Drew Miller was glassing a cornfield near Paris, Texas, in mid-August when he spotted a giant buck with drop tines. The deer popped out of a cedar thicket about a half-mile north of his property.
Drew, who owns an oil change business, had always assumed the cedars were part of the neighboring dairy farm, where hunting isn't allowed. When looking at county plat maps, however, he realized the bedding area was on a little 6-acre block between his place and the dairy farm.
He was further elated to discover the parcel belongs to a family friend, which meant permission to hunt the ground was as easy as knocking on a door.
Almost immediately, Drew mowed a 35-yard strip next to a fencerow, baited it, and set out a high-dollar trail camera that sends photos to his cell phone. He'd borrowed it from a buddy.
The next afternoon, while Drew and his family were attending a children's revival at his church, the drop-tined buck stepped in front of the lens.
"When we came out of church, my phone just blew up," he said. "There was like eight or nine voicemails from my friend, whose number was still programmed in the camera."
Drew's own phone wasn't receiving the images because he had no cell service until they left for home. When the pictures began arriving, he steered onto the road's shoulder, slack-jawed.
Except for a couple of days, the deer was photographed at least once or twice daily from then until the Oct. 1, 2016, bow opener.
Drew did not sleep on the night before opening Saturday. He was excited because a cool weather front promised to drop afternoon temperatures from the 90s to the 50s. The moon phase was optimal as well. Plus, the buck had passed in front of the camera's lens both the previous morning and afternoon.
He was stoked.
That afternoon, he asked his wife, Brooke, to drop him off – sort of a rolling drop, since he hopped out of the back of the truck – near a blind he'd brushed-in about 30 to 40 yards off the seldom traveled road.
He chose the drop-off method because he didn't want to alert any deer that might be bedded in the cedars.
"I was in the blind and ready by 3:15, which was a good thing," he said. "That place was a zoo by 3:45. Lots of bucks. If I'd arrived any later, I'd have busted them out of there."
The deer of his dreams had broken off two drop tines before Drew ever pulled back his bow. He thinks those could've easily added another 20-25 inches to its already nearly 200-inch score.
His deer will soon be scored for the BTR.
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