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| Key Feature Homepage Stories |
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| Dramatic Battle Decides Truck-Buck Shoot-Out |
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| By Daryl Kirby |
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Originally published in the September 2009 issue of GON
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Down to four (left to right) — Alex Adcock, Kayla Pitts, Pete Mincey and youth wildcard winner Dustin Ledford made it to round 7, a 60-foot shot at an egg.
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Standing on stage in front of hundreds of Outdoor Blast spectators at the Macon Centreplex Aug. 9, two Georgia hunters with nerves apparently of steel put on a shooting clinic. The culmination of GON’s 20th Truck-Buck Shoot-Out was a classic battle.
Pete Mincey, of Carlton, and Kayla Pitts, of Fort Valley, gave the audience a show — and their family and friends near heart attacks — as they eliminated the last of their competition in round 7 and then shot five more rounds at the competition’s toughest target, an egg at 60 feet.
Pete finally won the truck, a brand-new Silverado from John Megel Chevrolet in Dawsonville, while Kayla won a new 4-wheeler and trailer from Motions as the second-best shot in the event.
The Truck-Buck Shoot-Out is the annual ending to GON’s big-buck contest. Forty-two subscribers who entered bucks last season and won their scoring weeks earned spots in the Shoot-Out. The contest is broken up into 17 scoring periods, or weeks, with winners from the northern and southern deer-hunting zones. There are also four wildcard categories with winners from the north and south. Wildcards are for the best bucks taken by a youth, female, public-land hunter and the runner-up wildcard for the best-scoring buck that didn’t win a week.
Pete earned a spot in the Shoot-Out by winning the Week 15 North category in GON’s Truck-Buck contest last deer season with an Oglethorpe County 15-pointer that netted 148 1/8. Pete then won his heads-up match on Saturday against Week 15 South winner Ray Lilly, of Valdosta, to earn a spot in Sunday’s Shoot-Out finals.
Saturday’s heads-up matches went quickly, as nerves seemed to be contagious. Not once during the 21 heads-up matches did we have to place an egg in the target backboard. Not a single heads-up match made it past the round 4 target, a midi skeet at 60 feet, and many matches were settled at the first target, a full-sized skeet at 45 feet.
The 21 hunters who made it to Sunday’s Shoot-Out finals put the early misses from the day before out of their minds. Eliminations on Sunday came slowly, and a record 11 shooters made it to round 5, the 30-foot shot at an egg.
The egg, suspended by a rubber band in the target backboard, offers a target about the size of a ping-pong ball and leaves little room for error. Imagine having to make that shot, standing on a stage in front of the big crowd, shooting off-hand with iron sights, and with a Silverado pickup and a 4-wheeler sitting right there on the line.
The 30-foot shot at the egg almost cut the field in half, as Stan Weaver Jr., Sid Lee, Buddy Bass, Chris Cook and Brian Taylor went out. The remaining six shooters were moved back to 45 feet for a shot at the egg, a round when in the past it has been common for the truck to be won.
Contestants shoot the rounds in order or weeks beginning with Week 1, and the wildcard winners shoot last. First up in round 6 was Alex Adcock, of Monroe, who won Week 5 with a Walton County muzzleloader buck that netted 134 4/8. Alex stepped up and busted the egg, putting the pressure on the remaining five contestants to make the shot and stay alive.
Next up was Kayla Pitts, a young lady who had a huge following in the crowd. Kayla made the Shoot-Out by winning Week 11 with a Macon County 16-point non-typical that netted 168 0/8. Kayla also busted the egg from 45 feet. Then came Keith Kimbrel, of Leary, the Week 12 winner with a Calhoun County 9-pointer that netted 146 1/8. Keith’s shot missed, and he was eliminated. Pete Mincey hit the egg next, and then up stepped Edie Leverette of McDonough. Her pellet missed the egg by a fraction of an inch.
The final shooter of round 6 was youth wildcard winner Dustin Ledford, of Buford. Dustin’s 11-point crossbow buck from Gwinnett County netted 149 2/8 and is the No. 7 crossbow buck ever taken in Georgia. The cool he had to take such a huge buck carried over into the Shoot-Out. Dustin was dead-on from 45 feet, and he became the fourth and final contestant to make it to round 7 — the egg at 60 feet.
With only four remaining, the contest was down to it. Alex was again first, and when he missed, up stepped Kayla. Her pellet hit the rubber band and sent the egg to the floor, which counts as a hit in the Shoot-Out. A rubber-band hit has always been covered in the rules of the Shoot-Out, but it is rare — so of course Pete Mincey stepped up and did the same thing back-to-back.
Alex was eliminated, and still to shoot to stay alive in the contest was 15-year-old Dustin Ledford. There were groans from the crowd when Dustin missed — many were hoping to see the magic repeated of a youngster winning the truck. It was 10 years ago when 15-year-old Kirk Peaster won the Shoot-Out, and many still remember when 9-year-old Zack Hammond won a truck in 1997.
That left Kayla and Pete to shoot at the egg again from 60 feet. Both were guaranteed a grand prize. Now it was down to who would win the truck and who would win the 4-wheeler. Kayla’s pellet exploded the egg, and many probably thought it was over, but Pete followed up with a hit.
For the third time, Kayla lined up the iron sights at an egg at 60 feet, and again she busted the egg. And again Pete made the high-pressure shot to stay alive.
Then the pair traded misses for two straight rounds — a hit by either and the truck was theirs.
For the sixth time, Kayla stepped up on the 60-foot stage to shoot at the egg. Her miss gave Pete his third chance to win the truck, and Pete Mincey didn’t miss a third time in a row.
To see a short video on the Internet with some of the highlights of this year’s Truck-Buck Shoot-Out, go to the You Tube website and search for GON Videos Truck Buck.
To enter the Truck-Buck contest, simply be a GON subscriber, kill a Georgia buck and enter it. You might be the one stealing the Shoot-Out spotlight next year.
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