Hunter: James Biggers
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Ben Hill
Season: 2019-2020
Hunt Story
I had a picture of this buck during daylight at the first part of September. I had noticed the deer activity had ramped up lately. This particular stand is about 200 yards behind my house on my property. It's an area with fairly mature pines and has several homes around three sides of the property (most are 200-300 yards away). Early that morning I had (2) does that came in on different parts of the property. I knew this was a good sign that bucks was chasing, as usually my trail camera pictures would have the does in groups of 2-5. Those does eased on off the property in different directions. About 9:00 I had (3) does enter back corner of the property. They slowly made their way to one of the food plots. As I was watching them, I heard a grunt from my right. When I looked that way, there was a doe walking the tree line across the pond. She was in a fast walk, almost to a trot. She made her way from right to left as I looked at her. She continued in a long loop around a dense area that blocked my view. Eventually she circled around a came up to the (3) does that were feeding. I watched the area she had came from and saw (2) more deer trotting, following her path. The first one was a bruiser, and the second one was a basket rack 6-8 point. The bruiser was moving with a purpose, and wasn't slowing down to give me a clean shot. He took the path around the dense area, and as he came back into my sight line he stopped and offered me a clear shot. I squeezed the trigger and SNAP. The gun did not fire. I quickly re-cocked the gun. At this point he is on the move. But luckily, it is towards me. He finally stopped about 50 yards from me. I squeezed the trigger again and BANG. It fired. But he just stood there for a second or two. Then trotted towards me again. He stopped 20 yards from me a looked around. I thought, I know I couldn't have missed this deer. Bucks like this one are a once or twice in a lifetime chance. He stands there looking around for what seems like 10 minutes, but in actuality was about 3 seconds and falls over. He never moves again. The (5) other deer that was there hang around for a few minutes wondering what has happened, then finally move on off. I have killed enough deer over the years that I don't get that nervous shake much anymore. But once he was down, I sat in the stand with that feeling of uncontrollable nervous shaking all over again. Once I had given him enough time to ensure he was dead, I came to where he laid to view the beast. I was over the moon with the excitement of seeing just how massive he was. As I write the description of the hunt, I am still on that "finally accomplished it" high.
