Colby Johnson had only a couple of hours to spare when he drove 30 miles to sit in his ground blind on the morning of Nov. 4, 2020, but that’s all he needed to salve his wounded pride.
The experienced deer hunter from Hartsfield, Georgia, flat missed a giant whitetail the previous season. He was shocked when there was neither deer nor sign on the ground afterward. He even paid a tracking dog handler to confirm his nightmare.
“He came out, and after his dog started going around in circles, he looked at me and said, ‘You didn’t hit this buck. My dog knows how to track a wounded deer, and this deer isn’t wounded. It’s still out there, running around like nothing happened.’
“That was like being punched in the gut,” Colby admitted to Duncan Dobie, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine. “I just knew I had killed that deer. I couldn’t admit I had missed.”
To be fair, it was a long poke: 220 yards across a clear-cut.
He saw the deer once more before the 2019 season closed, but he had no shot.
Prior to the 2020 bow season, Colby was running nine trail cameras. Not until Oct. 18 did the familiar buck step in front of one of the units.
At least 14 (of its 17) points were clearly visible. The rack was thicker, and the points were longer than they’d been the last time he and the deer had crossed paths. Colby pegged it for a 170-something-incher, missing the mark by almost 30.
He hunted often and wisely during the archery season, and then, when the calendar flipped, he traded his bow for his rifle.
The next photo came Nov. 1, about 80 yards from a ground blind he’d built within sight of a food plot. The deer was making a scrape.
Two nights later, Colby surfed Google Earth to see if he could understand the buck’s comings and goings. The next morning, he went to his usual blind. After seeing nothing for a while, he moved to another spot. He’d planned to leave by 8:00.
After watching a doe and fawn for half an hour, he slipped into a hollow where he considered placing the camera he’d intended to set up in a new spot. While he was surveying the area, another doe ran to within 10 yards and began to feed.
She eventually spotted him, however, and left post haste.
When Colby resumed walking, he spotted the buck of his dreams on the opposite side of the hollow, 80 yards distant.
“I carefully dropped the camera to the ground, raised my rifle and got him in the scope. I fired, and he dropped in his tracks. Never flinched,” he said.
The rut-worn, Worth County buck was estimated to be 5 1/2 years old. Its BTR score is 199 2/8 inches.
— Read Recent Blog! Keep Tabs on Does: Derek DeVader's 5 1/2-year-old whitetail has been rough-scored at 226 7/8 inches.