Hunter: Briana Gerrin
Points: 11 (6L, 5R)
County: Hall
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
I began my morning going to meet my Dad for our usual Saturday morning hunt. We loaded up the truck carrying the same 30-30 Marlin my Dad shot his first deer with in 1984. This same gun was stolen along with every gun he owned in 1997. In 2013 he got a call from the Hall County Sherriff's office that the gun had been recovered and he could go to North Carolina to claim it. Little did we know that I would kill my first deer, "Big Wally" with the same gun. We arrived at our usual hunting spot that we have been hunting together all season. We quietly walked to our stands, situated side by side, around 6:30 a.m. We climbed in, waited for daylight to break. My Dad began using a grunt call, and at approximately 8:10 this deer came from the bottom thicket, slowly walking in our direction. I had passed up so many bucks prior to this morning, I have seen a buck chasing a doe, seen a doe eating acorns so close I could hear her crunch, watched two bucks fighting and never got the feeling my Dad calls "Buck Fever," until I laid eyes on "BIG WALLY." I actually spotted him just before my Dad. I was all bundled up with a scarf over my nose and mouth and ice breakers on my feet, with the temperature at 28 degrees, it was cold. I couldn't believe my eyes, I whispered, "Dad do you see it?" So excited not knowing if he was answering me or not, I continued to say, "Dad do you see it? Oh my God, Dad, do you see it?" And he says, "shhhhhhh!" He tells me, "When you get a chance pick up your gun." So I did. I went to aim my gun, propping my elbow on my knee, and the next thing I heard my Dad say is, "Quit shaking!" My leg was jumping like someone that was having a seizure. No matter what I did I could not control this jerk in my leg. At this point he was pawing and breaking limbs as he was still approaching us. My Dad said, "I am going to stop him," and he did a fawn bleat with his mouth. Big Wally stopped in his tracks. Dad said, "Can you get a shot?" I said, "I can't see him, he stopped behind the tree." At that point the deer walked on and dad did another fawn bleat, he stopped again! By this point he was approximately 40 yards away, and this time I was able to take a shot. I shot, he ran about 50 yards and dropped. I was so excited! We sat for about two hours because every time we started to get down we had more bucks come in. A smaller 6-point kept circling Big Wally. I think he was thinking he might be "The Man" now that Big Wally is gone! I couldn't wait to get down, all I could do is stare at him. The whole time I thought he was a 10-point but when we actually got to him he was an 11-point. He had about a 1-inch kicker off the back left side. Oh and I cant forget to mention while still in the stand my Dad and I both text my Mom to tell her I had got my first deer, a monster spike. She was so excited for me, but the joke was on her. When we pulled up at the house she came out and was saying, "Oh my God Briana! Who shot that deer? Did y'all find it?" Her reaction was priceless! Her and my boyfriend both had been questioning if we were really going hunting because I hadn't shot anything but was always talking about what we had saw. But the wait was SO worth it!
