After 12 years of mainly collecting venison for the freezer, Jared Foster decided in 2016 to hold out for a buck worthy of the wall.
It took the 34-year-old teacher and track coach eight weekends to do it.
The father of two toddlers passed up a lot of bucks in the 120s and 130s during Missouri's bow season. He even let a 140-incher keep on trucking, mainly because trail cameras had revealed several nicer ones were roaming the family property in Barton County, an hour and a half south of his home near Kansas City.
He hunted seven of the eight weekends during the archery season.
Jared's primary bow stand is a ladder-accessed homemade platform about 18 feet up a forked tree. It overlooks the intersection of prairie and unplanted crop fields, within range of a heavily used deer trail.
"There was no crop this year, however," he said. "And no planting changed things completely."
It didn't take too many sits for Jared to realize the local whitetails had shifted their main travel route about 120 yards north of his setup.
In preparation for rifle season, Jared decided a move was in order. He enlisted the help of his father-in-law, and they used a tractor to maneuver six large round hay bales - stacked two deep in a v shape - nearer to where he'd seen deer. He placed a bucket inside so that when he sat, only his head would show above the 5-foot-tall sides.
"My brother-in-law, Austin Fox, called it my hillbilly castle," he laughed.
Soon after daybreak on opening Saturday, Nov. 12, Jared saw three does enter the field about 750 yards distant. They crossed until they were only 150 yards to his left.
Not long after the does crossed, he heard the sound of antlers clashing and saw a young 6-pointer sparring with a 4x4. He watched them fight from 300 yards through his binoculars.
The ruckus eventually lured a 150-class 10-pointer from the opposite tree line. A minute later, another buck - wider, taller, and with kickers - stepped out behind the 5x5.
He waited until the bigger deer was in line with an oak tree he'd ranged, and he grunted as soon as it stepped past it. When the buck hesitated at not quite 150 yards, Jared squeezed his .270's trigger.
"I didn't hit a thing," he admitted. "I was shaking to pieces."
Fortunately for the thoroughly discombobulated hunter, the buck froze in place, which allowed Jared to work the bolt and fire again. That time, the deer's reaction indicated a hit.
After he and his brother-in-law found the dead buck, Jared got finger cramps from texting friends.
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New Alabama Record: This public land buck is Alabama's new No. 1 Typical in the BTR's blackpowder category. Its composite score is 190 1/8 inches.