Hunter: Daniel Jernagin
Points: 7 (3L, 4R)
County: Walker
Season: 2016-2017
Hunt Story
My friend Mickey was generous enough to take me to his hunting club. We stopped at Hardee's, and he already had a biscuit waiting on me. Then we drove to the Walker County club and started getting ready for the hunt. We walked through the woods and Mickey put me in a ladder stand. I climbed up and was waiting on daybreak. It turned daybreak and I was so excited. I was freezing cold, but it was worth it. I sat there til about 10:40 and I was getting discouraged and I really didn't think I was going to see anything. Then I looked over to my left and I saw a doe coming out to the food plot, which was on a roadbed. I got so excited and I flicked the safety off and didn't give it any time at all. I just squeezed the trigger and the doe fell and started kicking. I was so pumped!!!! I had hunted hard all season and it finally came together. I began texting Mickey, and within seconds I looked up and all I could see was horns. I threw my gun up, got on the deer, and I squeezed the trigger. At that point nothing happened!!! I had forgotten to take my safety off, so I began to panic. I didn't think anything about the safety , so I just put another round in my gun. I had ejected a live round and it crashed against my stand. It made a loud noise, and the buck ran down the roadbed to the doe. I hollered at it to stop, but it ran into the woods out of view. I then began texting Mickey again, and I was a little disappointed about letting the buck get away by making a simple mistake. Then I looked up two minutes later and the buck popped back out and ran over to my doe I had killed!!! I threw my gun up again and BOOM, I shot the buck and its front leg went limp. It ran off into the woods out of view. After that I tried texting Mickey and my hunting buddy Mike, but I could barely tell them. I was shaking so hard I knocked a water bottle off my stand. About an hour later Mickey came up and got me out of my stand and we recovered the two deer. The buck was just 20 yards out of sight. I was so pumped and so ecstatic for my season to finally pay off. God blessed me with two nice deer, and the best buck I have ever killed so far.
