Story by: Jake Dierking | MO Deer Hunter
The story of this buck started in the summer of 2015 when we started getting trail cam pictures of a really nice young 12-pointer with four abnormal points. Showing a young age, there was no doubt that this buck had a ton of potential.
We hunted that farm quite a few times throughout 2015, but we never saw him until December, despite having a lot of pictures of him on the farm throughout the season. I finally laid eyes on him in late-December while muzzleloader hunting, but unfortunately, he had already lost his right side, so I elected to pass on him.
A trail cam photo of the buck from 2015 and the shed antler Jake found in spring.
We kept getting trail cam pics of him after the encounter and once we saw he had dropped both sides we went out looking for his sheds. It didn’t take long before I found his left side and it didn’t disappoint.
The following July I put two trail cameras up over trophy rocks hoping the buck was still around and supporting a bigger rack. After we pulled the cards in August, I could not believe my eyes! The buck had absolutely blown up! He was still a main frame 12-point with split brow tines like the year before, but now he had kickers, flyers, and drop-tines galore! We could tell he was a really special buck, but we were thinking he was more around the 200-inch mark.
Trail cam pic of the giant Missouri buck over a Trophy Rock.
Now it was time to pattern and hunt this giant buck of a lifetime. We put up four more trail cams to get a better idea on his movements and patterns. With plenty of pictures of him, we had a pretty good pattern on him heading into the start of Missouri bow season. However, due to work and poor weather conditions, we were only able to hunt him a handful of times in September and October, and the only sighting of him was while my brother and dad were driving in to hunt.
I took off one day to hunt this year and it was November 7th, with the wind blowing from the southeast that day, I was able to go in to my favorite bow stand (have had a lot of success here previously), which happened to be right in his bedroom. We had most of our pictures and videos of him less than 50 yards from the stand. Walking in that morning I didn’t spook any deer, which is rare because I have a long walk in.
I got up in the stand about 30 minutes before light and immediately started to see deer. That morning I saw five different 1.5-year-old bucks before I saw the big one, 80-yards out in the brush. I tried grunting at him, but all he would do was look at me. As I watched him leave, my heart sunk knowing it was my last day to bow hunt before the rifle season started the following week.
Later, a nice 8-pointer came by, but never offered a shot as he wondered off into the cedars. A few minutes later, I could hear two bucks fighting near the area where he walked in. Shortly after, two does came out of the cedars and right behind them was the huge buck we had been after all season! The does brought him right under my stand for a perfect quartering away shot at ten yards and the rest is history.
The buck ended up with an official score of 267 7/8 inches, making it the second largest buck in the state of Missouri and 4th in the world as a non-typical Pope & Young!
A SnapChat sent out by Jake after it had been officially scored by Boone & Crockett
The amount of inches this buck put on from 2015 to 2016 is simply amazing!
