We all dream of taking a giant buck at least once in our life. Now, imagine you've never killed a buck, period, let alone with a compound bow. Now picture this Georgia giant examining a mock scrape at 30 yards from your treestand.
Bryce Spillers sent half of Upson County into a tizzy after word got out of this 18-point toad taken so early in the state's 2022 season. A local taxidermist even told Bryce to take the rack home with him, because he didn't want some crazies kicking his shop door in for a record-breaker.
The 21-year-old pursued this buck on his uncle's 600-acre farm in central Georgia for three years and said it grew from 8 to 16 points over just two seasons.
"I gave him the nickname Smiley because he'd come in and look at my camera every time," Bryce said. "The first picture I ever got of him was two years ago when he was an 8-pointer. He had gotten into a fight and ripped his ear, so after that I could always tell it was him. He wasn't too shy to show his face the first two years; I just couldn't get a shot at him in daylight."
The night before Georgia's 2022 archery opener, Bryce was in the woods around 7 p.m to set up a camera when he noticed Smiley feeding in his corn pile. He backed out slowly to avoid bumping the deer and took the encounter as a good sign, since Smiley had cracked twilight just twice in the past year.
Opening day, Bryce set up a hang-on stand in some pine thickets overlooking a small clearcut on his uncle's property. Around 10 a.m., his target buck walked 20 yards behind the stand, but he couldn't get a shot.
"He got out of his bed 20 yards from the stand, but he was behind me and I couldn't get a shot. He didn't know I was there, though. I decided to take a chance and go where I first saw him, in the swamp."
The next day, Bryce decided to get aggressive and set up on a mock scrape in the swamp bottom where Smiley was most active. He left the stand alone the rest of the weekend to avoid pressuring the buck.
Sure enough, during the first sit in the swamp Monday morning, Smiley visited the mock scrape, just as Bryce had hoped he would.
"It happened perfectly," he said. "When he first came out he was at 50 yards, and my mock scrape was 30 yards, so I let him come all the way in. Once I saw his shoulder start to do a little front step and open up, I double-lunged him."
Bryce said where he recovered the deer was the same place he saw Smiley the first time three years prior.
"People have joked around that I might as well hang up the bow now, but I think I can finally go to the woods and relax," he said.
Relax for a moment, Bryce, Georgia's November rut hasn't even kicked in yet.
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