Hunter: Joel Douglas
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Madison
Season: 2024-2025
Hunt Story
I am 52 years old. Bowhunting has not been a thought in 25 years. My son’s best friend and best man in his wedding talked me into breaking out a 30+ year old bow. During bow season I missed on a buck, my new buddy (son’s best friend) filmed the shot. The buck ducked and I shot high. He told me my bow was too old and slow. I ordered a new PSE from North Georgia Sports. Two weeks, and I ordered a new bow. Two weeks turned into four weeks then eight weeks and more. I canceled my order on the bow. Black Friday week my wife got me same bow from Bass Pro. I have had bow for three weeks. Between duck hunting and fishing a tournament, and bad weather, my hunting has been limited. Nobody now hunts in December. All your cover is gone. I shot my 1st ever bow buck on Friday 13th, 2024. It was a 7-pointer. Saturday was a mess, so no hunting, but in the evening at the front of my house. Not where I wanted to hunt, I saw a tall 8-pointer come in. It got too late before he got in range. I wanted to go Sunday evening, but my dad is 88 years old and lives in South Carolina, and we had to check on him. Today was wet, and we were 1 1/2 hours from home, but I wanted to hunt bad. Needing to stop at Walmart and grocery store before getting home, time was running out. My wife knew I wanted to hunt. I told her my buddy Will was hunting. She said, “He is getting wet.” We made it home at 4:30 p.m. Car got unloaded, I changed into my hunting cloths, grabbed my climber and bow. I was set to hunt at 4:50 p.m. Three does ran off while I was getting settled into my climber. At 5:10 p.m. he walked out right under my stand. Too close to shoot. My bow was hanging on the bow hanger. I was feeling nervous. I was not ready. A car on the dirt road about 75 yards away slowed down and made him pull back into the thick stuff. I thought he was gone for sure, but I could see him. He slowly walked down about 10 yards away. I was able to get my bow from hanger, stand up and get ready. When he started stepping from behind the thick bush, I pulled back on bow waiting for a shot. What may have been 10 to 15 seconds felt like 10 minutes. Once his shoulder passed safe shooting, I hit the release. He jumped high and walked off, (not a run or trot). I knew it was a good shot. I texted my wife and buddy that a big deer was down. I needed help. After 30 minutes I climbed down slowly taking my time to unhook my climber and gather myself. A Jeep stopped about 100 yards away on dirt road. Five minutes went by, and the Jeep still sitting there! No leaves in hollow you can see and hear good. A car door slammed. I am like, they see my deer. No way they are getting my rack. I hauled down the oak hollow, across the creek and into the dirt road. I ran down the road with flashlight in hand. A young lady was on phone with her boyfriend telling him someone shot a buck and lost him. I approached Jeep and deer out of breath, in the rain. I told the young lady I shot the deer with a bow 30 minutes prior. She volunteered to take me up to my house on other side of oak hollow. I told her it was OK. My wife showed up a minute later ready for a brawl. She had been standing on our porch waiting for me to come out of woods and saw the Jeep too parked on the dirt road. My wife was not going to let any one get my deer and his rack. The deer had gone about 75+ yards down the hollow, crossed the creek and expired right at the road. The lady congratulated me on the deer an left. I told my wife to take some pictures and help me put him in the truck. She took pictures but laughed at me about putting him in the truck. My buddy showed up while taking pictures. Marriage saved, he helped me put him on m truck. December bowhunting is rough. Waiting 8+ weeks on my new bow and another 3 weeks to get my first bow buck then getting by best all time buck (tonight) was big time worth it. I now have a rekindled love for deer hunting and bow hunting is the BOMB!!!
In my story I mentioned shooting a buck with my old bow and him ducking (I hit him high). Really there were a total of 3 bucks I hit high. All three my Son’s best friend (my best friend now) was filming me hunt. All three bucks ducked really low each time I shot. Very fortunately all three bucks showed back up on camera a week after they got shot. I was done with my new love of bowhunting. Will (my new best friend) would say wait until you get your new bow. I will be much different (trust me). He was right, my new bow is the cats meow. The waiting 9 weeks on my bow (that I ordered) made the anticipation of bow hunting worse. It is hard to believe a 52-year-old man can feel like a kid waiting for Santa to come. I need to thank Will Stevens (my new best friend) for introducing to bowhunting and sticking with me. We have had many fun adventures. He told me last night that we now need to fill our doe tags that my buck tags are filled. Bowhunting for me has just got started.
