Hayden Garrett
Instagram haydengarrett.2
Eden, NC
Rockingham County
11/29/23 4:45
Ruger American Centerfire chambered in 350 legend.
13 Points
141 pounds
Family members had trail camera pictures of the deer about a week prior. All pictures were at night. This was the first time anyone had seen the deer during daylight hours. Hayden, 14, keeps a very busy schedule with high school cheer and volleyball with Wednesdays being the only evening available to potentially hunt. Her brother gave up the Wednesday evening sit with me (Dad) because of the limited opportunities his sister has to hunt. We get into the homemade ground blind around 4:00 that evening. Within about 15 minutes, two does come out to the bait pile and begin to feed. Hayden opted that she would shoot one of the does in-order to get her first kill under her belt. So we eased the gun out the blind and waited for one of them to present a broad sided shot. Well, the does keep standing head on and eventually turning broad sided, but one right behind the other, and never presenting an ethical shot. Then we heard a buck grunting from the right side. I said “Hold on the game has changed.” This buck came right through the shooting opening and chased the does out of the bait pile. I tired frantically to vocally grunt at the deer in-order for him to stop with no luck. After the buck passed through the opening and disappeared, I looked at her, like why didn’t you shoot??, her response to my look, “Was I supposed to shoot??”! I was like “Yes!!”. So we watched in the direction of the wooded trails that the deer had disappeared into. Within a minute or two we could see the two does headed back in our direction. Then Hayden said “I heard him grunt again”, sure enough here he comes straight back to the bait pile. He marched right in broadsided and lowered his head to begin feeding. I told Hayden to take her time and get the cross hairs steady on the vitals and squeeze the trigger on her brother’s Ruger American Centerfire rifle. The 170 grain Hornady 350 Legend found its mark about 75 yards away as the deer bucked and bolted out of sight. Hayden, immediately sits back and says, “Dad, look at my hand, I’m shaking”. My reply, “Look at my hand shaking!” We had a good laugh and talked about what had just unfolded. I said a quick prayer for the opportunity that we just experienced and the hopes of recovering her buck. We eased down to the shot location and begin to search for blood. Hayden found the first drops in the fall leaves and we begin to purse the droplets about every 10 yards or so, until we reached the expired buck about a total of 40 yards away. The buck was a main frame 9 pointer with a split brow tine and several kickers around its bases giving it 13 total points, bigger than any buck that I have ever harvested. This was definitely time spent making memories that will last a lifetime for the both of us.
One proud dad,
Will Garrett
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