Hunter: Clae Mathis
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Taylor
Season: 2023-2024
Hunt Story
This is "Junior." The chase for this buck has been 3 years long and very stressful at times. I have thousands of pictures of him, but I have never seen him while hunting. On Saturday, November 11 I was planning on taking my bow to hunt a buck on a different property. I had sat for this buck over 30 times already, and to be honest I had about given up on him. My wife, Taylor told me I would be crazy not to go hunt him with the cold and rainy weather we had that day. So, I listened to her and went after Junior one more time. The hunt itself was pretty uneventful for the first hour and half. I didn't see a single deer until the last 30 minutes of light. I watched a small buck and a yearling eat in the food plot for about 10 minutes. Then, a big buck came trotting in like he was on a mission. He stopped pretty quick to eat, and I looked through my binoculars long enough to know he was big. He was just standing behind the yearling with his head down, so I wasn't sure which buck he was yet. He moved around her, and I realized it was Junior. I couldn't believe it. 3 years worth of chasing him had come down to this. He was quartered pretty hard to me, but I couldn't wait any longer. I squeezed off the shot and saw him jump and run out of sight. I went back to the truck and waited on my wife, two sons, and a few friends of ours to come recover him with me. It didn't take long before we were all sitting around him celebrating. We loaded him in the back of my Ford Excursion and drove him around showing him off. He is my biggest buck of my life so far, and I doubt I will ever see an 8-point this big in the state of Georgia again. The full story is in my GON blog, and the episode is live on our YouTube Channel : Out There Outdoors
