BB, the short answer is "no". Here are a few more hunt details...

I took this buck on the Cohutta wildllife management area in North Georgia. Cohutta is a very rugged, remote wilderness area in North Georgia with low deer densities and limited road access. Due to the limited access, if you kill an animal the best way to get it out is to skin and debone it in the woods and transport the meat out in a backpack.

After hunting without seeing a deer all week, I decided to go to a different area on the last day of the hunt. There was a truck parked at the entrance of the area that I wanted to hunt so I decided to go to yet another area that I had previously scouted. This change in plan made me late and I arrived at the new spot well after daylight.

I took a stand on the ground and this buck made its way up the ridgeline toward me around 9:00 a.m. apparently cruising for does. I used the tree that I was sitting against as a shooting rest and I took a kneeling shot. The deer went straight down and all four feet went up into the air. He then began sliding slowly down the mountain. As I approached him he was still moving so I put another bullet through his spine between his shoulder blades. I then skinned and deboned the meat and brought meat, head, and antlers out in my backpack.

I hunted uphill from the truck, so it was a downhill pack! While I have killed several hogs on Cohutta in recent years, this is my first Cohutta buck since 2005. It is a physically and mentally demanding hunt, but it is a much anticipated annual event.