The last time I wrote on this page was October 11th. A lot has changed for me since then. Starting with my passion and love for the whitetail deer and hunting them has gone through the roof. Now I understand how people can be so obsessed with this sport. It was the chance to join in, and film, the hunt for a 200+ inch deer that drove me to make whitetails my personality. After having the opportunity to be in the presence of such a beast of a deer, I will forever be chasing that feeling. There is nothing like it.
I knew going into the season that I was going to be filming Cole a lot. He has access to a nice farm that holds some great deer for the Missouri Ozarks. The season started on the hunt for this special 9 pointer that had been around for a few years. This deer was never seen in the daylight, and eventually disappeared around mid to late October. This was a bummer. Later, one of the neighbors ends up getting him on the morning of the second day of rifle season. We had not seen him in a while, so this was no surprise to us. But, two days before youth season, October 26th, a deer we called Droppy showed himself on game camera. This made up for the disappearance of the 9 pointer. Droppy showed up on the farm in 2022, showing off a 170”-ish rack. A giant buck. He was never seen in person, and game cameras helped us know that he survived rifle season. Then he was still showing himself after all of the deer seasons were closed, so we knew he survived. Cole and his family put in a lot of work over the summer to plant food plots and do what they can to provide the deer with everything they need to help survival. Come closer to season, Cole asked if I thought Droppy would show back up, I said no. But, after just over a month of hunting the 9 pointer (previously mentioned) Droppy showed himself. I was shocked that he was around, and not to mention that he was a giant this year.
This changed everything. I was in Maryland on a work trip when Cole called me to tell me the news. I was dying to get back to Missouri as there was a major cold front coming through and I thought this was the best chance to kill him. Also, once I got back, I was on vacation for a week. The timing was perfect. The week came and went, no visual sightings of the deer but game cameras let us know he was around. The weekend after that was shaping up to be good weather. But, it was also the opener of rifle season, and some of Cole’s family were going to be down at the farm hunting. We hunted the Thursday before, no luck. Friday came and we had a good idea on his location from game cameras. As we were driving in to the farm, we decided to access our area from a different spot. As we are rounding the corner to our parking spot, there he is. Standing in the middle of the road. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing, it was like seeing a ghost. He casually walked onto Cole’s farm, and we turned around to change access points. We couldn’t believe it. If anyone else would’ve seen him, who knows what would have happened. We turned around, but we still wanted to set up in the same tree as we planned. This would put us in a great transition spot from where we knew he was. We get set up in the dark. The morning was very crisp, the air was chilly and it felt like a big deer morning. As light is just beginning to break, Cole spots a deer in the small food plot to the west of us about 100 yards. He throws up the binos and says “It’s him”.
In that moment, I freaked out on the inside and my heart started racing. Once I got a look at him myself, it did not seem real. Why were we here, in a tree, 100 yards away from the biggest deer we may ever hunt? Once I realized I wasn’t dreaming, or seeing a ghost, I went into my “don’t mess this up” mode. I had a good hide, and I was going to be able to film the deer all the way in if he came our way. He was just feeding, we agreed that grunting at him would be a good idea. Cole grunted, he threw his head up, and turned our direction. Now, if I wasn’t already feeling like I was about to have a heart attack, I was sure that I was going to die up in that tree. I closed my eyes, took some deep breaths, and told myself you can not mess this up. The feeling was insane. I film for a living, I have spent many hours behind a camera. This was just another day, the only difference is that this moment will only happen once in my life. Is it recording? No pressure. Droppy crosses the creek, and I knew we were in the game from there. He does everything as perfect as you could imagine. Just like we drew it up, it was incredible. He’s closing in, gets to 30 yards and Cole draws. The deer hears this, looks around and then right up at us. The shot goes off. Right over the top of him.
Like anything traumatic, it takes a minute to set in. You start to realize that the opportunity that was just presented will never happen again. That is the beauty in hunting. And that is why emotions will rise and fall in as fast as a second. My instinct was working overtime and I start filming Cole after the shot. It was emotional. We sat in the tree for several minutes. We finally get down and go find the arrow that only confirmed what we already knew. Now what? All of the time and effort that has gone into this deer felt like it was gone. It was a complete restart. I didn’t know if I had it in me to do this all over again. We hunted that evening with little to no confidence left in us. We were only out there because the deer was alive. Rifle season opened on Saturday morning. Still bummed, we sat in a spot that we thought would be good if deer were running around. Same for that evening, no luck. Sunday we had the farm to ourselves in the morning. The morning was slow, and it was warming up to 63 degrees through out the day. We were drained. Tired, sore, mentally exhausted, thinking of what could have been. We decided to go sit in a double man tree stand Sunday evening. With little to no expectations, we took the bare minimum in hopes of maybe seeing a deer. At 3:35ish, I could hear a deer to my right. It was taking its sweet time and we didn’t expect it to be anything more than a spike. It finally gets to wear we were going to be able to see it at any time, Cole sees the deer first. “It’s him”. I thought there is no way. He was behind a bunch of thick cover for me and I couldn’t get an eye on him. Finally I can see him. We have to watch him for a little bit before either one of us can move. He finally gets behind a cedar and I raise my camera and Cole raises his rifle. The deer is right below us. Cole has to stand up to shoot, and I’m holding the camera up by my head to film at such a downward angle. After what feels like forever, he finally steps out enough for a good shot, for both of us, and the gun goes off.
I can not explain the feeling that went through me at that moment. The deer ran directly below us and we watched him fall. We had just done what I thought to be the impossible at that point in time. A second chance? At an even closer range? At 3:44 in the afternoon on a sixty degree day? That’s not supposed to happen. Someone was looking out for us. We were pointed in the direction and given the strength to stay out there. We got down and walked up to the deer. This was the final moment of amazement in the whole story. Getting to see this beast up close was un-believable. I had never seen anything like it. The relief was heavy. We did it, and I could not believe it. Up until this moment, I was in a rough place mentally and physically, this deer was draining me. I knew the reward would be worth the commitment. It was far beyond worth it. I knew this story was special, and for me, capturing it all on film was a huge milestone for me as a filmmaker.
This deer forever changed how I look at hunting whitetails. It used to just be something we did because it was fun and we grew up doing it. We would go out ad hope to see something. But once you start to hunt deer based off behavior, and patterns, and history, and what he might do next, all of this makes it a challenge. You are putting yourself in their game, and they have a huge advantage. Each deer is unique, they all behave differently, and figuring that out is more fun than the final moments in taking the shot. Once you beat a deer at his own game, it becomes addicting. Putting yourself in position to get inside of bow range of a mature whitetail, and he not know you are there, is a satisfying feeling. A feeling that I believe comes from deep within us as human beings. Our history as a species can be thanked to archery and hunting with a bow, many, many years ago. We obviously have modern advantages, but that instinct to hunt and provide is within all of us, whether we have opened that box or not.
I know I have said Thank You many times to everyone who supported us before and after the hunt for this deer. Without the motivation from everyone, it would have been hard to not give up at times. As for the future, we may never top this, Cole or I. I do know that I will always be chasing that feeling for the rest of my hunting career. I can not wait to see where this sport takes us. The hunting community is under attack, but is becoming a stronger family each day. We can not forget why we do this, and the real reason why we love this great American past time.
