Rack Magazine

This Arkansas buck wasn’t the sharpest broadhead in the quiver.

Because he has access to a friend’s 40 acres, Aaron Jolliff doesn’t have to travel far from home to hunt.

He spotted a tremendous buck working a scrape in mid-October, 2011, well beyond bow range. The next week, he borrowed a friend’s muzzleloader, one he’d actually sighted-in, hoping for a repeat performance.

When the buck obliged, coming within 50 yards, Aaron squeezed the trigger. And missed. Clean, too, judging from the deer’s lack of a reaction and the absence of any sign whatsoever.

Turns out, the gun was way off its mark.

Aaron suspected the big whitetail had found quieter, if not greener pastures in the next county. Five weeks passed before he retrieved a trail camera photograph of the familiar buck, taken on the night gun season closed.

He immediately began refocusing on the deer.

Aaron arrived late at the property on Dec. 3. It was already breaking day when he left his truck.

On the way to his stand, he saw what looked like a silhouette of a deer and immediately dropped to the ground. He managed to belly-crawl to within bow distance of the deer shape before raising his head enough to see that it was indeed the buck.

Estimating the distance was 35 yards, Aaron drew, released, and then watched the arrow sail under the huge buck. Surprisingly, it didn’t run. He nocked another arrow and drew again, but he had to let down when the deer moved behind a cedar tree.

The buck walked casually down the fencerow, watching the wide-eyed hunter, until Aaron drew a third time. And that’s when it hit the gas.

“I have never been so disgusted in my life,” Aaron said.

He figured there was no way the giant would give him another crack.

Aaron began his day on Dec. 12, setting up his new bow with his close friend and business partner, Nick Gann. A cold front had just passed through northwest Arkansas, leaving cool temperatures and drizzle in its wake, perfect conditions for spending time in a roofed deer stand.

After he and Nick finished setting up his new bow, they decided to hunt that evening. Their main goal was for Nick to harvest a doe for the freezer. Plan B would kick in if, against all odds, a certain buck happened to stroll by the monstrosity of a shooting house they planned to share.

Six years earlier, Randy Morris, the owner of the property and a dear friend, told Aaron he wanted to build him a better treestand. Aaron had been hunting out of an old ladder stand to that point.

Randy loved children, and he had a special place in his heart for Aaron. He wanted the new stand to be used for taking children hunting, and he even designed it so that a wheelchair can be hoisted up via pulley system.

The stand is immense, completely carpeted, has heat and air, a ceiling fan and two camouflaged La-Z-Boys! Aaron affectionately refers to it as The Hilton.

A hardcore bowhunter, Aaron rarely uses the stand when he’s by himself. He mostly hunts from fixed-position models where he’s likely to find himself within an arrow’s reach of venison on the hoof.

Aaron has taken many children to harvest their first deer from The Hilton, which is just what Randy, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2009, wanted.

Nick and Aaron had been in The Hilton only 20 minutes when does began coming onto the field it overlooked. Nick eventually picked out a large one in range and was waiting for her to turn when Aaron said, “Wait a minute. I hear a heavy-footed deer coming behind us.”

Nick already had his release clipped to the bowstring, was ready to shoot, when he glimpsed antlers.

“Aaron, get your bow. It’s him,” he whispered.

By the time Aaron grabbed his bow, the giant buck was standing at 24 yards, broadside. Aaron put his pin on the buck and released, and the arrow hit the mark.

Shocked that the buck had given Aaron a third chance, he and Nick listened intently and heard the buck fall. After a very short tracking job, the best friends celebrated.

Hunter: Aaron Jolliff
BTR Score: 173 7/8”
Compound Bow
Typical

– Photos by Steven Wright and Aaron Jolliff

This article was published in the Winter 2014 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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