How The 2023-24 Weeks Were Won

Another group of Georgia deer hunters will soon take the stage at the Ag-Pro GON Outdoor Blast on July 28 to compete in the 35th annual Truck-Buck Shoot-Out. The second-best shot will win a Firminator G-3 food-plot implement by Ranew’s Outdoor Equipment, and the man, woman or youngster who makes that last shot will win a new truck from John Megel Chevrolet.

This amazing big-buck contest—no other state has anything like this—wouldn’t be possible without two vital elements—subscribers to GON magazine and the sponsors who provide the loot year after year. In addition to the grand prizes, the weekly winners have already earned great prize packages.

The six winners during archery season earn a Mathews Phase4 29 bow (retail value $1,199). During the Week 6 primitive-weapons/youth season, the winner earned a CVA Optima muzzleloader (retail value $1,094), and the 11 winners during firearms season each won a Savage Storm 110 deer rifle (retail value $959). Truck-Buck weekly winners also receive an HSS safety harness, and an assortment of deer attractant and deer minerals from 4S Wildlife. The coveted Shoot-Out shirts for all Truck-Buck and Youth Big-Buck Contest contestants are again possible thanks to our friends at Realtree.

The four wildcard winners in the Truck-Buck contest earn prize packages that include Shoot-Out jerseys from Realtree, a $250 gift certificate from AgriSupply, a Rugged Road Outdoors 30 can cooler, an HSS safety harness, and an assortment of deer attractant and deer minerals from 4S Wildlife.

Let’s meet the first half of this year’s Shoot-Out field. Next month we’ll meet the rest of the qualifiers.

Week 1 Tie: Bo Osborne

County: Hart   Date: Sept. 9

Net Score: 144 6/8 Typical

Editor’s Note: Written by Ben Osborne, Bo’s dad.

We didn’t get a camera on this property until the middle of the rut last season and had a few good ones show up. I knew the farmer beside this property planted soybeans during the summer and that there would be a chance of a good buck being in the area.

We got a camera set up in early July, and a big 10-pointer showed up. We knew he was a good deer but couldn’t tell exactly how good since he was in full velvet.

On Sept. 9, Bo had asked to hunt this deer and I decided to let him try. We planned on how to approach the area using the wind so we wouldn’t  alert the deer to his presence. We knew he would be bedded close and felt like that evening he would have an opportunity for an encounter.

This was a typical early fall day, meaning there was a chance of thunderstorms that could possibly spoil the hunt. He climbed a smaller pine and settled in for the hunt. As the afternoon turned to evening, the 10-point showed up with his running mates.  As this was going on, there was a thunderstorm moving into our area. I was sitting about 200 yards away at the truck watching the Georgia game when Bo called me.

“Dad, I shot the big buck!”

My first thought was that he was confused and shot another buck, and it wasn’t the big 10-pointer we had on camera. I quickly made it to the tree he was in, and he walked me to where the deer was standing when he shot. Daylight was quickly fading and little drops of rain began to fall, so we felt like we needed to find the deer quickly.   

After a few minutes, we found a few drops of blood and quickly found the direction the deer was traveling. We followed the trail for about 30 yards and finally saw him piled up about 65 yards away. Bo had made the perfect shot on the big 10-pointer, and the celebration was on!

Week 1 Tie: Zach Peaster

County: Macon   Date: Sept. 12

Net Score: 144 6/8 Typical

I had three years of history with this buck. My dad and I knew in 2022 that he was going to be something special for the 2023 hunting season if he made it that far.

We started getting pictures in early summer last year, and his growth was awesome! He was coming every afternoon to feed, and I kept up with his pattern. July rolled around, and every seventh day he would show up in the afternoon. Then in August, he started showing up every fifth day in the afternoon.

The big day arrived on Sept. 12, 2023. It happened to be the pattern of this buck’s every fifth day of showing up. He had been coming out around 7:30 p.m. I had a good feeling about that afternoon. I knew I had built up the confidence to kill a deer like this, and I was determined! I knew he was going to be my biggest buck and first full velvet buck, so I wanted to make sure I got good video of the hunt.

