Hunter: Clayton Brannon
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Dawson
Season: 2024-2025
Hunt Story
Woke up at 5:30, went to grab my down pants that were hanging dry in the laundry room, realized they were still wet, had a few seconds of doubt, but it wasn’t under 30 degrees, so I put them on anyway. Figured I could use the seat heater to dry them on the way. I got all my gear loaded in the truck and drove to my family's 10-acre lot in Dawsonville. This property borders Dawson WMA. Parked, got all my gear, sprayed some pee on my boots and walked up the mountain to my portable. When I got there, I sprayed some Scrape Juice on some scrapes around the stand, climbed the tree, waited for sun to peak and heard some rustling to my right. I did a few contact grunts and had to stand up and turn around to get a shot if this was the buck I’ve been seeing on camera. Stopped hearing the rustling, sat back down and did a series of grunts and sat silent. Looked to my back left and saw a buck coming downwind from me, up the mountain. It was still a little dark but I knew it was him. I learned later that everybody in the area had went out and bought orange vests and corn—they all had seen him. He walked to about 20 yards away, my stand was faced the opposite direction, with the tree in between me and him, so I rotated my body to the left and I used the tree as a rest, couldn’t have asked for a better placement. Doing my best to settle my nervous shakes, I pulled the trigger. He jumped and ran toward me about 10 yards to my left and stopped, I loaded another bullet and shot him a second time right in the heart. I waited about 10 minutes, got down from the tree, and it hit me. I have to get this big ol' mountain goat off the mountain now. With no cell service to call a friend, I knew I had to gut him to get him out. As I was cutting his stomach, I had a young 8-pointer run up to about 20 yards from me eating acorns. Got the buck gutted and dragged him about a half mile to my truck, luckily it was mostly downhill, mostly. Took him to my buddies to show him off, he works for John Megel, so he’s always sending big buck pics. I always send him pics of the bucks I get and say “what’s ol' Megel think of that one.” Left there and took him to Wilkes to get him cut into jerky. Took a few pics on the mountain but it’s hard when your by yourself.
