Hunter: Kevin Maxwell
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Pike
Season: 2024-2025
Hunt Story
I have been hunting for 41 years and killed a lot of deer but nothing this big, mainly because we are meat hunters. I have tried to instill the love of hunting into my children since they were little and I take them with me just about every hunt. So I started getting pictures of this deer about four years ago. I knew right away he would be a good one if he could survive that long. My plan was for one of my kids to take this deer but had told them if I had an opportunity I would shoot him. We don't have alot of hunting pressure around here but we do live in a somewhat urban area. This deer usually showed up in late December for a little while then he would disappear till the following year. This year he started showing up in October but only at night. I believe every picture I had of him was at night. That afternoon my youngest daughter and I got in the blind a little before 5. Shooting light ended at 6:09 so we only had about an hour. She had one buck tag left and I still had both of mine, so this buck was the only one on the hit list for her last tag. We do a lot of events with Hunting for the Cure so she needed to save her last buck tag for the deer hunts we have coming up with them. It was warm that afternoon but I knew the rut was getting close and anything could happen. I had hit the doe bleat and grunt call a few times but we didn't see anything. I am constantly scanning the woods with my binoculars to see if any deer are around or coming in. At around 5:50 I looked into the woods and saw the rear end of a deer and told her to get her shooting ear protection on because there was a deer coming in. At that point I looked again and saw it was him. I will be honest I had to take a second look. I couldn't believe it was him. I proceeded to tell her it was him and get ready. I get buck fever really bad any time I see a buck and this was the worse case I ever had. It so bad my kids give me grief about it. I even get it when they kill their bucks. Unfortunately, she couldn't see him and the way he was headed she would not get a second chance. I really wanted one of them to get him but I just couldn't let him get by us. So I got my rifle out of the corner of the blind and asked her again if she could see him. She said no and if I had a shot, to take it. I stopped him right between two trees and shot him. He turned completely around and went back the way he came. I thought I had missed him because of how fast he left out of there and didn't show any sign of being hit. I am going to be honest and tell you the buck fever kicked in over drive after I realized what had just happened. It all happened within about 45 seconds from when I realized it was him to taking the shot. So I finally got my composure after a few minutes. My daughter was laughing at me so hard because I couldn't quit shaking. So we went back to the house and dropped our stuff off to go look for him. I called my neighbor who owns the land behind us and told him and I shot the big 9 he also hunts but had never seen that deer. Turns out his is a 10-pointer with a small kicker off his right side just above the skull.. I asked for his permission to go look for him since that was the way he ran back to and he said go ahead and if I need help to call him. We share trail camera pictures of the deer we see.. He killed one of the other big ones last week we had on camera. He is a good neighbor. We walked to where I shot him but there was no blood. It was getting dark so we walked towards where I saw him run. I saw what looked like a white belly down the hill and when I looked through my scope it was him. I was still in shock. He is the biggest buck I have killed and if I never kill another I will be ok with that. I am so glad my daughter was with me for that hunt and really wished she would have got him. I have had mixed feelings about shooting him. I am glad I got him but disappointed the hunt for him is over and that one of my kids didn't get to take him. I have already got a lot of my buddies giving me grief about shooting him out from under my daughter. That's ok. I know for a fact they would have done the same thing.
