Photo Gallery & Stories | Deer Hunting & Management

Georgetown Hunter Bags First Buck at Five

Five-year old Steven of Georgeton, Texas, bagged his first buck ever on Saturday morning while hunting with his father near Winchester, Texas. Steven managed to hit the mature buck, an 11-point white-tailed deer with a 16 3/8″ inside spread, with a single shot from his .222 caliber rifle from 115-yards.

Although Steven was fortunate enough to bag his first buck on the morning of his very first day of hunting, he also managed to bag his second buck ever on the very same day! He harvested a 3-point buck that evening. Congratulations to Steven and kudos to his father!

Big Kansas Buck Has Third Antler in the Eye

The buck pictured here was harvested by Rex Covell of Shawnee, Kansas, during a Miami County archery hunt on October 23. The big whitetail buck, which actually has three antlers, has a drop-tine-like antler which passes through the head and drops out adjacent the buck’s left eye!

Covell said he is still on cloud nine.

“I had moved my Tri-Pod deer stand just a couple of days before, and I got in the stand about 4 in the afternoon. I was watching as other animals were around. A squirrel was near and I was watching it when I heard another noise. I looked around and this big buck had just jumped the fence and was coming right toward my stand.

It was all over in a matter of seconds. I didn’t really see the antler growing out by the eye, I just saw he was a big buck with a tremendous rack. I just had seconds to shoot. He was walking in when I let go.”

Here’s how the hunt went down: It was about 6:30 p.m.

Covell said the big buck ran only 30 to 40-yards before dropping dead. He was using a PSE bow, with a Goldtip shaft tipped with an After-Shock point.

He was amazed when he saw the antler sticking out from below the buck’s eye. “I thought at first he had been in a fight and the other buck’s antler had embedded and broke off,” he said. It was a while before he learned it was an abnormal antler growth giving the buck three antlers.

He called his friend Clarence Cooper of Paola to give him a hand. He also got in touch with Jeff Fraka, official Pope & Young scorer of white-tailed deer antlers. He was trying to explain to Fraka about the extra antler and Fraka broke in with:

“I know just what you are talking about. I’ve got a picture of him!”

Naturally Covell couldn’t believe it, but when Fraka e-mailed him a picture he had gotten on his Cuddeback trail camera in 2006, he believed.

“I would think it was the same deer,” Covell said. “The one Fraka had a picture of had a growth of some kind in the same area as the one I took.”

“I have a mineral lick the deer visited for four years before relocating to where Rex took him,” Fraka said. “I really believe the minerals help all deer in developing larger antlers. I can’t explain this abnormal antler from below the eye, though.”

A third antler may be scored, Fraka said, it’s just put in the abnormal (scoring) column.

“I was really wanting to have a whack at him,” Fraka said, “but I never saw the deer where he hung out for four years from my tree stand. I had at least 75 pictures of him in different stages. He green-scored at 192 4/8 inches non-typical.

I’m 90 percent sure this is a deer that was known to me as Boneface. He had disappeared from where I had a few Cuddeback pictures of him last year in velvet in August. He was not quite finished growing in the velvet photos. If this isn’t him we sure have some freak nasty genetics running rampant here in Miami County, Kansas.”

“Rex is very fortunate and a very serious deer hunter,” Fraka added. “I know a lot of people doubt it is true. I guess they are just the negative type.”

“By far it’s my biggest one ever,” Covell said. “I guess he would have weighed between 250 and 300 pounds.”

Of course he is having the head mounted. It will be available for display when the mounting is completed.

Honeymoon Hunters Bag Their Whitetail Bucks

For the couple that loves each other and shares the love of hunting big white-tailed bucks, what better way to celebrate their honeymoon than share a week outdoors with each other. I guess you could say Joe and Stacy planned a non-typical honeymoon, but they did manage to bag two great typical bucks at the Four A Ranch in Coryell County, Texas.

