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Michael Cochran had been watching this buck for two seasons. He knew the deer was special—mature, smart, and likely on more than a few trail cameras across Fulton County. But on opening morning of the 2025 season, the conditions were perfect, and he knew there was a chance this long pursuit would finally come to an end.
“I knew with all the hunters around, if I didn’t get him early, someone else would,” Michael says. “So I poured the 4S Roasted Raxx to him and just kept him off everybody else’s corn piles.”
That strategy seemed to work. The 10-point buck, which scored just over 160 inches, locked into the feed and started showing up day and night. But that didn’t make the hunt easy. Michael was limited to a tight area with very few trees, and he knew the only real shot at this deer would come from being quiet, hidden, and mobile. That’s where the saddle came into play.
“I knew it was going to be a saddle spot,” he says. “We used our Hunt Arsenal saddle and hung on the backside of the tree so he wouldn’t see us. There wasn’t much to work with, so it had to be perfect.”
Michael had watched the buck grow over two seasons, and even at first, he didn’t recognize him this year.
“He didn’t grow those big splits he had last year. He came out a clean 5×5, and I didn’t even think it was him at first,” he explains. “But as he kept growing, I started to notice the brows, the frame. It was him, just with more mass and length.”
Then the buck vanished.
“He disappeared from my Spartan cameras for a bit, which was out of character,” Michael says. “But Friday afternoon before opening day, he showed back up. That’s when I knew it was on.”
Opening morning was crisp and quiet. The wind was right. The air was cool. And for Michael, something about the stillness felt promising.
“I’ve never climbed up a tree so quiet,” he says.
As the light began to break, one of the buck’s running buddies eased in and walked under Michael’s stand, heading toward the 4S feed pile. Michael stayed frozen. He didn’t even hit the record button on his camera. He knew what was about to happen.
“Less than a minute later, he walked right under me,” Michael says. “He stopped at 16 yards, looked up the hill, and I let it fly. Double lunged him. Hit the opposite shoulder. The arrow was still in him when he ran.”
Even though the shot looked good, the blood trail didn’t inspire much confidence.
“The blood trail wasn’t what we hoped,” he says. “So we backed out and gave him time.”
But the emotional payoff didn’t stop with just one big deer. As Michael climbed down and checked his arrow, his phone lit up with texts from his two buddies who were also hunting nearby. They’d both shot their target bucks too—three giants down within a half mile of each other, all in the same morning, and within five minutes of each other.
“We didn’t even know where to start with the blood trails,” he says. “It was unreal.”
After a couple of short track jobs, each of them found their bucks and shared this surreal moment together.
Michael’s advice for other hunters chasing mature bucks?
“Be patient with the process,” he says. “Trust that there’s already a plan in place for you. Don’t pressure your spot. And be happy with the hunt—not just the kill.”
While the 160-class buck wasn’t Michael’s first or biggest, it may be the most meaningful. It was two years in the making, and the kind of morning that reminds hunters why they obsess over wind direction, food sources, and saddle setups.
“The moment he stopped and looked up that hill,” Michael says, “I knew this was about to happen. Two years of build-up all crashing down into one shot. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