During the early part of the hunt, I saw a few small bucks and does. Around 7:30 p.m., I saw a decent buck headed toward me up the powerline. He came within 30 yards and then turned into the woods. I knew at that moment I was to grab my bow and get my camera turned on.

A few minutes later that buck came back out, and so did my No. 1 target buck, along with a few more deer. I knew at that moment I had to focus my camera in on the big deer. After about seven minutes, he provided me with a 32-yard broadside shot. I smoked him! I was super pumped!

I immediately went to look at my camera footage to see where I shot him. I then realized I never hit the record button, and that really got to me because it was my biggest buck, and I have been trying to get footage during my hunts. You win some and lose some. In my heart that day, I won a memory in my heart and mind.

I knew I had just killed my biggest buck to date, and I was thanking God and making phone calls to my wife and dad. My wife was watching our trail cams to keep up with possibly catching the deer come across so she could be prepared to drive out to the property.

She said she did see the deer show up on the camera at the oak stand and she just knew in her heart that it was the deer. I called her, and she was ecstatic. She said, “This answers my question, because I just saw the deer on the camera, and I was hoping and praying you got him.”

My dad, my wife, my oldest brother and a good buddy of ours came out to help me track the deer. We started tracking, and he only went 75 yards. I must say this is a hunt I will never forget, and I have always dreamed of being in the Truck-Buck Shoot-Out some day.

Week 2: Austin Hill

County: DeKalb   Date: Sept. 16

Net Score: 164 0/8 Typical

The story of this buck started back in late November 2021. He showed up as a mid-140s 10-pointer. I did not pursue the deer that year because I was already tagged out, but I had high hopes of catching up to him the following season.

The buck showed back up in late November 2022 and had grown into a monster, but he disappeared after a few weeks. I hunted only him for the rest of that season without ever putting eyes on him until mid January while I was shed hunting. I jumped him out of a fallen tree and watched as the monster jumped a fence and shed both sides of his rack right in front of me. I couldn’t believe my eyes after putting my hands on his sheds. He immediately got the name Shed Buck. We scored his sheds at 178 inches, and I was going to do my best to catch up to him during the 2023 season.

During the summer, I sought permission on every piece of property I thought he might use and was able to get access to quite a few. However, I was never able to get him on camera.

As the 2023 deer season came knocking at the door, I found another shooter, which I also had a lot of history with. I was lucky enough to harvest him on opening-day afternoon. This buck was my biggest buck to date and green-scored in the high 140s. After this, I just couldn’t get the other buck out of my mind. I decided to make one last huge effort to locate him.

I went door knocking again in a few areas I overlooked during the summer. I was able to land a few good permission spots with one that I felt very good about. As I talked to the landowner of this spot and got him to sign me permission, he was telling me about a wide buck that he sees from time to time cross through his yard.

After finishing up with the landowner, I walked behind his house, and I noticed a few deer standing off to my right. As they ran off, I saw a monster buck and knew right away it was the Shed Buck. I immediately went to my truck and pulled out a cell cam and a bag of Rack-Em-Up deer feed. I got everything set as fast as I could, so I didn’t blow them out.

That night I received my first pictures of the buck and was overcome with excitement. Unbelievably, the buck daylighted the next morning around 8 o’clock. I knew then that I had to hang a set that day. I hung my stand at lunch, but the wind was wrong for an afternoon hunt, but the forecast was looking promising.

I planned on hunting the next morning, but as I woke up and checked my camera, I saw the bucks were already in there, so I decided to wait until the afternoon because I didn’t want to bump him out. I knew I was only going to have one chance at this deer, and I didn’t want to take any chances.

I left for the woods around 2 p.m. and slipped into my tree right after a thunderstorm. I took a second to pray and thank the Lord for an opportunity to even have a chance at such a monster buck as this.

