If Rocky Fahey hadn't stopped at a local watering hole in early November 2015, he might never have revisited the overgrown pasture he'd pretty much crossed off his list of deer hunting honey holes.
Rocky ran into a friend inside the bar who swore he'd seen a huge irregular-racked buck on the property. The tale sounded exaggerated if not completely farfetched to the bowhunter from Clifton, Kansas, until the guy called him on Sunday, Nov. 8.
"My friend called while he was out there, while glassing the buck from 400 yards," said Rocky, a self-employed land manager. "I figured the deer must be pretty big if it looked impressive from that distance."
Interest piqued, Rocky spoke to the landowner the next morning to reacquire permission to hunt the tract.
On Tuesday, Rocky hauled his stand to the same ash tree he'd climbed during previous seasons, the tree from which he'd arrowed a 150-inch buck four years earlier. The overgrown pasture is separated from crop fields by a strip of trees nearly 80 yards wide.
He saw a lot of rutting activity during the next three days, and he had some close calls with a shooter. He skipped Friday in order to take his daughter to the dentist.
Rocky was aloft again on Saturday morning, Nov. 14, the Sunflower State's pheasant opener. He saw a small buck at first light, but the echoes of shotgun blasts were keeping most deer in their cots.
Because his 11-year-old son was scheduled to play in a basketball game before lunch, Rocky telephoned his wife to say he should be home in time to attend. As soon as he disconnected the call, he looked up and saw an enormous buck at 40 yards.
Rocky did not make his son's game.
"It was coming toward me," he said. "My first grunt did nothing, but the second one stopped the deer at 12 yards. Perfect. I saw my arrow sail through the buck, which ran about 70 or 80 yards before I lost sight of it."
Rocky's camera photographed the distinctive whitetail four or five times in 2015. He eventually recognized the buck as one photographed during the 2012 and 2013 seasons as well. He believes it might've scored in the 130s (spread included) the prior year. He even allowed it to keep on trucking when it once passed underneath his stand.
Rocky never weighed his 25-pointer, but his taxidermist claims the buck had the largest neck of any deer he's mounted. Its BTR composite score is 208 2/8 inches, about 70 inches larger than it was in 2014.
I met him nearly a year ago at the Monster Buck Classic in Topeka, Kansas. This year's show is Jan. 27-29. For details, visit www.monsterbuckclassic.com.
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