Hunter: Heath Dalton
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Twiggs
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
On the morning of November 7th, my friend Tyler and I drove from Cherokee County to Twiggs County for an all afternoon hunt. We originally planned on hunting all day Saturday, but we were convinced to stay home Friday night for my little sister's 21st. We finally made it to our shooting tower by 11:30 am. The weather was warm, about 70 degrees, and overcast with fairly high winds. I heard that several nice bucks had already been shot in Georgia this season following a rattling sequence. I have personally had very limited success using wild game calls or any attractants in the past. I was a skeptic to say the least. Out of curiosity and lack of action, I decided to attempt a brief rattling sequence around 1 pm and then again around 3. I made one last futile attempt at rattling around 5:10. There had been no signs of any big game movement the entire afternoon up to this point. Then out of nowhere a large bodied buck steps out into the food plot at 125 yards. This happened about 10-15 minutes after the last rattling sequence. Coincidence or not, I'm not sure nor could I care less! There was no need to further examine the rack before making the decision. It was obvious to see he was a shooter at first glance judging by the height and mass of his main frame! He surveyed the plot then began grazing a little while slowly crossing the narrowest point of the field. I stopped him in his tracks with a mouth bleat and squeezed the trigger seconds later. He was well hit, and we were fairly confident that we heard him crash in the woods just moments after the shot. Tyler and I got down right before 6:00 and found solid blood right at dark. We followed the blood about 25 yards to the wood line where we lost the trail. We immediately went back to camp to round up the troops. Within 30 minutes there were seven of us out there on the search. I was feeling sick when we had no luck finding blood or a body. We were just beginning to call in a tracking dog as we heard my friend Hunter yelling, "DEER, DEER!!" Everyone was overwhelmed with excitement as we hustled through the brush to find this beautiful mature buck. He ran about 80-100 yards up a steep hill after being shot with a 165-grain bullet from a 30.06. My first year in this Twiggs County club has led to good friendships and my first real trophy buck. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to harvest this animal and to everyone involved in the recovery process! It was a great day and one I won't soon forget.