As the afternoon unraveled, all his running buddies made an early appearance, but the Shed Buck was not with them. After seeing every other deer I had on camera, my heart started to drop and my mind went to thinking. Maybe the Shed Buck moved off to where he ruts or maybe another hunter killed him or even a car got him. As I sat there overthinking what could have happened to him, a doe worked her way around my tree to the downwind side and busted me. As she blew and took off, she took every other deer I had around me with her. Again my heart went even lower in my stomach. If he was still around, I felt like there was no way he was going to come in now, but it was still early.

As I sat in the tree for the next 45 minutes without even seeing a deer, I thought my hunt was over, but little did I know it was just getting started. I noticed a large-bodied deer working its way to me about 75 yards out. I picked up my binoculars and knew right away it was him. I started turning on all my cameras and was getting ready for my chance at the monster buck. He came in on a string to 23 yards and gave me a perfect broadside shot. All I remember thinking is ‘Lord please help me keep it together as I come to full draw.’

I settled my pin right behind his shoulder and squeezed off and watched my arrow disappear right where I was aiming. The buck only ran 15 yards and fell over.

I went to pieces and couldn’t believe what just happened, but things quickly came back to reality when the buck made one last push and ended up falling down the hill toward me and landed right in front of me in the creek only 30 yards away. I went for another arrow, thinking he might get up, but the buck was down and did not need a second arrow.

I quickly climbed down my tree and went to put my hands on my biggest buck to date again for the second time that year. All I can say is that I was thoroughly blessed and grateful to have such an amazing opportunity at a monster buck. The buck ended up green scoring in the 170s, and I couldn’t be any happier about it.

On the hunt I was aided by a Tethrd Phantom Saddle and my Mathews V3X bow paired with a Slick Trick Magnum 100 broadhead. These tools provided a significant advantage in tagging this impressive buck and capturing the entire hunt on video without detection.

I can’t wait to get back after these Georgia giants next year. I enjoy videoing all my hunts and posting them on my YouTube channel, Hill Hunts Production. Y’all check out this hunt! It truly is something special.

Week 3: Grady Raines

County: Turner   Date: Sept. 28

Net Score: 152 5/8 Non-typical

Thursday, Sept. 28 was a typical Thursday. I woke up, went to school, then went home, and my dad asked if I wanted to go hunting with him. I had been practicing with my crossbow.  Dad was going anyway and just wanted to know if I wanted to go. If I hadn’t said yes, I wouldn’t be typing this story right now as my dad would have most likely gotten the buck killed with a bow that day.

The food plot we were hunting was set up for my dad to hunt with his bow or for him to take me or my sister with a crossbow. I got dressed, and we left.

We got to the stand, and I got on my phone, looking up from time to time to see if any deer showed up yet. I also remember taking a nap in the stand that day. I actually almost botched the whole hunt by shaking around in my sleep. I woke up with a dead phone and five deer in front of us.

About 15 minutes after I woke up, the Split Buck showed up, the largest buck we had and probably the largest buck I’ll ever kill in south Georgia.

We waited for him to get in range, and my dad told me to take my time, which I never really followed when it came to shooting any type of rifle or crossbow. I just wait until I am confident in the shot, which could take 10, 20 or even 30 seconds, but not this time. It took me about five seconds to make a confident shot on the buck, right behind the shoulder blade. It also turned out the yardage was a little off. I think I was aiming for 30 yards, but the actual yardage was 34 yards. This was a blessing because it ended up being an even better shot, right through the heart.

We went back to my Dad’s truck and called some people to come help us look for the buck. There wasn’t much doubt in my mind that it was dead. I was very confident in the shot. The deer bled from the point of impact, and he only made it about 70 yards. We walked right to it laying in the muck on the edge of a creek. We dragged him out and started taking photos, but then my dad said we should just take photos at the processer, which we did. The moon was interfering with the lighting, and we struggled with the pictures.

Afterward, we went to Waffle House and ate a very memorable dinner. On a side note, I think my older sister who hunts was a little jealous. My dad had taken her to the same spot last year with a crossbow, and they saw the deer, but she didn’t get a shot.

That’s my hunt story!

