Big Buck 411 Blog

No. 19

No. 19

By Mike Handley

Dillon and Brooke Evans’ home is almost a shrine to whitetails. Inside are 18 deer mounts, and No. 19 will soon join them.

The Oklahoma taxidermist tried his best to shoot the deer in 2019, but it gave him the slip. When he retrieved trail camera photographs of it in the summer of 2020, the rack appeared to be at least 30 inches bigger.

Although Dillon knew his chance at the monster would come early or not at all. Most bucks leave his property long before the rut.

Nevertheless, he reluctantly avoided his spot on opening day because the wind wasn’t optimal. But it was perfect when he went out about 3:30 on the afternoon of the second day.

Two hours into his vigil, the buck at the top of his wish list came into the field he was watching. It was accompanied by a 10-pointer that might have scored on the 140s.

“As soon as I saw them, I began shaking. It was so bad that the treestand was also vibrating,” Dillon told Lisa Price, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine.

About eight other deer appeared soon afterward. There were so many spread across the field that Dillon worried one would eventually smell him and warn off the rest.

During the next couple of hours, one doe passed within 10 yards of him. The bucks came closer, then more distant, and then nearer still. Dillon had already drawn his Mathews bow when the giant hit the 18-yard mark. He’d had plenty of time to get over the shakes.

“After the smack, the buck mule-kicked and ran in a circle,” he said. “It wound up plowing into a thicket about 25 yards away, where I heard it crash. If the deer had kept going, I would have seen it emerge. But it never came out the other side.”

That’s why he didn’t bother waiting before going to the downed animal.

Dillon’s buck hasn’t been taped for the BTR yet.

Copyright 2024 by Buckmasters, Ltd.

Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd