On Nov. 9, Nic Fowler, of Hartwell, helped put Hart County back on the big-buck map after killing a 10-pointer that will be the new No. 2 buck of all-time from the county. Carried by super long tines and great mass, the unofficial gross green score was reported to be in the mid 170s. After side-to-side deductions, the net score looks to be in the upper 160s to possibly 170, at least close to the minimum of 170 for Boone & Crockett typical whitetails.

Nic began hunting the deer in 2016 after capturing it on trail camera as an 8-pointer. In 2017, it had grown into a 9-pointer, and this year it grew into a very tall-tined, wide-racked 10-pointer.

On the afternoon of Nov. 9, Nic couldn’t even make it to this deer stand before seeing his dream buck. The buck was chasing five does along the trail Nic was using to access his hunting area.

“When I saw him, I put my gun up to shoot him, but I got nervous,” said Nic. “I wanted to make a good shot.”

After a second to collect himself, Nic took a deep breath.

“He was still running. When I came back up looking through scope, the crosshairs came up his leg and got to his heart, and I squeezed the trigger. I knew I made a good shot.

“I knew I should wait, but I couldn’t stand it. I found some blood, and I found him lying there about 30 yards from where I shot him,” said Nic.

Nic was absolutely ecstatic to have killed the buck he had been hunting for the last three seasons.

“Talk about pumped up. I couldn’t even talk,” said Nic.

Nic said his taxidermist looked at the bucks’ jawbone and said he thought he was 6 1/2 years old.

“I’m going to send a tooth off to get it aged for sure,” Nic. “I’d love to know.”

The top deer from Hart County will be a hard one to beat. Kenton Adams has that spot with a buck he killed in 1986 that netted 184 0/8 typical inches. The current No. 2 deer was taken in 1987 by Larry Richardson, a deer that scores 155 5/8 inches.

“I just wanted to get him in there for my county because deer like this don’t come from Hart County,” said Nic.

Hart County’s most recent Top-10 entry in GON’s County-by-County rankings was in 2015 when Bryant Tipton killed what’s now the current No. 9 buck, and it scored 141 3/8 inches.

“It’s time to put Hart County back on the map,” said Nic.

Nic’s buck will certainly do that. It’s one of the best bucks from northeast Georgia in years.

The buck was not eligible for the Truck-Buck contest because Nic was not a subscriber to GON magazine at least one day prior to killing the buck. However, Nic made it a point to recently start his GON subscription just in case another giant walks out.

UPDATE: Nic Fowler’s Hart County buck was measured by an official B&C scorer with a net score of 172 0/8.



