John Hatt always thought the grass was greener in Kansas. Not only is the Sunflower State one of the top yielders of monstrous whitetails, but the archery licenses and tags also are virtually guaranteed (for those who apply in April).
The bowhunter came close to tying his non-resident tag on his career-best deer in 2017, but the estimated 170-incher stopped short of his shooting lane. He went home to Paw Paw, Michigan, without it.
His very bad season became very good a few days later.
When John returned home to Van Buren County, he retrieved a nighttime trail camera photograph of the huge 12-pointer he’d been keeping tabs on since 2016. It was dated Nov. 18.
“The next Saturday morning, I was torn between hunting the south bean field where my wife had seen the buck or our north field. I decided to hunt north,” he told Richard P. Smith, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine.
That was the right choice.
He saw the buck almost 130 yards away, a comfortable distance for his slug gun, at half past 8:00. It was coming his way, though. When it had cut the distance to 45 yards, John grunted to stop and shoot the deer.
John called the neighboring landowner to gain permission to track the deer, which had crossed the property line while barreling away with holes in its lungs.
John didn’t know where the 20-gauge slug hit the deer until he found it. He thought the shot was good, and it was, but the 7 ½-year-old buck traveled 200 yards before realizing it could no longer breathe.
At 184 4/8 inches, the deer’s antlers are about 50 inches bigger than his best Kansas whitetail’s tally.
— Read Recent Blog! Destination: Deer: Hunter: Lance Faidley | The deer tallies 209 5/8 inches on the BTR scale.