Hunter: Danny Donahue
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Emanuel
Season: 2023-2024
Hunt Story
I have been hunting this buck for 2 years on this property. I had actually never laid eyes on the deer rather trail-cam pictures. I had a good idea of his core area along with where he was traveling to and from bedding to feeding. I decided that I would slip into his area the day before I shot him and put up a ground blind. My hope was that he would cross a wider-than-normal lane in some planted pines and stop when he realized something was off with the area. The following morning, I got into the blind under the cover of darkness at 6:30 a.m. with the light wind blowing directly into my face. From first light I had action with deer blowing at me from all around trying to figure out what exactly I was. I decided to grunt a few times back at the deer blowing and had a small buck walk in front of me to see what I was. He got so close I thought he might stick his head into the blind. Ten minutes later I catch movement where I was facing and noticed it was a big body moving through the pines. As the sunlight hit him, I could tell he was a big deer. I threw my gun up on my shooting sticks and waited for the deer to cross the lane I was hunting. Seconds later he stepped out and stopped to look directly at me from about 80 yards away. I saw the deer I was after in the scope and dropped him in his tracks.