Week 4: Joey Dobbs

County: Clayton   Date: Oct. 6

Net Score: 123 7/8 Typical

It was a cloudy afternoon in the mid to low 80s. I got a picture of a pretty good buck the day before on a food plot that I made, so I decided to go there and try my luck. It was a food plot that I planted with Domain Big Sexy food plot mix tucked away in the corner of a 5-year-old clearcut.

Things started out slow with just a doe or two trickling into the plot. I could hear movement in the thick privet and briars about 50 yards just outside the food plot, but I could not see anything. A third doe entered the food plot, and the three of them browsed their way to within 20 yards of me. I continued to hear twigs breaking and brush crunching to my left. The noise got the does’ attention, and they began looking in the direction that it was coming from. They suddenly trotted off, seemingly spooked by the noise in the cutover. I kept scanning in the direction where the sounds were coming from.

I finally got a glimpse of antlers. At that point, he was about 30 yards away in the middle of the thick privet and briars. I watched him as he slowly eased his way into the food plot. I waited until he looked away, and I stood up slowly and quietly. I was in a two-man ladder stand that was concealed by a bunch of thorny olive shrubs. I waited until he got still, as he was already broadside when he entered the plot.

I drew back my Mathews Z7 bow and released my arrow. I knew instantly that I hit him good, although I was surprised my Rage X-treme 2.3 broadhead did not pass through at 24 yards.

As he ran off, I could see the arrow protruding out of him. I waited about an hour and a half on my son, Dylan, and his friend, Austin, to arrive to help me recover the deer. We tracked him fairly easily through the clearcut downhill to a creek where the blood trail stopped. I got a little nervous at that point because we had tracked him close to 100 yards already.

The three of us split up and started looking, and as I crossed the creek, I immediately saw a white belly! There he was piled up in some thick vegetation.

Week 5: Adrian Mast

County: Houston   Date: Oct. 8

Net Score: 157 7/8 Typical

I first got pictures of this buck during the 2021 season when he was around 140 inches, and I knew I wanted to give him another year. After seeing the initial pictures I got of him in the summer of 2022, I could tell his rack had blown up, and I decided then I was definitely going to go after him hard.

I hunted him consistently throughout the year and had more than 15 encounters with him but could never seal the deal.

He showed up in the same spot during the 2023 season and was the most consistent he had ever been since I started getting pictures of him. I laid eyes on him a week before I harvested him, but he didn’t come in range.

Finally, on Oct. 8, about 15 minutes before dark, he came in and presented me with an opportunity at 20 yards. The shot was perfect, and he only went 60 yards before he fell over. I couldn’t have been happier to finally get my hands on him and close the chapter on this once-in-a-lifetime buck.

Week 6: Nick Tinsley

County: Meriwether   Date: Oct. 18

Net Score: 146 0/8 Typical

This is the story of Moose. We had our eye on this deer for the past two years. He was a great deer in 2022, but we thought he had the potential to be a special one if he could grow for one more year. He didn’t disappoint. His tines didn’t grow much at all, but boy he put the mass on.

We plant about 120-plus acres of food plots, and we feed lots of protein. To say our herd is healthy is an understatement.

About two weeks before the season kicked off, Moose was losing a little weight and acting strange. He was showing up about once every week or so and then just fell off the map. In the last picture I had, he had lost a good bit of weight and had a knot on his back.  In my mind, I thought he could possibly be dead, but I kept hunting and watching cameras with no sign of him alive.

Then one day at the first of October, he showed up eating at a trough feeder, but he didn’t stay long. When the first young buck came in, Moose left. This told me what I suspected. The deer wanted to be left alone and have zero interactions at a feed station. So, I gave him a few days and waited until the wind was right to hunt a hardwood bottom where there were some good white oaks.

On my first trip in, it was really slow until right before dark when I looked up and spotted Moose. He was a long ways down in the bottom but coming in my direction. He made his way to a rock cliff by a creek and turned to the right to skirt around the rock. When he did that, I knew he wasn’t coming any closer. As a bowhunter, we all want that perfect 20-yard broadside shot, but sometimes you just have to take what is given. I decided I was going to have to take the only shot I had.

