THE JONES BUCK
It was Sept. 7, the day before the Georgia archery deer season opened. Garrett Jones, a student at Tifton's Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College was heading to his home in Dougherty County for the weekend. The 22-year-old was both anxious and excited.

Anxious because he had found out that his compound bow, left at an archery shop three weeks ago to have new string and cable installed, was not going to be ready for him to pick up. Fortunately, his hunting buddy, Graham Lovett, had an extra bow he could borrow. But he had only a few hours to sight it in before the morning hunt.

On the other hand, excited: Two weeks earlier Jones had located a group of five bachelor bucks using one of the many peanut patches planted for deer on Nilo Plantation, a 11,000-acre quail plantation located a few miles south of the town of Albany. His father, Gerald, is the farm manager on Nilo and Garrett, who was born and raised on the famous plantation, has hunted the land since he was a little boy.

Recent trail camera photos of individuals in the bachelor group indicated that at least two bucks were P&Y-caliber deer. "There was an 8-pointer that had two kickers and an even bigger 8-pointer in velvet," Jones stated. "I told myself that if either one walked by me, that's the one I'd shoot."

As soon as he got home that Friday afternoon, Jones went straight to the woods, and was encouraged by fresh tracks on the trail he planned to watch the next morning. Later that evening, Lovett arrived with the loaner bow, and the two friends made final preparations for their opening day hunt.

"We got up early that morning," Garrett said, "and I took him to his stand about 250 yards south of mine on another trail where we had seen a lot of does. I made a big loop around and parked the truck about 700 yards from the tree I had picked to put my stand."

In the darkness, he threw his climbing stand on his back and began walking. Minutes later he was 30 feet up a tall pine tree overlooking a well-used deer trail leading to the peanut patch some 300 yards to the north. The idea -- which had worked well over the years -- was to intercept the bucks as they returned to their bedding area after feeding on goobers all night long.

Jones sat in the stand nearly 45 minutes before daylight finally began creeping into the open pinewoods. Earlier, he had heard deer "blowing" south of him and worried that the swirling breeze had carried his scent to them, perhaps ruining his chances for the morning. Facing the trail, he looked at his watch.

"It was around 7:30," he said, "and just getting light enough to shoot. I was thinking the deer should be here now."

All of a sudden, a buck appeared in the trail about 150 yards away. As the animal browsed casually along the trail, it became apparent that this was the 8-pointer with the 2 kicker points. Following along behind him were two smaller 8-pointers, a decent 9-pointer and the big velvet 8-pointer bringing up the rear. The whole gang was there -- later than anticipated, but there at last, and right on course!

"He came and walked 20 yards from me and stopped," Jones said. " I had my bow ready, looking at him, ready to shoot. Then I looked up the trail one more time and saw the big deer was behind the others."