My hunt was actually short and sweet on this day. I drove from home to our hunt club and arrived about 2 pm. I haven’t been hunting afternoons much lately but I decided to go sit on my stand even though I’d planned to be in camp for 8 days. I rested for a half hour then changed into my hunting clothes. I had already loaded my rifle at home as I like to make sure everything is dry and perfect.
I load my .54 with an antler time measure that holds about 75 grains of FFG followed by a bit of corn meal then a .530 ball in a cotton drill patch.
We hunt on 900 acres of typical Georgia pine timber. Some is clearcut while some is small two year old pines mixed with dog fennels and briars. Perfect deer habitat.
I usually hunt 3-4 days a week since Georgia has a long season. This allows me to pass up deer until I decide to shoot one. But I recently retired from the fishing charter business after 23 years so I now have more free time.
Anyway. I drove to within a 1/4 mile of a lock on stand I hung in an area I’ve hunted for years. I walked in at about 3:15 pm and settled in fir the afternoon. My stand sits on the edge of a rye/wheat field bordered by the young pines and thick growth. There’s a hardwood bottom across the cleared area about 125 yards away. I’ve had many bucks come from this area.
About 3:45 4 does and yearlings fed by me. I started to get more alert and excited knowing the deer were up and moving. Especially since we are now near peak rut.
At 4:15 I heard a very faint grunt from the hardwood bottom. I knew it was about to get interesting. Moments later a doe bounced out with that attitude that you know says a buck is chasing her.
Sure enough, he popped out about 25 yards behind her. I glimpsed his rack but couldn’t tell much about it at first. Then I got a better look and knew.
I cocked back the hammer and after getting the long barrel pointed at least near him I let out a grunt to stop him. This is where I usually panic and rush the shot. This time my freshly painted front sight caught my attention and alerted me to aim. The shot was good and he went down for keeps. I waited a few minutes then decided to reload. As usual I can barely get the second ball down the barrel but it did go after some persuasion. I didn’t need the follow up shot so I climbed down and went to take a look. I was very happy to see the buck. I thanked God for giving him to me then dragged him a short distance to the trail. I then heard a noice and was surprised to see a young buck had followed this one right to me. Boy was he surprised too.
I texted my friend and he drove over to help me load the buck.
This was a nice end to a great hunt.
Hopefully I didn’t bore anyone with the details.
Thanks for reading.