Aged to Perfection-Deer manager says letting the young guys walk to 7 1/2 is the key component to producing big bucks

Just when Forrest Hodges thought his deer season couldn’t get any better, it did.

On September 28 — opening day of the current statewide Managed Lands Deer and Archery Only whitetail seasons — the 37-year-old logging contractor from Jacksonville brought down a free-ranging whitetail buck with a magnificent set of antlers. Sporting 20 scorable points with thick main beams, the buck ran up a Boone and Crockett score of 187 4/8 inches. It weighed 220 pounds.

Amazingly, Hodges tagged two more mature bucks over the following three days that were equally impressive. Among them were a 195-pound 16 pointer scoring 188 2/8 B&C and a 219 pound 19 pointer taped at 178 6/8.