Hunter: Kelsey Gilliam
Points: 9 (5L, 4R)
County: Crawford
Season: 2020-2021
Hunt Story
My fiance and I decided to go hunting on Tuesday, October 27 before Hurricane Zeta hit Wednesday/Thursday. I've only sat by myself around 10 times, so my adrenaline was through the roof when I saw this buck walking behind me. I tried to quietly turn around and hit my gun on the stand, so he stopped in his tracks about 45 yards from me. I was at the edge of where a clearcut meets hardwoods so it was pretty thick and I couldn't get a shot. After sitting still for what felt like forever, he finally turned around and started going back toward where he came from and stopped perfectly where I could shoot. I knew he ran, but wasn't sure how far (lung shot). We started tracking and turns out he ran about 400 yards and crossed the creek. We didn't have a knife so the only options were to drag him back 400 yards or float him down the creek to a powerline on our property that we could get the truck to. So, my fiance floated with him down the creek about 1/4 mile and we were able to get him to land! Thankfully we had a friend there to help! This was my first buck ever and definitely one for the books!
