180+ Inch Non-typical Buck Killed In Cook County

On Nov. 18, Aaron Storey, of Cook County, killed a non-typical 13-point buck that grossed in the low 180s.

Aaron had been on the hunt for this particular deer since September, which is when he got his first trail-camera picture of him. Aaron would go all of bow season and the first month of gun season before actually laying eyes on the deer. On Saturday, Nov. 17, the day before actually killing the buck, Aaron was on the stand and saw the giant buck with a doe.

“I had seen him across the field bumping the doe, and he was too far, so I thought I lost my opportunity that morning,” said Aaron.

The doe had led the buck into the woods, and Aaron wondered if he’d ever see the deer again. At that point, Aaron had been hunting the deer for 14 straight days.

The next morning, Aaron made it 15 straight days of hunting as he climbed in the stand before daylight. (Putting in the serious seat time must be a Cook County thing — check out this story about a giant buck from 2016 killed after 12 straight days of hunting.)

“It was really foggy, and just when day was breaking, a deer was bumping a doe in the same spot (as yesterday),” said Aaron.

Aaron Storey

Thankfully, the buck didn’t repeat his steps from the day before. Instead of running the opposite direction, he ran toward Aaron, which was when he noticed there were two does the buck was after. However, Aaron lost sight of the buck and the does once they got inside of an oak thicket. Fortunately, they didn’t stay in there long. A doe busted out of the thicket and used the fog to put some distance on the buck.

“He came out of the fog to find the doe, and he ended up 20 yards away from me, and I took the shot,” said Aaron.

The buck only ran 20 yards before falling over.

Aaron had several folks unofficially score the deer, and the gross score was consistently in the low 180s. The 13-pointer has six points on the left and seven on the right, with a third main beam on the right side. Aaron said the mass was 6 2/8 inches at the bases and carried 5-inch circumferences to the fourth measurement. The deer will score as a main-frame 10-pointer, and Aaron is eager for the 60-day drying period to arrive, so he can get it officially scored by a Boone & Crockett measurer and entered in GON‘s County-by-County Big-Buck rankings.

Unfortunately, Aaron will not be entering his buck into the Truck-Buck contest since he is not a GON Magazine Subscriber.

Cook County Top Bucks Of All-Time