Hunter: Michael Lott
Points: 13 (7L, 6R)
County: Coffee
Season: 2023-2024
Hunt Story
This is the story of a buck named "Inch." His name was coined by my cousin, Will, because the deer's main beams were about an inch from touching each other at the tips. I hunted this deer hard last year and never saw him, so I decided that I needed to do something different this year to improve my odds. I created a 2-acre food plot specifically for this deer, and I hoped that luring some does into the plot with food would some day bring the buck in, too. Little did I know, the plan would work the first time i sat in the new plot. I only got two photos of Inch this season, one in July and the other October 14th (in the food plot). The weather was forecasted to cool down following opening weekend of muzzleloader season, so i planned to take off work about an hour early and go sit in the box blind I had placed in the 2-acre plot. But, then i remembered that I only had two 777 black powder pellets and my gun was sighted in using three pellets. Walmart had no pellets, and both of the local gun shops are closed on Monday, so i was not optimistic about being able to hunt with my smoke-pole. I told my friend and co-worker, Gene, about my dilemma, and he sprung to action. He drove home during lunch and got some powder pellets for me, and then I was set. I snuck into the blind around 5 p.m. As the sun went down, deer starting filing into the plot. There were 15 different deer before Inch poked his head out. He came out following a doe and yearling at about 150 yards, then slowly made his way closer to me. I was thankful that he took his time because I had to do some breathing exercises to slow down my heart rate. Finally, I calmed down and squeezed the trigger, but all I saw was a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, there were no deer in sight. This got me worried because my experience with a muzzleloader has taught me that they are not always accurate. However, after looking for about 20 minutes, I found a spot of blood on a trail leading out of the plot. As I followed the blood my heart started beating out of my chest again and i just started laughing and smiling uncontrollably when i found Inch. This was my biggest Georgia buck ever. The first person i called was Gene to thank him again for his "assist."
