Jordan Montgomery and Randy Prestridge knew a big buck was in the area they were hunting. Being friends and hunting partners, they teamed up placing cameras throughout a section of hardwoods with a creek running through. There wasn’t much to see throughout the summer except hogs.
Late October, Montgomery decided to bow hunt an area and checked a camera before hunting. The big bruiser had been there every day all week on numerous photos—all during nighttime. Montgomery hunted the area hard but never saw the deer.
Prestridge and Montgomery set a lot of cameras and got many pictures of the big buck.
“Everywhere we got a photo of the buck or knew someone else had a photo of the buck, I dropped a pin on my ‘onX Hunt’ map,” said Montgomery, “he was covering a large area.”
The two hunters thought they had pinpointed his bedding area and core travel areas, but there was a lot of hunting pressure with deer dogs. Most of the photos of the big buck were in the section of hardwoods in an old swampy area.
The hunters noticed the buck had an injured back foot that looked like an old gunshot wound that had healed. So, the buck acquired the name Slewfoot.
“I don’t like to name a buck I am hunting, but this one was worthy of a name,” added Montgomery.
Slewfoot makes daytime appearance
During the rut the big buck disappeared for three weeks with no photos, but Montgomery was persistent. A doe winded the hunter late one evening in early January, so he got down and headed home. Shortly afterwards his cell camera sent him a photo of the big buck after dark right where he had been. The next morning Montgomery was at work and received his first and only daylight photo of the deer at the same location.
On the evening of Jan. 22, a few days after dog season had ended, Montgomery went after the buck hoping that maybe it would slip up and move around once things had settled down from the dogs and hunting pressure.
Jordan got on the stand at 3:30 p.m. After a while, the hunter heard something behind him. Thinking it was only squirrels, he turned to look and spotted bushes shaking. Then he saw flicking of a white flag and knew it was a deer. It was thick, but Montgomery made out antlers and could see that it was a buck hooking a tree — he made out the long tine length and knew it was Slewfoot. The buck was only 30 yards and, on a ridge, almost eye-level with the hunter.
Montgomery positioned for the shot and held his rifle on a small opening, it would be his only chance. The buck crossed the opening quartering away and when the hunter saw a shoulder in his scope, he squeezed off a shot.
Tracking the buck down
The buck bolted and was gone. Montgomery found blood but didn’t want to push the buck. He called his co-worker and friend Braden Smith who has top-notch blood trail dogs.
Smith arrived and put a dog on the blood and tracked him by GPS. The dog went 60 yards and came right back.
“Your deer is dead,” exclaimed Smith.
The two followed the GPS track straight to the buck. The 10-pointer had a 17 ½-inch inside spread and is Montgomery’s biggest buck to date. The Lincoln County monster was scored by the taxidermist at 155 ½.
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