Kentucky bowhunter Dave Morgan played cat and mouse with an Ohio buck for more than three years before hearing his bowstring hum while looking at it.
Dave hunts 2,000 acres of family land in Pike County, and the property is teeming with whitetails. He pulled the first trail camera photograph of his 2014 buck back in 2010.
He almost got a shot at it in 2011, but that was the last time he saw the deer from his stand until 2014. Another bowhunter saw it twice in 2012, and the buck stepped in front of a camera hundreds of times in 2013.
The first photo of 2014 came in August. Then Dave actually saw the deer in mid-September, about two weeks before the bow opener.
"I was leaving the farm at dusk. The big buck was standing 30 yards from the edge of the road at the base of the hill I was planning to hunt," Dave told Dale Weddle, who penned his story for Rack magazine. "It still had loose velvet hanging from its rack where it had not completely shed."
The Friday before the Sept. 27 opener, Dave pulled cards from about a dozen cameras.
"The big non-typical with the stickers was on camera every day for the past two weeks in the area I had prepared to hunt," he said. "By the time I wrote down all the times from the different cameras, I had a pretty good idea of where it was bedding and where to hunt."
When to hunt was equally important, and Dave decided an evening sit was best.
Dave hadn't even pulled up his bow when he heard something coming in a hurry. It was the buck he'd been hunting for four years, and he was powerless to do anything except hold his breath and remain perfectly still.
When the deer was gone, Dave pulled up his bow. While he was cursing the cruelty of fate, two does wandered into his scent stream and boogied as well. The rest of the evening was uneventful.
Dave went out a little early the next day so he could move his stand about 30 yards. The mercury had climbed into the mid-80s, so he carried extra clothes.
"Afterward, I changed out of the sweaty ones and sprayed down with scent-killer," he said.
About 5:15, a doe came in and fed on the corn he'd spread for about 15 or 20 minutes. The buck with the familiar rack showed at 6:00, and Dave stole its breath.
The 8 1/2-year-old has a BTR composite score of 193 inches.
— Read Recent Blog!
From the Land of Ticks: David Howard / BTR Composite Score: 189 1/8