On the final day of the 2021 Kansas deer season, 32-year-old Chase Wells located a big typical 10-pointer. The deer was making its way into a bean field when he saw it, and he immediately put it on his watch list for 2022-’23.
On Chase’s cattle farm in Osage County, nicknamed the Jack’d Up Ranch, he rears 30 heifers and bales hay and Alfalfa in the summer. His neighbors are farmers, and they all talk regularly about dry spells and deer movement.
One of Chase’s neighbors recovered a big shed during a controlled pasture burn, and another neighbor sent him a photo of a large buck on his property in August 2022.
“I knew it was him right then,” Chase told Buckmasters.
He dedicated at least 100 sits to the 21-pointer across three adjacent properties and ended up placing a ladder stand that overlooks a draw on his neighbor’s 160-acre tract.
“I’ve always doe-hunted this property. The does work through these two deep ravines and a ridge. It’s a tight funnel,” Chase said.
Early December 2022, Chris and his wife were hunting together. The plan was for her to take the shot, but with the temperature barely 5 degrees she had trouble switching her safety off. Chase wasn’t going to let this buck slip through his fingers.
“He came out of some brush trotting, and she couldn’t get the gun off safety. It was probably 5 degrees outside and she told me I needed to take the shot. I fired at 75 yards, and he took off like a rocket.”
Chase’s personal best, the buck was measured by Buckmasters master scorer Ed Waite Jr. in January. It stretched BTR’s tape to 223 6/8 inches.
You can read the full story in an upcoming issue of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine.
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