Announcement

**Burnadell** · 11-22-2018, 09:14 PM

Congtulations on the old warhorse. He looks like a perfect buck to harvest.

p.s. Karla has a great smile!

**Richard M.** · 11-22-2018, 09:29 PM

Congrats on the SC buck Karla!

**Smart** · 11-22-2018, 09:29 PM

Congrats on your first Karla! Good stuff!

**Sparkles** · 11-22-2018, 09:31 PM

Outstanding
Congrats!

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**Bobby17L** · 11-22-2018, 11:02 PM

Congrats! So pumped for you! Thats big time!

**SwampRanger** · 11-23-2018, 07:30 AM

Very cool old buck!

**huntmaster** · 11-23-2018, 08:15 AM

yee ha, good job Karla and Heath, congrats

**sierracharlie338** · 11-23-2018, 08:40 AM

Awesome job to you both! Hard work is laying off. What a great deer to take out. Congrats again!

Sierracharlie out…

**junior** · 11-23-2018, 09:17 AM

Sweet! All the hard work and hours on stand paid off!
Congrats to the wife!!

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**Chris Martin** · 11-23-2018, 10:21 AM

Well done, gotta be a very rewarding feeling. Big congrats.

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**Heath** · 11-25-2018, 03:36 PM

Live from the Social Club

Thank you for all the kind words. I have always had the opportunity to hunt from friends mainly the Stovall family and I have always been grateful for those opportunities but never had a place of my own. A place I could repay the Stovall’s, bring friends and customers, but most importantly family out to hunt. We have never had land in our family so it has been a dream of mine for awhile.

When we bought this place in the Summer of 17 my focus was taking a piece of raw land and turning it into a place where I could teach my wife to hunt. A place she was comfortable and enjoyed coming out to. A place I could share a deer stand with my dad. A place where I could bring my brother and his boys to spend the weekend. This week was the culmination of all of those goals.

Karla has hunted her tail off and it just never happened. I spent a lot of time and money trying to make her hunt as enjoyable and opportunistic as possible. She had a lot of bad luck, close calls, bad weather, slow hunting, etc. She passed on pigs, does, and countless close AR bucks over the past season and a half. When she wasn’t with me, I probably passed on 20 shooter bucks. She was just snakebite.

This year we got her a crossbow to try to jump on the deer early and she was a trooper in her first bow season. It was hot and the mosquitoes were terrible, but she had deer in bow range every hunt but no shooters. Due to scheduling conflicts this would be her first rifle hunt of the year over Thanksgiving break. We headed out Wednesday and got in a mid day and then evening hunt. We saw deer, but no shooters. I pulled the cards and had about 5 shooters on camera so I was confident it was going to happen this trip.

When we got back to camp Wednesday night, my parents had made their way in. I was excited cause this meant my dad would be joining us in the stand on Thursday morning. He was ready to rock Thanksgiving morning with coffee, pop tarts, and his hat. [emoji1]

It was pretty slow morning but we did have a doe getting chased around by a good buck about 300 yards to our north. I catch movement in the brush and here strolls in a buck to the corn. I knew the deer immediately from trail cam pics as an old warrior 4 point and knew Karla was about to get the green light. I told her to get the gun up but I needed to check him out knowing he was a shooter. I wanted to give her some time to get ready and not rush it. I let the deer get settled and after awhile gave her the nod he was a shooter. She took her time, making sure she had a clear shot, she pulled off a few times to make sure he was completely broadside, front leg forward, everything I suck at. [emoji1]

She let it rip and dropped him in his tracks. She was ecstatic! Fist pumps, high fives, hugs, tears (me) followed. She was ready to jump through the front window and go get him. I told her we needed to wait which lasted all about 30 seconds before we bolted out of the blind. She started to sprint down to see him but I had to call her back to make sure we approached him correctly.

She finally had her buck. I wasn’t for sure what her reaction would be shooting her first deer but she was on cloud nine. This was a perfect deer to shoot. He was post mature with a ton of battle scares on his cape. Karla has her buck.

Tailgate pic for my buddy D~Mo

**Heath** · 11-25-2018, 03:46 PM

My brother and his two boys joined us Thanksgiving night. So my goal changed to get the boys on a deer or pig, but also to have some fun with family. We spent some time in the stand.

Three generations of Stanford men.

Aunt Karla joined us for a hunt.

We practiced just in case.

This is what Fortnight withdraws look like.

In the end, we saw some deer but no shooters.