Brandon Chesbro
I’ve been hunting the same property for 20 years. It’s a dreamland nestled in Tennessee with just about everything you could want in a hunting spot. I’ve been blessed to hunt with my best friends, take some good bucks and make great memories there over the years. We’ve never been super strict on “management”. If a buck gets your heart beating, you shoot him. Then after taking a young deer with lots of potential, something in me shifted, and I decided to hold off on harvesting a buck unless he was a true giant. I waited. Saw a lot of good bucks, but I waited. 4 years. Then this weekend, it happened.
Sometimes working in the hunting industry provides awesome opportunities to hunt, other times, the work itself prevents you from getting out. This was my first time hunting the new Tennessee velvet opener and about 4 weeks prior, my buddy and I put together a plan and put our Stealth Cams out. We were honestly not expecting much, because we have come to know this property as a great spot during the rut, but isn’t home to many big bucks prior to the shift. To our surprise, a buck showed up that made our hearts stop. He was only on one camera for a few minutes in the middle of the night, but from that moment on, I had trouble thinking about anything else. It was the kind of deer you lose sleep over, and I was prepared to do so.
It was time to kick prep and practice into high gear, but the hardest part would be waiting for Aug 23rd. I had been wanting a new light set of hunting gear and after recently getting a job as a producer with Catchin’ Deers who partners with Mossy Oak, quickly fell (back) in love with Original Bottomland. I snagged a set of their Tibbee Flex gear and it looked, felt and fit perfect.
As the season approached, there was only one problem; After that small set of pics, he was gone. A few weeks went by, and I started accepting the truth that giants like this can simply become ghosts. Then it happened; on the week of the opener he showed up on the cams. Twice. In daylight.
It was on.
With the opener on Friday morning, he showed up on Tuesday, in a transition area next to textbook bedding. With the mixed feelings of wishing I had more time, and also wishing the season would start immediately, I got into the woods and brushed in a ground blind on Wednesday morning. I was nervous choosing a blind over a stand, because I was worried it could throw him off, but I only wanted to go in once, and I wasn’t confident I would find the perfect tree. I was careful. I treated it like a hunt with my scent control, wind and noise. I cut a small path for silent entry and exit. This may be a marathon and not a sprint, so I prepared to play the long game. Thursday might have been my most stressful day. I kept saying to myself, “if he doesn’t show up on the cameras, I’m not going. It’s too risky”. He didn’t show up. But in what my friend Dana would say “typical Chesbro fashion” I knew that if there was a 1% chance that buck showed up and I wasn’t there, I’d never forgive myself. The wind wasn’t perfect, but it also wasn’t bad.
I chose to roll the dice.
I slipped in at 5:15. We had an amazing, cool week in Tennessee with a Super Blue Moon. Deer activity was good all week. Fingers crossed, and anxiety high, I had to hunt without a chair. The blind was on a pretty steep hillside, making it impossible to sit in a chair and be in a shooting position. I can only imagine what my wife was thinking those few days leading up to the opener, watching me practice from awkward positions. After what felt like an eternity, the sun crept up with no sign of the buck. No deer at all. At 7:13 I heard something walking beside the blind. I slowly shifted to look out the window. It was him…staring right at me. After only a handful of Stealth Cam pics, here was this giant, perfect ten point buck standing twenty yards in front of me. The Ghost in the flesh. As often happens in those high intensity moments, it’s all a little blurry to me, but I wasted no time and let one fly.
I waited 30 minutes and found good blood right away, but within 100 yards I bumped a deer and decided to back out, sweating bullets, but hoping it wasn’t him. A few hours later I went back with the lads and prepared myself for tracking through deep thicket in the 90 degree summer heat. There was no need. As we were walking down a field back to the tangle of thorns and spiderwebs where last blood was, I spotted a white belly and giant antlers 100 yards from me, right in the middle of the field.
To walk up on a buck like this was a moment I can’t put into words. In my 2 decades of deer hunting, I had only dreamed of a moment and a deer like that. I’m also so glad I was patient. 4 years was a long time to wait, but man, it was worth it. In 30 days or so we will find out if he is officially a net Boone and Crocket. That would be a nice cherry on top, but not something I have ever aspired to, and I won’t let a number impact that experience with my buddies. I may not have it officially scored at all.
Writing this, I am just so grateful for this amazing land where I get to hunt, spend time with friends, and now look back on one of the best memories I will ever have in the woods.
Good thing I am not writing on pen and paper… I’m still shaking.