Joe and Stacy arrived at the ranch on Monday afternoon (Nov. 26) to spend their honeymoon and do a little hunting. And yes, they were married just the Saturday prior (Nov. 24). But the weather was cooperating and the two settled in for the commitment needed to bag the big boys. Here’s how it unfolded according to the ranch owner, David Anderson:

Stacy bagged her buck Tuesday morning out of the number 4 blind and actually shot the buck before sunrise. It really was a difficult shot because she couldn’t brace either elbow, but she ended up making a perfect shot. The whitetail buck ran in about a 50-yard circle before falling in almost the same spot that he was standing when she shot it!

Before cleaning Stacy’s buck, and friend and I decided to take the guts from a doe he had shot the previous afternoon to the disposal area. Along the way, we jumped a group of rutting bucks that were with a “hot” doe. They were back near the “sunflower patch.” The bucks followed the doe into our recently planted wheat field, so we knew where they were.

We went back to the lodge and Joe said he had seen the same group of deer cross in the distance. Joe jumped into the ranch truck and we cut across the ranch in an effort to get into position. We got out of the truck, and using the terraces on the hill sides, got as close as we could to the planted fields.

By this time, the deer were almost out of the field, but were headed away. Luckily for us, the doe started working back toward us with the bucks in tow. By the time they got into range for a shot, about 15 minutes, we couldn’t make a safe shot. So, we sweated it out for another twenty minutes while the doe slowly worked her way back to our right.

Finally, the doe got the best buck to where Joe could shoot. He used one of the pecan trees for a brace and dropped the buck where he stood at 152-yards.

Two great bucks in the same morning! They’re both very happy, as are we, and now we’re spending the rest of their honeymoon doe hunting, fishing, and looking for arrowheads.

And to top off the great hunting!

Check out the Four A Ranch Website

More Than One or Two Ways to Bag Your Buck

Rifles and archery equipment are the two of the most widely used tools for hunting white-tailed deer, but there is an alternative to both that many of you may have never considered. That’s right, handguns! Handguns add another element to deer hunting that is somewhere between rifle and bow hunting, especially when using traditional pistols not specifically designed for white-tailed deer hunting. These types of handguns demand close-range interaction between the hunter and game and also require hunter skill in their use.

Using a handgun to bag a white-tailed deer brings along some of the challenges that archery hunters face, mainly trying to get as close as possible to a deer without them detecting you. The 8 point, 5 1/2 year old buck pictured here was harvested using a .45 caliber Ruger P97DC at 15 yards while he was trailing a hot doe during the breeding season.

“I was sitting in a ground blind when a doe stepped out at about 85 yards. She was crossing an opening and I figured she was just traveling through. However, once she got about 30 yards away from the brush, I saw a mature buck following her, so it looked that the breeding season was still underway in the area. Based on the direction she way traveling I knew if she’d continue to work my way that I’d have a potential shot. The doe continued down the brush line and kept feeding towards me, and the mature buck was ever-so-slowly closing the gap between both her and I.

The doe kept feeding in my direction and the buck was following suit, without much hesitation. The two deer were closing the distance. When the buck was about 20 yards out, it looked like he was going to come even closer, as the doe was only about 10 yards from me, so I was going to let him keep coming. When he was at 15 yards, I knew it was time to make my move. I aimed right for the lungs and slowly squeezed the trigger — the shot connected! The buck lurched forward ran full-out for about 60 yards before I saw him collapse in some brush.

The whole time there was a 10 point, 2 1/2 year old buck standing 25 yards in front of me. The mature 8 point buck was hoping to gain breeding rights to the doe in estrus, but from a deer management standpoint I’m hoping the young 10 point buck will do what big boy wanted to do. This harvest made for a great hunting experience, put some meat on the table and hopefully resulted in overall herd improvement. This was my first big game animal of any species with a pistol, and he’s a nice whitetail buck. Can’t wait to get back out and try it again.”

Big Whitetail Bucks of 2007

With the 2007 deer hunting season well under way and even over in some areas, here are some of the big bucks hunters have bagged from across the United States.

If you have a photo of a big buck, or any buck for that matter, that you want to submit, send any information and/or story to me. I will keep updating the list with new additions as photos are received and bucks are harvested.

Oh, and the state from where the bucks were taken is below each photo. Enjoy!

268 4/8 B&C – Maryland