Hunter: Dean Wiley
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Randolph
Season: 2017-2018
Hunt Story
The hunt for this deer actually began in 2016. The deer started showing up on cameras me and my buddy had on this tract and several adjoining tracts that we have access to. The deer was a 9-pointer last year basically same frame as this year. I nicknamed this deer Goliath and began the hunt. My buddy only saw the deer last December at like 4:30 in the afternoon and was actually swatting at some wasps in his stand and looked up and Goliath appeared from out of no where. Well, as you can imagine a deer of this class stood only for a second during the wasp swatting and vanished. The deer completely went nocturnal on us but was still in the area. It was like a game to this deer because we could hunt and hunt and see every deer but him and check cameras only to see that he would pass by after we would leave. After 2016 season passed, the deer started showing up in daylight near my ground blind. We continued our feeding program on all our properties with anticipation to see Goliath in full velvet, however, very disappointed, the deer never showed on our property in the summer at all. So, September rolls around for time to plant food plots and this area I was hunting was previously in row crop with soybeans on it. The landowner enrolled the tract in the CRP program and planted the entire fields in pines with the exception of two openings about an acre each. I set up a tripod on the northeast side of the tract, and the food plot I planted was planted along a water drain down through the middle of the field. The camera was located by the feeder at the south end of the patch next to a small head of hardwoods and the deer never showed at that camera. I was feeling pretty down and disgusted about the whereabouts of Goliath, so around the first of November I opted to pour a bag of corn out on the ground on the opposite end of the patch away from the feeder, and immediately Goliath showed up on like the first night after I put out the corn. One problem, he was still only nocturnal and always all alone when I would get pictures. I chose to keep the pressure down and wait for a cold front or some significant weather change to happen and fortunately I was awarded the bad weather on Dec the 6th and conditions went down hill from there with rain and falling temps. I got into the tripod Dec. 7 at around 6 a.m. , which was a full hour before legal light. Upon sunrise I began glassing the CRP for Goliath only to find nothing. After few minutes passed I caught some movement about 200 yards straight south and straight down wind. It was a doe that had jumped from her bed and was running toward the food plot. Glassing back where she came from I first spotted Goliath and knew it was him. He was staring in my direction and I was little surprised and in shock to finally lay eyes on him for the first time. He began trotting across field coming straight at me. He quickly closed the distance to around 120 yards and as if he was in a panic for his girlfriend. He immediately turned left and started angling toward the food plot and I managed stop him at about 70 yards and sent a round into his vitals and he went about 40 yards further and piled up.
