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At age 26 Cody McColloch of Coleman Falls Virginia already has 22 years of hunting experience under his belt. Cody can still recall his first memories in the woods, when at only 4 years of age his grandfather would take him hunting. Cody was too small to climb the ladder of the tree stand so his grandfather would load him into a 5 gallon bucket and lift him with an attached rope into the elevated stand.
I can only assume that those early experiences paid off for Cody on the 2015 opening day of Virginia's bow hunting season. He was hunting a friend's farm in Campbell county where they had several quality trail camera pictures of a great buck that had recently began to frequent the property.This farm exercises deer management and the hunters rarely travel too far into the property as to not disturb things until the season begins.
As Virginia bow hunters know our opening weekend was greeted with torrential rain that was part of hurricane Joaquin, but Cody decided to sneak in and hang a stand mid day on Saturday. After hanging his stand he quickly climbed into it and waited out the wind and light rain.
Shortly after 6 p.m. a six point buck made it's way up a trail that led right below Cody's stand. Thirty minutes later the big summer buck that had garnered much attention came along the same path. Of course to make things a little more challenging, and just like most mature bucks do it ventured off the path about 35 yards away from the hunters stand. The big buck stopped in it's tracks and threw it's nose into the air. Cody contemplated whether he should try to grab his range finder or just grab his bow?
Knowing that this cautious animal wasn't up for any extra movement he decided to slowly remove his PSE bow madness from it's resting spot and he drew down on a buck of a lifetime. With the buck quartering away from him slightly he knew that his rage tipped arrow would need precise accuracy.
Without any delay he released the arrow, but due to the conditions he couldn't identify that typical "thud" sound an arrow makes when hitting pay dirt. Cody remained in the tree for another hour not truly knowing whether or not he had hit the Campbell County Whopper. When Cody finally decided to climb down darkness had set in and a friend joined him for the search. Initially they went over to where he had shot at the buck in hopes of finding the arrow. To their dismay no arrow could be found and the friend suggested that they back out and come back tomorrow. Cody not prepared to leave just yet began shining his flashlight around a bit and only some 15 yards away the bucks big rack gathered up the lights attention and the high fives began.
This story has similar characteristics to the other success stories that I have been fortunate enough to cover. I really enjoyed speaking to Cody and living his hunt vicariously through him. This is a true Virginia giant archery harvest and I imagine this buck will do well in the big game shows next year.
In his humble way Cody wanted to make sure that credit was given to his friend Tyler who helped put him on this big buck.
All hunters, especially bowhunter realize how difficult it is to get a great whitetail within shooting range much less to actually hit the mark on that giant while gathering all your emotions into that moment of release. For that our Virginia hunting community gives Cody a ton of well deserved credit !
**Official P&Y score-168**
Jeff Phillips
At age 26 Cody McColloch of Coleman Falls Virginia already has 22 years of hunting experience under his belt. Cody can still recall his first memories in the woods, when at only 4 years of age his grandfather would take him hunting. Cody was too small to climb the ladder of the tree stand so his grandfather would load him into a 5 gallon bucket and lift him with an attached rope into the elevated stand.
I can only assume that those early experiences paid off for Cody on the 2015 opening day of Virginia's bow hunting season. He was hunting a friend's farm in Campbell county where they had several quality trail camera pictures of a great buck that had recently began to frequent the property.This farm exercises deer management and the hunters rarely travel too far into the property as to not disturb things until the season begins.
As Virginia bow hunters know our opening weekend was greeted with torrential rain that was part of hurricane Joaquin, but Cody decided to sneak in and hang a stand mid day on Saturday. After hanging his stand he quickly climbed into it and waited out the wind and light rain.
Shortly after 6 p.m. a six point buck made it's way up a trail that led right below Cody's stand. Thirty minutes later the big summer buck that had garnered much attention came along the same path. Of course to make things a little more challenging, and just like most mature bucks do it ventured off the path about 35 yards away from the hunters stand. The big buck stopped in it's tracks and threw it's nose into the air. Cody contemplated whether he should try to grab his range finder or just grab his bow?
