tear getting gown from my stand because I wanted this for him so bad. He has probably his worst season to date last year, even had to call a tracking dog on a trophy buck he never recovered. It takes us all of an hour of both of us dragging him to get him out of the hardwoods. It wasn’t until we got him up to the old road I realized just what a deer he had harvested—44 years of hunting and he finally harvested a buck of a lifetime from our stomping grounds in Hart County. His picture may not make the magazine and this probably isn’t going to be the biggest buck of the week for the Truck-Buck, but I always told him when he killed one bigger than what he had on the wall I would send his pictures to the GON and I am a lady of my word. If you read this far thanks for your time and happy hunting!
