Hunter: Zadie Waters
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Macon
Season: 2018-2019
Hunt Story
I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm clock went off, so I walked down stairs to wake up my daddy. I shook him and told him to get ready. He said, "Let's sleep in and go this afternoon." I eventually talked him into getting up and getting ready. My daddy, brother, and me loaded up in the truck and took off. It takes about 30 minutes to get to the hunting club, so I took a little nap on the way. We ended up getting to the stand at about 6:30, and it was cold! It wasn't long before we saw three hogs walking across the shooting lanes. I tried to get them in the scope to shoot, but they never stopped and moved into the thick clearcut. After seeing the hogs, we didn't see anything for at least two hours. We took turns taking naps, and around 9:00 we had a small 8-pointer walk in front of us, and my daddy wouldn't let me shoot him because he was too small. Not long after, a nice wide 8-pointer walked out in the center shooting lane and looked straight at us. I had to move to my daddy's knee to sit high enough to aim my Remington 7mm08. I took the shot and the deer trotted up the road and looked back. My daddy said, "You missed." I slowly got up and sat down and started to cry. Daddy told me it would be okay and that was just part of hunting. I calmed down and a few minutes passed. I looked up to my left and saw a doe run toward us. I told daddy there must be a buck chasing her, so he stuck the rifle out the door window of the box stand. I got back on his knee and aimed at the biggest buck I've ever seen. I waited until he turned sideways and daddy made a noise to stop the deer. He told me to squeeze the trigger slowly. I shot and daddy said, "Good shot! That was a monster buck!" He said it looked like a good shot! The buck ran into the thickest woods you ever saw. We packed up everything, got out of the stand, and started tracking. We couldn't find the blood trail, but we followed a deer trail into the thick stuff. We finally found him, and I couldn't believe how big he was! I counted 10 points. He was so heavy I wasn't much help to my daddy dragging my deer. A few minutes later, we called my brother to help us. We finally saw my brother and dragged my deer out. It was all worth it!!