I drew back my bow and looked through my Garmin bow sight and sent one to him, making a good shot at 47 yards. His days of slipping me were over.

When I climbed down and walked over to him, I felt overwhelmed. I am blessed, blessed to have a great place to hunt, great friends and family to hunt with, and I am just thankful for the thrill to hunt a deer as fine as Moose.

I never found out what caused the tumor on his back. I guess there is a number of things that it could have been. He didn’t have that giant body that we all dream about, but he made up for it with a great rack and a wily personality.

Week 7: Ganon Goodman

County: Wilcox   Date: Oct. 24

Net Score: 149 4/8 Typical

This big buck walked out with his head facing the opposite way. My heart rate was way too high, so I took a second and waited. Then I told my dad I was ready to shoot it. The deer turned broadside, I raised my gun, looked through my scope and took the shot. I hit it in the shoulder, and he ran about 28 yards and dropped.

Once I realized this was Big Tex, the buck my older brother had been waiting for, I knew I was in trouble. He was going to be real MAD! He has just started talking to me again, and this may be a sore subject for a very long time!

Week 8: Cliff Odum

County: Putnam   Date: Nov. 3

Net Score: 175 2/8 Non-typical

We discovered this buck on camera in 2020 when he was a very nice 9-pointer. He had a clean rack with a single G-4 on his left side.

In 2021, he was a big 8-point with a 3-inch drop tine on his right side, much bigger than any buck I had ever harvested.

Over the summer of 2022, we watched him grow into a majestic 12-pointer. He had a split G-1 on his right side and matching 3-inch kickers off his G-2s.

It was early December one morning when Andre stepped out 35 yards away from Dad, but he said he couldn’t shoot him. I was upset, but Dad wanted one of us to kill him. We knew he made it through the 2022 season since the last picture we got was in February 2023. Later that month, Dad found both his sheds that added up to 156 6/8 inches.

It was Friday morning, Nov. 3, 2023, dead calm with heavy frost. I saw a doe 20 minutes after light leaving a small patch of woods going to an oak tree dropping acorns on the opposite side of the field.

A few minutes later when I looked back, I saw another deer but much closer, maybe 100 yards away. With the sun coming up, the shadows were dark, and I couldn’t tell what it was. When I got my binoculars up, I could see it was a buck but wasn’t sure how big it was. Then he started walking back into the woods. I knew then it was Andre, not because I could see his rack but from the way he walked.

He disappeared into the woods, but I knew that unless he got on a doe that led him in a different direction, he would reappear in one of two places. He’d either show up in a narrow cut through a patch of woods that led up to the woods he was in or cut across the hay pasture at a pinch-point where the field is its narrowest.

Approximately 30 minutes passed, and finally I saw movement from behind some trees at the pinch-point. It was a doe. A minute or so later I saw movement in the same place the doe had emerged. This time it was Andre.

It was all I could do to make the shot. I was shaking so badly, but the crosshairs on my scope finally settled down to about a 4-inch circular motion on his shoulder. He was at 200 yards, a chip shot, I thought. All summer I had been practicing with handloads and putting 1 1/4-inch groups consistently at 300 yards. I thought I was more than ready. I squeezed off the shot and down he went. I couldn’t believe it.

After getting some pictures from the field, logging him on my Harvest Record and submitting him for the GON Truck-Buck contest, I put a tape on his rack and came up with 185 6/8 inches gross. I could not believe he was 29 inches greater than last year.

Week 9: Tristan Cochran

County: Turner  Date: Nov. 6

Net Score: 144 2/8 Typical

This was a fairly uneventful hunt until it wasn’t. The place I was hunting is owned by some of my best friends and is the stand my dad was hunting the day he shot his trophy buck some 20 years prior. This stand was filled with memories of my dad taking me on some of my first hunts when I was around nine or 10.

