The best day of a 15-year-old's life as a deer hunter was also the worst for some of his neighbors. Noah Rogers' big brother, Jared, wasn't exactly thrilled either.
A lot of people in that pocket of Powell County were salivating over a world-class whitetail seen and photographed on several area farms during the six years before Noah shot the local legend in 2020.
The deer was known as Kickers because its long-tined rack included several of them. Also, and the antlers' beam tips almost touched, making him easy to identify.
The Rogers own 63 mostly timbered acres, and the buck at the top of their lists - everyone's list - was hitting one of their protein blocks at night. Understandably, the ladder stand nearest the block was where both brothers wanted to hunt.
The younger brother's season got off to a rocky start.
"Noah had bought a new crossbow in September," his father, Dwayne, told Dale Weddle, who's writing the story for Rack magazine. "A couple of weeks before the season opened, he was practicing in the back yard when the bow just exploded.
"We took it back to Cabela's in Lexington on Sept. 24, and they gave him a new one," he added.
Noah wasted no time in acquainting himself with the new crossbow and sighting-in the scope.
Against his brother's wishes (but with dad's approval), Noah climbed into the coveted stand on Sept. 27. The first deer he saw that afternoon were a couple of spikes. The next to appear, after it began raining, was a doe.
After missing her, a dejected Noah retrieved his bloodless bolt and went back up the tree to finish his vigil. Before he could beat himself up too badly, he saw an enormous buck approaching on the nearby logging road.
"When I first saw it, the buck was coming from my left," Noah said. "It came to within about 20 yards and stopped with its head behind a bush. I wasn't sure it was Kickers, but I knew he was a decent size."
Decent isn't exactly the best way to describe a 195-inch whitetail, but Noah was more concerned with his crossbow's trigger than someone else's tape measure.
The teenager might've broken several hearts that day, but he also gained instant celebrity status in the community. The giant 16-point whitetail sported four tines more than a foot long, the longest measuring a whopping 16 2/8 inches.
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