Hunter: Nora Funderburk
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Meriwether
Season: 2024-2025
Hunt Story
My grandfather, Joe Keith, had been getting pretty consistent pictures of this deer, so when I got a chance to come home over UGA's fall break, I was feeling pretty confident. We didn't get a picture of him for 36 hours, but then the day before I went out to hunt him, we got a picture of him at around 5 pm. I got in the stand at around 3:30 pm on Friday afternoon and not too long after that I started seeing does. Then followed the young bucks, which were chasing the does some, but they stayed pretty consistently in the food plot. Around 6 pm, I saw the big boy walk out. As soon as he peeked through the woods, I started getting ready. He took a few steps, and immediately turned around and chased a doe back into the woods. I was a bundle of nerves, but I was feeling confident he would come back. About 10 minutes later, he came back out chasing a doe across the food plot. I was ready and stayed on him, so when he ran back across the food plot and turned perfectly broadside, it was go time. It was a 115-yard shot, and I could tell I hit him good as I followed him through the scope as he ran into the woods. I immediately called my grandfather, and he and my grandmother came out. It didn't take us long to find him, there was steady blood, and he died about 40 yards from the food plot. This was a very special hunt for me as that is the first buck I've killed since my uncle, Bill Keith, passed away in 2021. Words can't possibly express the impact Uncle Bill has had on my life. He was an avid outdoorsman and had been taking me hunting and teaching me as much as he could since I was a young child. I could feel how proud he would be as I walked up on the deer, and I was just waiting on him to squeeze me like he did any time I killed anything. I can't express how much of a blessing this hunt was or how grateful I am to be able to share this memory with my grandfather, Joe Keith.
