Hunter: Michael Geiger
Points: 11 (6L, 5R)
County: Putnam
Season: 2018-2019
Hunt Story
This deer was a 5 1/2 year old we called "Tyson" and have had on camera/watched since he was a 1 1/2 year old. I had been watching some does until about 7:45 in the morning when I looked to my right and saw him bedded down 125 yards away. I assume he had been there all morning and all I could see was his antlers. Buck Fever hit me hard, but I knew it may be a while before he got up. It probably took me an hour to calm down and he was still bedded. After an hour and a half, he stood up. He was in thick kudzu and started to walk straight away from me, so I had to try to shoot him in the spine. I missed with the first shot, and he just looked around and kind of turned toward me. I shot again and this time he lunged to his left and was hunched. I was able to get off one more shot before he disappeared behind a wall of kudzu and into the woods. I called my hunting buddy, and he got down and went to look for him with his son and son's girlfriend. I stayed where I was, so I could lead them to where I shot since it was really thick. As they were nearing the spot where I took the first two shots, they jumped Tyson who was bedded about 40 yards away in the woods. We ended up finding blood, but lost the trail after about 40 yards. We ended up backing out of the area, and I was really torn up. All I knew was to call a tracking dog. I have never seen dogs work before, but it was amazing to see. They found Tyson about 600 yards away but jumped him again. They were able to track him down again at the edge of the river on our property. They had him bayed and we were able to finish him off. Tyson ended up in the river and I had to jump into the fast moving, rain swollen river to recover him before he was swept away. I felt very fortunate to get my hands on him and harvest the biggest buck of my life.
