Hunter: Kyle Archer
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Newton
Season: 2019-2020
Hunt Story
This deer appeared several times over a three-year period in front of several trail-camera locations but was never observed in the woods during a hunt. Every time this buck appeared it was in the middle of the night or before sunrise at several stand locations. Only one time has this deer been noticed during daylight hours, which was captured on trail-cam video in August of 2018. He appeared in front of one of my other stands about 15 yards from the stand as though taunting me and fooling me into hunting the stand for the next few days hoping he would pass through going to or from a nearby thick area. On December 15th, I decided to hunt the large field on the property after getting pictures of this deer once again two days prior. I hoped that he would cruise through heading to one of two feeders or a nearby bedding area. I had decided to hunt a tower stand that I normally hunt with my sons. This field has produced good late season deer activity. Just before dark I noticed movement on the lower corner of the field. After looking through my binoculars I could tell this buck was a good deer but didn’t realize it would end a three-year game of hide and seek. I raised my rifle, turned my scope up to 9 and fired, hearing a thump just before seeing the deer bolt and disappear into a thicket of uncut field brush. After searching with my brother and his son all over the thicket for a blood trail, my hopes were tapering fast. My brother located my deer that had run about 50 yards without dropping any blood. My brother and I both realized that this deer was one he and I both hoped for and had several pictures of.
