Madison Shealy isn’t new to the woods—but the big-bodied buck she dropped this season was her very first deer ever. And it’s one most hunters will chase for decades without matching.
It all went down just after sunrise on family land in South Carolina, at a spot her family hunts every season. Madison was in the stand early with her dad, Johnathan Swygert, and her brother, Hunter Shealy. As the sun started lighting up the woods, a buck stepped out and started feeding about 80 yards away.
“I had an adrenaline rush right away,” Madison says. “I knew he looked big, but not as big as he actually was.”
She was hunting with a CVA Scout .243, and the shot was perfect. The buck ran just 30 yards before piling up.
“I was just full of adrenaline,” Madison says. “It didn’t even really sink in at first that I’d gotten him.”
The hunt was especially memorable because it wasn’t just a nice buck—it was her first deer ever. On a place her family has hunted for years, with her brother and dad there to celebrate, it’s a hunt they won’t forget.
The buck was a complete surprise—no trail cam photos, no early-season sightings. Just a big-bodied South Carolina bruiser showing up at the right time in the right place.
Madison’s advice to other hunters hoping to tag a buck like this?
“Be consistent,” she says.
Hard to argue with that.