Before I went on the hunt, my friends were showing me pictures of a mature, 5- or 6-year-old 10-point and another slightly smaller 10-point. They said I’ll know either if I see them because they were well outside their ears. I didn’t think too much about it because they said they only get pictures of these deer in the middle of the night, but I would be lying if I said the idea of seeing either of the 10-points wasn’t in the back of my mind.

So, I left out for the hunt, and for the greater part of the hunt, the only things I saw was an armadillo and a doe. Where I was hunting I had to constantly scan because there is an almost 360-degree view of ground to watch.

As the hunt went on, I was enjoying the view of the field and watching a doe eat out of the feeder, but I started to figure my chances of seeing much else were dwindling. As light was fading and I was about to call it quits, I looked behind me and saw the figure of a deer 150 yards away. I immediately knew it was a buck from the size, so I picked my binoculars up to judge its antlers. When he turned his head to the left, I saw 10 points outside the ears. Sometimes when I’m judging a deer and they are a fair distance away or moving, it’s hard to judge if they’re a shooter buck or not. However, in this case, I had no doubt the buck in front of me was not only a shooter but was by far the largest buck I had ever seen.

He was moving at a slow walk across the pasture, but my chance to shoot was fading fast. To say I was nervous to take the shot would be an understatement. I got my sights on him and tried to slow my breathing and keep my sights steady. After a few seconds,  I took the shot.

You might be thinking that I would have no problem shooting a buck at 150 yards, but you’ll just have to take my word for it that in that moment it might as well have been 500 yards!

After the initial bang of the shot, I looked at him and he fell right where I shot him. I can never explain what that relief felt like when I saw he was hit, but things were about to change in a hurry.

Now, before I continue with my story, let me give you some advice that might save you some worry. If you shoot a mature buck and he falls down where you shot, and then if he moves a whisker, shoot him again! In my excitement, I failed to follow the previously stated advice and I looked down to send a text to let everyone know I had just shot one of the 10-points, but when I looked up from my phone, I saw him get up and limp off. By the time I realized what was happening, I couldn’t get another shot off. The feeling of excitement of watching him fall quickly turned into a strong sense of frustration mixed with disappointment that I had slipped up and let him walk off.

I backed out of there and came back an hour or so later with my friends. We didn’t find a single drop of blood, but we could see where he was dragging his legs running. We talked about whether or not we should go after him, but we decided it would be best to back out so we didn’t risk jumping him. There was a pond in the woods where he ran, and we felt that he would likely go near the pond to die.

So, after a long night, we came back around 7:30 to 8 a.m. to keep looking. We still found no blood but started looking around the pond where we thought he might be. After a few minutes, I heard someone holler, “You shot a swamp donkey, Tristan!” It was a huge relief to know that he was right where we thought he would be!

When I got up to him, he was the prettiest deer I had ever seen, and he turned out to be the larger of the two 10-points we were after. To add to it all, where we found my deer was about 35 yards from where my dad’s deer fell some 20 years ago.

This was by far one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had hunting, and it taught me that no matter how long you hunt, it only takes a split second to change everything.

I would like to thank the Gravitt family for letting us hunt with them all these years, treating us as family, and being great friends to us. I would also like to thank my dad for getting me into hunting!

Week 10: David Shepard

County: Fulton  Date: Nov. 13

Net Score: 161 4/8 Typical

After a couple weeks of calling landowners, I finally got the go-ahead on a small tract in Fulton County. I drove up on Saturday, scouted a bit and put up two trail cameras. I returned on Monday to hunt for a few hours and see if I had anything on camera. Right at daybreak, I saw what I thought was the biggest deer I had ever seen from the tree. I sat until 9:45 and climbed down in hopes that I had a picture to confirm what I saw at daylight. After looking at the pictures, I decided to return to the tree and sit the remainder of the day. I got climbed back up at 10:45, and at 11:30, my best buck to date gave me a 15-yard shot. He only ran 25 yards and I watched him tip over. Glory to God for an awesome hunt!

Editor’s Note: Next month we will have the remaining stories of the Truck-Buck winners from the 2023-2024 season.