Hunter: Morrell McCaskill
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Turner
Season: 2022-2023
Hunt Story
I had been getting a lot of pictures of this deer over the summer in this food plot. We watched him grow and had lots of discussion over his age. We decided with the latest pictures just a few days before opening day of rifle season that he was mature enough to take. I decided to take with my bow instead of a rifle. Dad and I set up the ground blind on Friday evening. I slipped in Saturday morning and at 8:40 am, he and 3 other bucks slipped into the food plot to feed. The deer got spooked by something and I thought my window for a shot was getting really short. I made the 40-yard shot and hit right around his last rib, a little far back for my liking. I got out of the blind an hour later, found the arrow and knew it was a gut shot, picked up dad, and went back to the cabin. We ate lunch and I looked up the deer tracking dog list on GON.com. When Taylor Farrow got to the cabin about 1 pm, we headed to the plot to begin the tracking. We jumped the buck once in the bottom as he was bedded down. He ran back towards the food plot in the pines as a result. We decided to take a little water break and let him lay back down before we went back in. After a break, we headed back into the pines with a younger tracking dog, Flint, and almost immediately he was back on the trail. We unfortunately jumped the buck again and he headed back to the creek bottom. The tracker and I were confident that the buck didn't have much left in him and we headed toward him...boy were we wrong. A few minutes later, out of the brush came the dog, Flint, with the buck just inches behind him trying to attack him (gore him with the antlers). Flint dove off to the left as they passed by me, the buck ran just past me to about 10ft from me, turned around towards me and stopped. As the deer looked back at the dog, I took this time to draw and put another arrow in his chest. He ran another 20yds to my right and piled up and expired. As the chaos calmed, it began to sink in just what had happened in only a few seconds. I have even more respect for these animals' strength and resilience now for sure! We roughed scored him around 130 gross. Body weight was about 210 pounds. What an experience and what a memory! Big Thanks to Taylor Farrow and his dogs for the tracking job and bravery displayed!
