VIDALIA — Bradford Prunty was ready to leave his deer stand early on the morning of Jan. 21.

He had not seen much, and his patience was running short, but his grandfather, Ronnie Bradford, convinced him to stay a bit longer.

“Big Daddy said we should wait until 8:20 a.m.,” Prunty said. “So I said, ‘OK, we’ll wait and see.’”

Soon after Bradford convinced his grandson to wait a little longer, a big buck popped his head out from behind some trees. It was an eight-point buck.

“Big Daddy said, ‘Shoot,’” Prunty said. “I waited a second and shot and dropped him. I hit him in the shoulder, and he dropped as soon as I hit him.”

It was Prunty’s first buck, and he said he was very excited.

“I have taken a bunch of shots, but it was the first time I killed a buck,” he said. “I killed some does, but this was my first buck.”

Despite the buck being Prunty’s first, he considers himself an avid hunter at 9 years old.

“I hunt hogs, bobcats, anything,” he said. “I’ve killed three hogs before.”

Prunty said he preferred to hunt hogs, until he got his buck.

“I like deer more, since I killed the buck,” he said. “It was my first time killing a big buck, and it was exciting.”

Prunty’s father, Ashley Prunty, taught him how to hunt at a very young age, and Bradford accompanied his father on hunting trips when he was 2 years old.

He learned to shoot at 4 years old and killed his first doe at 6.

“My dad taught me to shoot the deer in the shoulder and put the crosshairs right on top of the shoulder,” he said. “I thought about that, and I wasn’t nervous (when I killed the buck).”

Bradford hit the buck right where his father taught him to aim.

Bradford and his family eat what they kill, and he said the deer meat and hog meat are pretty good.

“The sows taste good,” he said about hog meat.

One of Bradford’s proudest hunting moments was killing his first duck recently. He has the trophy mounted in his room and plans to put his buck mount in his room as well.

Bradford said next season, he hopes to get a nine-point, but he is really just looking forward to getting back in the woods and trying to bag another big buck.

Bradford is the son of Ashley and Ashley Prunty.