Derek DeVader learned a valuable lesson this fall. If you’re keeping tabs on a mature Kansas whitetail that keeps disappearing in November, you can bet it’s ladies night somewhere else.
If you want the buck, you’d better find the does.
The 36-year-old farmer and father of three found them by accident in 2020, and he was rewarded with his second deer by bow.
He became aware of the giant deer’s existence through trail cam photos in July 2019. The 200-plus-inch buck hung around through mid-October, and then it vanished for almost a month. It did almost the same thing in 2020, disappearing in September.
Desperate, Derek moved a camera to a fencerow trail close to the buck’s suspected bedding area. On Nov. 8, the bull of the woods stepped in front of the lens at midnight, heading westward.
“Bells went off in my head. I thought it would’ve been heading east. It should’ve been heading east. But it went west, across the road. There’s nothing on that 80 acres,” Derek said.
A week later, he walked in to scout the property. About a half-hour before dark, eight or so does exited a patch of timber and passed within 7 yards of his hiding place.
That’s what this is about, Derek thought. There’s so many does over here, (the buck) switches sides. Seeing a good buck across the cornfield while walking out validated his theory.
The next day, Derek and his uncle erected a 15-foot ladder stand and clipped a few limbs. The 30mph wind helped cover the noise they made.
When his uncle left around 1 p.m., Derek decided to christen the setup. Nearly four hours later, he spotted nannies in a nearby bean field. Then he saw another doe with a buck in tow. The pair was across the waterway, but coming nearer.
The buck was enormous.
The twosome eventually crossed the creek. When the buck was 25 yards away, Derek had only two choices: let down or take a low-percentage neck shot.
The latter option was fine with him, but drawing was a problem. Thus, Derek convinced himself to try doing it as slowly and as smoothly as possible. No jerking. And no swing-and-lower.
Didn’t work, though. The buck still pegged him.
Realizing the futility of continuing, Derek let down the string as gently as he could. He was surprised when, instead of bolting, the buck merely turned around and began walking away at an angle.
“That gave me a now-or-never, quartering-away shot,” Derek said. “It was about 4:50 p.m. After the arrow hit, the deer mule-kicked and ran.”
The 5 1/2-year-old whitetail has been rough-scored at 226 7/8 inches.
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