Knowing that this cautious animal wasn't up for any extra movement he decided to slowly remove his PSE bow madness from it's resting spot and he drew down on a buck of a lifetime. With the buck quartering away from him slightly he knew that his rage tipped arrow would need precise accuracy.
Without any delay he released the arrow, but due to the conditions he couldn't identify that typical "thud" sound an arrow makes when hitting pay dirt. Cody remained in the tree for another hour not truly knowing whether or not he had hit the Campbell County Whopper. When Cody finally decided to climb down darkness had set in and a friend joined him for the search. Initially they went over to where he had shot at the buck in hopes of finding the arrow. To their dismay no arrow could be found and the friend suggested that they back out and come back tomorrow. Cody not prepared to leave just yet began shining his flashlight around a bit and only some 15 yards away the bucks big rack gathered up the lights attention and the high fives began.
This story has similar characteristics to the other success stories that I have been fortunate enough to cover. I really enjoyed speaking to Cody and living his hunt vicariously through him. This is a true Virginia giant archery harvest and I imagine this buck will do well in the big game shows next year.
In his humble way Cody wanted to make sure that credit was given to his friend Tyler who helped put him on this big buck.
All hunters, especially bowhunter realize how difficult it is to get a great whitetail within shooting range much less to actually hit the mark on that giant while gathering all your emotions into that moment of release. For that our Virginia hunting community gives Cody a ton of well deserved credit !
**Official P&Y score-168**
Jeff Phillips
At age 26 Cody McColloch of Coleman Falls Virginia already has 22 years of hunting experience under his belt. Cody can still recall his first memories in the woods, when at only 4 years of age his grandfather would take him hunting. Cody was too small to climb the ladder of the tree stand so his grandfather would load him into a 5 gallon bucket and lift him with an attached rope into the elevated stand.
I can only assume that those early experiences paid off for Cody on the 2015 opening day of Virginia's bow hunting season. He was hunting a friend's farm in Campbell county where they had several quality trail camera pictures of a great buck that had recently began to frequent the property.This farm exercises deer management and the hunters rarely travel too far into the property as to not disturb things until the season begins.
As Virginia bow hunters know our opening weekend was greeted with torrential rain that was part of hurricane Joaquin, but Cody decided to sneak in and hang a stand mid day on Saturday. After hanging his stand he quickly climbed into it and waited out the wind and light rain.
Shortly after 6 p.m. a six point buck made it's way up a trail that led right below Cody's stand. Thirty minutes later the big summer buck that had garnered much attention came along the same path. Of course to make things a little more challenging, and just like most mature bucks do it ventured off the path about 35 yards away from the hunters stand. The big buck stopped in it's tracks and threw it's nose into the air. Cody contemplated whether he should try to grab his range finder or just grab his bow?
Knowing that this cautious animal wasn't up for any extra movement he decided to slowly remove his PSE bow madness from it's resting spot and he drew down on a buck of a lifetime. With the buck quartering away from him slightly he knew that his rage tipped arrow would need precise accuracy.
Without any delay he released the arrow, but due to the conditions he couldn't identify that typical "thud" sound an arrow makes when hitting pay dirt. Cody remained in the tree for another hour not truly knowing whether or not he had hit the Campbell County Whopper. When Cody finally decided to climb down darkness had set in and a friend joined him for the search. Initially they went over to where he had shot at the buck in hopes of finding the arrow. To their dismay no arrow could be found and the friend suggested that they back out and come back tomorrow. Cody not prepared to leave just yet began shining his flashlight around a bit and only some 15 yards away the bucks big rack gathered up the lights attention and the high fives began.
This story has similar characteristics to the other success stories that I have been fortunate enough to cover. I really enjoyed speaking to Cody and living his hunt vicariously through him. This is a true Virginia giant archery harvest and I imagine this buck will do well in the big game shows next year.
In his humble way Cody wanted to make sure that credit was given to his friend Tyler who helped put him on this big buck.
All hunters, especially bowhunter realize how difficult it is to get a great whitetail within shooting range much less to actually hit the mark on that giant while gathering all your emotions into that moment of release. For that our Virginia hunting community gives Cody a ton of well deserved credit !
**Official P&Y score-168**
Jeff Phillips
