Jackson Smith didn’t expect to shoot a buck on just his second sit in a new stand location—but sometimes that’s how it happens in Tennessee’s early season.
“I was actually trying to put my buddy on a deer,” Smith says, laughing. “Fifteen minutes before I shot, I even joked and said if his target didn’t show, I was going to shoot the next buck I saw. And then… here he came.”
On the evening of August 23rd, the Montgomery County bowhunter was settled in and watching a treeline as the light began to fade. The sun had dipped low, and it was one of those quiet, humid Southern evenings where anything could happen. That’s when he spotted movement—a buck working his way along the edge, heading toward his bedding area.
“I hadn’t had this deer on camera before,” Smith says. “Out of the few I was hunting, this one was a surprise.”
The buck kept closing the distance, and at just 26 yards, Smith drew his Mathews V3X. “The only thing going through my mind was, ‘Don’t miss,’” he says.
The shot hit true, and the moment it all sank in, the adrenaline hit. “As soon as I shot, I was so excited I almost dropped my bow out of my stand. I didn’t calm down until I got to the ground and found my arrow to check the blood.”
Smith’s buck carried 11 velvet-covered points and taped out at 155 3/8 inches—his biggest buck to date. Not bad for a deer he hadn’t seen before, in a spot he’d barely hunted, and on a hunt that started out focused on helping a buddy.
His advice to other hunters chasing a velvet buck like his? “Be patient and keep at it, He doesn’t have to be there all the time, just when you’re there. So be there when you can.”
