This journey began October 10th at 5am. I named this deer Big Al short for Alan Jackson because he came in at 5 o’clock (“It’s five O’clock somewhere”), while I was sitting at the airport in Orlando Florida thrilled to have a buck of this class on my cell camera; I couldn’t wait to get home.
From that point on I dedicated all my time to this deer, studying him. I didn’t receive a single daylight picture up until the last couple weeks and the couple times I did receive pictures it was between 8:30-10:30am every time, while unfortunately I was working.
I had a bunch of other big bucks on camera and multiple spots but this one was my main goal; I passed many nice bucks for this one specific deer. So as I got situated in the stand on Thanksgiving morning, I felt confident as if this particular day would be the day. 5 mins after sunrise I seen a nice buck committing; as I watched him for about 15 minutes he began to ease off.
While patiently waiting I heard what sounded like a herd of elephants coming from my right side and as I was looking to see what it was I caught a glimpse of a big buck so I put my scope on him and to my surprise it was Big Al and another really nice buck! I tried to get him to close the distance and come the last 15 yards to get a clear shot by peeking his curiosity with a couple grunts and a snort wheeze; he came just far enough for me to make it all worth my while. I pulled the trigger on this brute at 7:22am and immediately saw a white belly laying before me.
19 inches inside 17 points 182 pounds 163 1/4” RS
–Josh Matthews
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