Hunter: Lonie Bishop
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Bartow
Season: 2022-2023
Hunt Story
I was caught by surprise! I was hunting an area that has a firebreak cut about 150 yards through some short pines about 15 to 20 foot tall and a lot of undergrowth. So, I decided to concentrate my watch mainly on the hardwood bottom behind me, luckily I can see about 360 degrees from my stand. After setting there a few hours hitting my extinguisher grunter a few times I would hit my bone collector bleet box about 4 or 5 times and just wait for the movement or all those wonderful sounds of the woods. And sometime about 5:30 pm, I heard a noise behind me and I moved my rifle up off the edge of the blind and my strap made a slight pop coming off the wood. And the buck who was probably less than 20 yards from the back up my stand, chewing on a limb froze and looked right at my stand , as I was trying to hurry a shot at him. I had shot right as he lightning bolted into the woods. And I was like dang that was a good buck to miss a shot on. So, I racked another round in the 22-250 in hopes I might get lucky enough to shoot again. And then I looked down the roadbed to the left of my stand four or five minutes later and the buck stepped out and I had a clear shot of the deer and my round entered his left front shoulder for the kill, this was only my second 8pt. Buck ever killed, my first was in 1986. And to date this deer has the widest spread at 15 and 5/8ths on the outside. I have enjoyed each and every season I have been blessed with the ability to hunt.
