A perfect deer hunting trip always ends with the hunter harvesting a big white-tailed buck, but as we know most hunts do not end that way. However, Bob Coombs had anything but a perfect hunting trip, or season for that matter, but he ended up harvesting the biggest buck every harvested in the state of Georgia with a crossbow. Coombs had watched the deer for several years, and although this article is older, pay attention to how the hunter tracked this animal and finally put himself in position to harvest this monster whitetail.
Source: “The first time I saw Brutus was early in bow season of 2004. He was very wide, but all I saw was just a blur of antlers. I didn’t see him again until very late that season. The rut had died down, and a bachelor group of seven bucks got back together. The leaves were off the trees, and the bucks were about 80 yards away, so I got a very good look at Brutus. He was about a 160-class buck, and very wide with tall tines, but he didn’t have all the split tines that he would grow the next season. The smallest buck, a little forkhorn, put his antlers down like he wanted to challenge Brutus. The other bucks just watched. That was a really cool thing to see, and I saw Brutus really well. It was just awesome.
Then on November 15, I had a crazy encounter with the buck. I saw Brutus at about 3 p.m. He was about 100 yards away and not moving in my direction. I decided to move to a stand that was above him on the hillside. I circled around about 300 yards in a big arch. As soon as I got situated in the other stand, I saw a doe, and immediately behind her was the giant buck. She led the buck down into a dry creek bed, and I felt this would be a good opportunity to make a move to another stand that was closer to them. It was 4 p.m., and I had to move fast. When my feet hit the ground, I looked over my shoulder to see a woman, her daughter and three dogs cresting the hill about 30 yards away. I ducked and ran down the hill straight toward where I had spotted the doe with the buck on her tail. The trespassers and their pack of dogs kept coming toward me, and I didn’t want to have to run them off or even talk to them with the buck right there. I had to quickly move deeper into the woods. I hunkered down in a farkleberry cluster for about 10 minutes while they continued their nature hike.”