Big Southern Bucks Are Vulnerable Now—Just Ask These Two Hunters

Gun seasons are now open in most areas, and it is the rut or pre-rut across the South, and hunters are tagging some very big bucks. Here are the stories of two, one of which might be a new state record:

Darron Whitman hunts in Talbot County, Georgia, where the rut is on. Darron reports that “the past three days has been a “small buck parade. Activity seems to be after 10 a.m. and afternoon now. Still seeing fresh rubs and scrapes, so I don’t think they are locked down yet, but I do think it is soon.”

Darron joined a new hunting club this year and began scouting and setting up trail cameras. He began getting pictures of a really good buck that he named “Jack” and came up with a plan to get him. “I hunted every weekend of bow season, sitting way off where I thought his bedroom was, just hoping to see him traveling through,” said Whitman. “I sat 11 hunts and saw nothing, but my plan was to move in when the pre rut started kicking in.” On November 10th, he checked his trail camera card and saw photos of Jack. After much deliberation, prayer, and even a dream, he chose his stand location for the next hunt.

Darron relays the morning hunt: “I strapped my climber on my back and headed up the big hill to the right. I had already picked a long Georgia pine on that point a couple months back. I settled in about half hour before sunrise. Just after sunrise I glanced at my watch, it was 6:58 a.m., and over my shoulder I saw a ten-foot tall pine tree thrashing three feet side to side at about 120 yards. Then I saw legs, then body, and he picked his head up. ‘O my gosh, this is not happening,’ I kept saying as I watched him rub three more trees. Being that he was behind me and my climber faces the tree I had to stand up then squat down and get a rest off the seat back. He kept coming closer, bristled up and kind of strutting. I let him come, trying my best not to look at his rack. At 40 yards he came into an opening in the grown up cut over. I took a deep breath and put the crosshairs dead on his shoulder and let my .280 go to work. I shot and he ran about ten yards under my tree and I see his doe get up and run off, then he fell over! Words cannot describe the feeling and thankfulness I felt at that time. I knew I had just killed a monster buck, the biggest of my 30 plus years hunting. After about 20 minutes I felt like my knees had stopped shaking enough I made my way down the tree. Falling to my knees and wrapping my hands around his massive bases, I was one very happy hunter.”

‘Jack’ is a main-frame 10-pointer with 7 points on his palmated left beam, making him a 12-pointer. The rack was rough-scored 167 3/8. A careful clever strategy and the presence of a hot doe helped bring this trophy buck to a Georgia hunter.

Farther to the west, Louisiana’s whitetail rut is a bit later than Georgia’s, and their primitive weapons season opens the week before firearms season. Jason Archer of Ferriday hunts in Concordia Parish and went out for a hunt on opening afternoon of primitive weapons season with his Thompson Center Encore .35 Whelen.

“I hunt on my cousin’s land, which is only five miles or so from where I live,” Archer said. “(My cousin) and I grabbed our guns, jumped on my golf cart and headed out to hunt. I dropped him off at his stand and got into my Millennium lock-on stand I’d hung there earlier for bowhunting.”

Overlooking a weedy dry pond, he settled in hoping more for a wild hog than a buck. “I had my trail camera out, and the only deer I’d seen on camera were pictures taken at night; I hadn’t seen a single deer from my stand,” he said. “I hadn’t been sitting long when I spotted the first deer I’d seen all year, a small basket-racked 8-point buck that came out of the CRP land and headed into the weeds on the old dry pond. He was followed by a fairly nice 10-point buck.”

What stepped out next boggles the mind–a massive 16-point buck with a 23-inch spread. Archer began getting nervous, but after some adjustment he was finally able to get a shot off. Then buck then disappeared. He waited till dark to get his cousin to help and they found the behemoth 50 yards away.

The buck weighed 288 pounds and the rack had 7-inch bases and 29 7/8-inch beams. It was scored as a typical at 210 7/8 inches, and will likely be the largest typical buck ever taken in Louisiana. For more information, go to www.louisianasportsman.com