Hunter: Jade Smith
Points: 9 (4L, 5R)
County: Irwin
Season: 2021-2022
Hunt Story
Well my Papa Clyde told me he had seen 2 big bucks both mornings he went, and the only time I could go was in the afternoon until the weekend had started. So when Saturday came I told him I wanted to go since he had seen them only in the mornings. When I got in the stand he told me that he didn’t see the deer until 9-9:30ish. At 7:10 when it started to get daylight he texted me and told me to make sure I was looking the way he saw them. Around 7:20 I could see a whole lot better and was looking as hard as I could the way he told me to. There was corn behind me so I decided to look behind me and I saw a deer. I couldn’t quite see what it was so I picked up my gun and looked through it. it was a 5-point, but a bigger 5-point. I remember he told me to kill him because he was a pretty big 5 but before I went to shoot I asked myself do I wanna just wait and see what happens or kill him. I backed down and I kept watching him eat. At 7:23 he started running the other way and looking behind him. I knew he wasn’t running from a doe so I knew something was behind him, so I bent down to put my phone down and looked back into the scope and one of the biggest deer I have ever seen in my life was standing in the corn looking at him. The first thing I did was make sure I wasn’t going crazy and it was actually happening. I quickly flipped the gun off safety and waited until he turned broadside to get the best shot I could because there was no way I was gonna miss him. I took a deep breath before I shot because my buck fever had the whole stand shaking. When I shot, he bucked up and his nose hit the ground and he ran off. I knew I had to have hit him if he bucked and fell face first. As soon as I shot at 7:25 am, my papa texted and asked if that was me because his stand was not far from mine. I said yes and asked him if he heard it pop him and he said it didn’t. Then I was worried about if I got too nervous and missed. He said to wait until 8 just so we can give him time to die if I did hit him. It took forever for it to get to 8. I was ready to go see if I had got him or not. When 8 came, we went right to where I shot him at and saw a crap ton of hair. Papa said that wasn’t good and it meant I shot low. My heart rate was still at 100000. My papa can’t see that good so I was the only one that Would be able to see blood. I was looking too hard at first and started back over to where I shot him. Right there where I shot him was a huge pile of blood that just kept going right to where he ran. It took us no longer than 10 minutes to find him, and he was maybe 30 yards into the woods. When I got to him I couldn’t believe how big he was. My papa and I were tickled to death and couldn’t wait to get home to show my mama and daddy. My daddy has always wanted me to kill huge deer my whole life, but he couldn’t believe how big this one was.
