Randy McGregor Tags Georgia Giant with Crossbow After Letting Him Walk the Year Prior
It was the evening of September 27, 2025, when Putnam County, Georgia hunter Randy McGregor settled into a ladder stand overlooking an old fence line cutting through hardwoods.
It wasn’t a new spot. He’d hunted this stretch of woods before, and he knew a particular buck used the corridor to slip between thick cover and an open pasture.
Randy had taken time off from work to sit these evenings, banking on a hunch that the deer might return. And on his fifth sit, it all came together.
“I started sitting each evening on that fence line,” McGregor says. “I had a pattern figured out. He’d show up on camera two or three days, then disappear for a week or two, and then show back up again. So I planned my time off around when I thought he’d return.”
The deer in question was no stranger. Randy had watched the buck the season before, catching glimpses of him feeding on honey locust pods and easing through food plots. He had let the deer walk then, believing he had the potential to become something special.
“He had all the makings of being a nice buck,” McGregor says. “So I passed him last year, hoping he’d make it through.”
This season, trail camera photos confirmed that the gamble had paid off. The buck had grown into a heavy-racked 13-point with the kind of mass and symmetry that gets a hunter’s pulse up.
“I was a little nervous when I saw him that night,” McGregor admits. “It was my first time hunting with a crossbow, and I was just hoping those retractable broadheads would open like they’re supposed to.”
When the buck stepped into the open at 30 yards and turned broadside, Randy didn’t hesitate. He squeezed the trigger and watched the deer leap hard at the shot.
“The bolt left my crossbow so fast I never saw it,” he says. “But based on the way he jumped, and all my practice leading up to the season, I felt good about the shot.”
Randy waited about 30 minutes before calling a friend to help. Then, impatience got the better of him.
“I couldn’t wait any longer,” he laughs. “We started trailing him, and he had gone about 100 yards. When we found him, it was just a feeling of total relief.”
It wasn’t just that Randy had made a clean, ethical shot on a buck he’d patterned for two years. It was that the decision to pass him the season before had resulted in this buck growing to roughly 170-inches. The story had come full circle.
“He looked so good on camera. I loved getting those pics of him,” McGregor says. “But I kinda feel like seeing him on the wall just isn’t gonna be the same.”
The hunt marked Randy’s first-ever deer with a crossbow, a milestone that added to the moment’s significance. His confidence in the weapon, and especially in his shot placement, was built on months of practice leading up to opening week.
“Like any weapon you carry into the woods, you gotta practice until you’re absolutely confident in your shooting and accuracy,” he says.
There were no fireworks or wild stories from the recovery. Just a memory etched in the timber and a deer that had become part of Randy’s story long before he ever squeezed the trigger.
“It didn’t really sink in until after we found him,” Randy says. “Just finding him was memorable. And knowing I gave him that extra year—that made it even better.”
