Hunter: Tim Bell
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Fulton
Season: 2017-2018
Hunt Story
It all started June of last year during antler growth one of my good buddies and hunting companion Junior Dilbeck (he and I hunt a private 100-acre tract of land in Pickens County together) sent me a picture of a large-bodied back that had just sprouted antlers and appeared to be the birth of an absolute giant! (I will attach pictures of the first time we had big daddy on camera) Jr. and I checked the trail cameras religiously on this 2-acre tract of land in Fulton County. Yes you heard correctly, 2 acres of beautiful wild magnolias in a mix of large pine and oak with an insane amount of mature muscadine vines growing up what seem to be every tree. This would be the food source that kept these big deer in the area and coming in almost every morning and evening like clock work! We watched big daddy grow throughout the summer months and his running buddy which was 6 1/2 year old, 19-inch wide 8-pointer with great spread and mass but inferior tine length ( I will also include pictures of Wing Nut which I harvested later in the season last year) as these to their approach the end of their antler growth I remember saying one day to my friend Jr, ‘Man I would love to kill a deer like that in velvet.’ His response was shocking but simple... come do it, he said! I couldn't believe my ears!! I ask what and again he said come do it! That was the last time he would have to say that. Big Daddy had grown into a beautiful 9-point—missing a G4 on one side but with super long times and a 20-inch inside spread, he was no joke for sure. Both of these deer were huge-bodied deer. Not like the normal 3 1/2 year old bucks we chased. If Daddy lost his velvet a week or so before season started last year, so my hopes of a velvet buck were gone but the offer still stood for me to continue to hunt big daddy just the same. I got my chance last October as I sat in my ladder stand one calm and clear evening as the last of the shooting light was fading out from one of the big mature pines he stepped! He stood broadside at 25 yards. He was huge body and antlers! I stopped looking at his rack and just concentrate on making the shot I reached and remove my crossbow from A limb be side me. I took the safety off my mission crossbow And put the center cross hairs on his side. I expected him to drop the string so I aim to low when I release the bolt he never flinched! And he was 30 yards not 25 my era drop below his heart and hit him in the front opposite leg! That was it gone! Gone forever dead somewhere who knows who will ever know. Just like that he vanished not to be seen again! No camera pics nothing! I later in the year harvested wing nut ( which had to be mounted on a northern buck form because of its body size! This helped ease the pain but not by much. I thought about big daddy all the time and the pictures I had of him on my phone haunted me every time they appeared. I had little hope that if he did make it that he would most certainly never return to the scene of the crime. To my amazement I received a text from Jr In early June which was a picture of what was without a doubt the one and only Big Daddy!!! It was a gift from god he came back!!! My deer came back!! We watched him grow and grow and grow into what was this year a beautiful 20 inch wide tall tined 10 point with heavy mass and a huge body!!! He had a baseball sized knot on the knuckle of the leg I hit last bow season but it didn't affect the growth of either side of the antlers! My good old buddy jr not to my surprise held true to big daddy being my deer and once again offered me the chance to get it done! I graciously excepted! He was coming into the muscadine flare where he narrowly escape the previous year! Opening morning and found myself sitting in the same ladder stand as the previous year same location! It was a beautiful morning I watch the sunrise listening to the birds with nothing but the thought of any minute big daddy could step out at 8:45 AM from the same direction from the same tree out stepped big daddy!!!! I couldn't Believe my eyes! But this time like he new something was not quite right He only came out enough for me to see his rack and neck! I new I had a job to do. I also new I couldn't take the chance of him swing me or smelling me. I felt I had to take the shot as it was. I lifted my crossbow steadied the cross hairs on the center of his neck about 10 inches from the base of his head and squeezed the trigger on my mission crossbow. It startled me as it launched the bolt towards big daddy! I watched the bolt as it hit its mark and center punched the deer neck ,passed thru! He did not pile up as I was praying but instead spun and bound out of my life again!! He disappeared behind the larg timber and all was quiet again! I new the shot was good but there was know way I was going to push this deer. I returned to my buddies house and found him sitting at the kitchen table having coffee. I simply said " I got him" we shared a fist pound and celebratory hug and breathed a sigh of relief which was much over due! At least a year!!! At 1:45 about 4 hrs later I slowly inched back to the stand and toward the big pine. As I made my way around it and looked down the hollow I could see the white of his stomach about 50 yards or so away. I tried to move slowly but it was almost impossible I think I made it to a dead sprint towards the end and when I got there I just stood and looked! He was huge. His body was. Over than and deer I'd seen in ga over the last 20 plus years of hunting! I finally reached down and picked up his head holding his rack! My lord!! What a stud of a deer and my biggest buck ever! I called jr and said it's over! We spent the next couple hrs taking pictures, measuring Antlers taking more pictures and then finally keeping and processing the back from the garage ceiling! Special thanks to the good friend and had partner! Thanks JR! U/tha man!
