Hunter: William Malueg
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Oglethorpe
Season: 2022-2023
Hunt Story
William (12) completed his hunter safety course this year, so this is the first season he's hunted solo without his dad, Mark, in the stand with him. We pulled trail cam photos of this food plot just prior to sitting in the stand for this hunt. We had a single daytime photo of this buck at 10 am on Oct. 30th. and this was the first time we had seen him on our camera. This food plot is situated near a swamp that is full of hog activity. I put William in his stand and then walked about 250 yards away and hunted a hardwood bottom. We could both hear hogs in the swamp and thought maybe a hog would present itself in the food plot. About 15 minutes before 6 pm, this buck came running/trotting full pace off a path from the swamp and across the food plot. We had several scrapes and rubs on this path. The buck was snorting and wheezing as it trotted across the field, but was not chasing any does. We don't know if there were other does in the area and had just not seen them. William grunted with this mouth to stop the buck at about 80-90 yards. The buck stopped and looked in his direction, and William squeezed the trigger without delay. The buck dropped in his tracks. William was using a Browning X-Bolt 6.5 Creedmoor. If the trigger is gold, the buck will fold. Didn't go 20.
