Hunter: Gordon Lew
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Upson
Season: 2020-2021
Hunt Story
Four years ago I shot this buck with a bow and didn’t recover him. He disappeared and I thought he had died. The next year I had him on camera and hunted him a couple times, but I was after another deer in Coweta County. Same again the next two years. This year after looking at game cameras pics is when I realized which deer this was when I pulled old pictures up and I put it together that it was the buck I lost. He still had the broadhead scar from years previous. I decided he was my target buck. Since opening day of bow season I hunted him. It was a game of cat and mouse. I would hunt one stand and get pictures of him at another or an hour after I left. I saw him one morning crossing the pasture with five other bucks. He was at 45 yards walking fast, so I didn’t attempt the shot. Another morning he was across the pasture at 100 yards. I felt he was bedding in a select cut. On Sunday I had a northwest wind. This limited where I could hunt. I hunted the only spot that a deer could not wind me. It was a very low percentage spot, and I didn’t really expect to see a deer there. At 6:30 I was watching the direction I anticipated if a deer showed up. I looked to my right, and he came from behind me and was already at 18 yards to my right. All I knew was that it was a big deer and I saw a lot of mass on his main beam. I drew back and he stopped. My shot was too quick, and I watched as he ran off with the arrow high in the shoulder. Not a good feeling. The arrow broke off at 10 yards as he bulldozed through the thick brush. He ran out about 80 yards and stopped, and a few seconds later I saw him walk through an opening headed to the right. The under brush is Viet Nam like, and I couldn’t see him anymore. I got down before dark and checked my arrow. About 5 inches was missing and had blood 4 inches up the shaft. I decided to wait till morning. The next morning after daylight I made my way to the last place I saw him. I found no blood. I began walking in the direction he went. About 50 yards further I heard a deer get up in the thick stuff. I backed out and called for a dog. The handler told me it would be later in the evening before he could get down. At 5:00 we put the dog on the trail. The dog bayed the deer only a few yards from where I jumped the deer in the morning. He hadn’t gone maybe 120 yards from initial hit. The buck broke through the brush. We pulled the dog back and waited an hour. When we put the dog back on the trail he took us through more Viet Nam Creek bottom. We found a fair amount of fresh blood. We found the deer probably another 100 yard in. I was shocked at the size of the deer. The handler said he had never seen a bigger bodied deer. I didn’t realize when looking at his pictures how big he was, and it made his horns look small. We guessed 250 live weight and we were trying to be conservative. He is a main frame 8 with split brow time and a split G3. Upon field dressing I found the arrow had hit the left lung. I believe if left alone the deer may have survived but the exertion of the dog caused him to develop a tension pneumothorax that eventually collapsed the uninjured lung. I was very grateful for the dog's help. It was a year to the day that I killed a Pope and Young. October 13th I guess is my new lucky day.
