Hunter: Jason Newton
Points: 9 (4L, 5R)
County: Walker
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
Over the past three years this buck had been my main target. I had many trail-camera pictures of him on mineral sights during the summer, but during hunting season he seemed to vanish every year. After many unsuccessful attempts to hunt this deer this season, I was very close to giving up on him. Over the past eight hunts I had not seen any deer in the area I believed he was spending most of his time, and with no food for the deer inside the hardwoods, I knew I had to change my plan. On the evening of 12/18 I was carrying my stand in to hunt the edge of an ag field in hopes of just seeing a deer with no expectations of seeing the buck I had been hunting. As I approached the area on the edge of the field that I planned to hang my stand, I looked out into the middle of the field and to my surprise there were deer standing at the other end of the field. I was about 200 yards from where the deer were standing, but even from that distance I could tell that one of them was a great buck. The deer were already looking my way so I quickly raised my gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger. "CLICK," the gun was not loaded. I nervously loaded a round into the chamber and took aim again. After I shot, the deer started to run, and I knew that I had missed. I quickly loaded another round into the chamber as the buck ran across the field. I prepared myself to make the shot on him while he was running because I knew that would probably be my only shot before he entered the woods. Just before I squeezed the trigger, he stopped in his tracks and turned broadside giving me a perfect shot. I took the shot, and he began to run again and once again I assumed I had missed. I loaded a third round into the chamber and took aim only to see him fall to the ground before I could make the shot, the second shot had hit him perfectly. I quickly went over to the deer knowing that he was a great buck, but not until I walked up on him did I realize what had just happened. I had shot the one buck that I had been hunting for three years in the one place that I had never expected him to be. I have always been told that it will happen when you least expect it, and for this story that was truly the case!
