Hunter: Jamie Stewart
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Pierce
Season: 2017-2018
Hunt Story
Been a southeast Georgia hunter for 28 years and I've always had to primarily hunt high pressure properties. Clubs/leases where the QDM policy was if it's brown it's down. Or places where you killed what you saw or you didn't fill the freezer. Or Little Satilla WMA which has a low success rate. About a week into this year's bow season, my wife and I were able to invest in our own property. For the first time in my hunting life I've been able to allow small bucks to walk and hope they live to be 8s or better. Bow season did not permit me to take a buck. However, on opening morning of firearms season I was watching a small spike feeding. After a while he began to get nervous and looking off into the pines to the side of the road I was hunting. He then quickly left. I continued to watch the area the spike had his attention on in hopes a good buck would step out. After about 20 minutes of nothing I decided to grab my grunt call. As I looked back up from getting the grunt I saw a deer off the side of the road. He stepped on out, looked around and headed to the opposite side of the road. I quickly grabbed my 30-30 got on him and fired. I immediately saw white belly. I'd had some issues with my primary firearm so I'd chosen to take the 50 year old lever action Marlin 30-30 my dad bequeathed to my son. I'm thankful for that awesome firearm. I quickly got down from the stand and ran to the buck. He was the biggest buck I'd seen so far on my new property and one I had not seen on camera. While he's not a giant compared to the deer in other parts of the state, he is a respectable Pierce County buck.
