Hunter: Lewis Wilkinson
Points: 9 (5L, 4R)
County: Fulton
Season: 2021-2022
Hunt Story
A busy summer culminated with a beautiful wedding for my son and his awesome new bride over Labor Day weekend. We couldn’t have asked for better weather in North GA, the venues were excellent, the food and family time couldn’t have been better –– all the hard work and creativity put in by the bride-to-be and my bride of 34 years made it a wonderful event. We followed up the wedding with our anniversary the next weekend that somehow always coincides with the archery season opener. What more could I ask? Well, a couple of things do come to mind. Like the ability to draw my bow with a shoulder that is slowly recovering from surgery, or time to prep a couple of sites for early season hunting. Thanks to the laws of physics and the mechanical advantage of a cocking device, I was able to get permission from my physical therapist to shoot my son’s Excalibur crossbow. Things were looking up for hunting season as well. On Friday the 17th, I was able to carefully climb into my stand shortly after 5:15 PM. After disconnecting from work emails, messages, and stress, I was able to settle in and enjoy a nice early evening in the suburban Atlanta woods. Thirty to forty-five minutes of calm was all I got. Two does with fawns wandered in to browse and kick up their heels. They were soon evicted by a group of three bachelor bucks that walked into my small clearing. The first two bucks had great racks but were obviously much younger than the mature buck that followed. They will be safe (from me at least) for a couple more years. The older buck had the heavy slow walk and sagging belly of a mature deer – or the “mature” hunter I see in the mirror each morning. He slowly fed around the clearing while the younger bucks sparred and chased each other around. When the elder buck finally presented a shot, he was angling away at about 25 yards. I placed the red dot just behind his shoulder and squeezed off a shot. The bolt disappeared into his chest as he kicked and dashed up the slope behind the clearing. He dropped within sight after only 20 yards. It took much more time than usual to recover, field dress, and load up the buck. The sweat, aches, and pains were all worth it to be able to end a nearly perfect summer with a wonderful new daughter-in-law and a great buck. Maybe getting a bit older has its good points after all.
