Hunter: Shaune Choudhari
Points: 7 (4L, 3R)
County: Monroe
Season: 2020-2021
Hunt Story
Drawn for Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge deer hunt. Never hunted federal land before. So my buddy and I entered in August were both drawn in September. Come November we struck out to the hunt from Brunswick GA. I killed this buck the second afternoon of a 3-day hunt. My buddy I was hunting with had caught a glimpse of him the day before while I hunted another creek bed about 1000 yards downhill from the nearest access road. The evening of the hunt was before a storm front coming in the next morning. He happened to sneak up behind me while I was grunting. I honestly thought he just a squirrel I had spotted earlier and ignored his walking was that loud comparable to a squirrel in the brush. He was coming uphill to me from a creek bottom, and he was coming in hot about 15 yards away. So quickly I had to spin around throw up my rifle line the cross hairs up and pull the trigger before he disappeared into the thicket again. After the shot I was shaking like a leaf. I watched him run off, then a minute later heard him blow at me. I thought to myself man I just missed a good buck! I couldn't believe myself. The shot setup was rushed. The shot itself felt rushed. I sat there for what seemed like eternity but was one hour until nightfall beating myself up for missing. Nightfall came, my buddy linked up with me and we searched for blood... Only to find none. The suspicion was confirmed I had missed or at least I thought I had. The shot was rushed so much that I had completely forgotten where I even shot at. So we head back to camp that night and still it's just eating me up in my gut that I missed this big nice national forest buck of a lifetime probably. The next morning we're hunting and I'm hunting the same spot something in me is telling me to just get down and go look in that creek bottom scout around maybe find another spot to set up in. And not 5 minutes into scouting I find my buck laying in the middle creek dead. I could not have been happier. I had prayed all night and morning about this buck and here he was. I like to think that God himself pulled me to go scout that creek bottom that morning to find him. I called my buddy over we quarter him out right there and went to the check in to tag him. We both walked away from that hunt with two good bucks. Still to this day it still feels surreal to have the opportunity to harvest a good buck with a back story like that on federal land. Needless to say I will absolutely be going back to Piedmont next year!
