Rack Magazine

Neither rain, sleet, snow nor an icy river can keep this deer hunter from pursuing what’s his.

Johnny Whitfield of Calico Rock, Arkansas, chased a Kansas buck across a frozen river three times before finally collecting his career-best whitetail.

The Sunflower State’s 2014 bow season marked the 10th year Johnny and his two sons made the yearly pilgrimage to a piece of public land around Neosho, Kansas, for a weeklong deer hunt. Not only did they hunt for trophy bucks, but the Whitfields also arrowed does to stock their freezers.

They began their Nov. 20, 2014, hunt under cold and clear skies. Johnny saw no deer that morning, but son Jacob arrowed a big 8-pointer about 7:00. Johnny helped load the tagged buck.

Jacob suggested his dad hunt near the same spot because he’d stumbled across sign of an even larger buck, and Johnny agreed.

“To reach the area, I used a ditch for cover until getting where I hung my stand. Along the way, I cleared shooting lanes,” Johnny explained. “I’d just barely gotten my climber up a tree and was still cutting branches when a doe came up the ditch and stopped just perfectly broadside about 30 yards from me.”

The doe had a shoot-me-now look in her eyes, but Johnny decided to wait and see if she had an admirer. Sure enough, seconds later, a giant deer materialized at about the same spot where the doe had stopped.

“The buck froze for a second, and I shot without really looking at its antlers. I’m bad to get buck fever and commence quaking,” Johnny said.

“The buck went down on its knees and made a sound I’d never heard a deer make before, more like a sick cow than a deer. Then it slowly got up, ran about 20 yards and hobbled away into some rough country nearby,” he added.

Johnny called Jacob to come help track the wounded animal. While he was waiting for his son to arrive, he couldn’t stay still, so he walked out to where the buck had initially collapsed.

“Near where the deer fell, I found the broken arrow and blood, so I knew I’d hit it,” Johnny said. “But I was afraid the arrow had gone in low on the shoulder, and I feared it wouldn’t be fatally hurt. I couldn’t decide if we should push the buck, or let it bed down and bleed.”

Father and son ultimately decided to start tracking immediately when they found lots of fresh blood. The trail led them down to a river where the ice was busted across in a deer-sized swath.

“We knew the buck swam the river, so Jacob went back for the truck while I walked along the bank, trying to find a shallow place to cross,” Johnny said. “When Jacob came roaring back, we crossed a bridge to the other side.”

When he reached the opposite bank, Johnny saw the deer lying down. When the deer saw Johnny, it hunkered down and tried to become invisible.

“I couldn’t see the buck’s body; just the head,” Johnny said. “I finally shot where I figured the arrow would hit lungs, but instead the point just skimmed its back. The buck finally got up, staggered to the edge of a field and disappeared.

“Right then, I was wishing for anything that would put that deer into the past tense,” he said.

When father and son found blood again, they realized the buck had doubled back and crossed the waterway again. The deer was back on the side of the river where the hunt began.

Rather than return to the truck, Johnny waded back across the river — barefooted — at a shallow spot. He pulled off his boots to keep water from going inside them. By the time he got to the other side, his feet were numb.

The buck was there, lying down again and not moving, when Johnny reached the original side. It watched as Johnny edged closer to launch a kill shot. But the hunter finally moved one step too close, and the deer plunged back in the river.

“The buck swam the river for the third time, but when it reached the other side, it was too weak to get up the bank,” Johnny said. “I finally got some sense and used my rangefinder. The shot measured 30 yards across the river.”

It was panic time. The buck was only about 75 yards from a highway and land that wasn’t public. If it escaped one more time, it might mean the loss of Johnny’s best deer ever.

“I finally started breathing again when the arrow went true and the buck collapsed, died and slid back into the water,” Johnny said.

When he got back across the river and finally dared to take a close look at the buck, his frozen feet were forgotten.

“This deer was so much bigger than anything I’d shot before, I just about couldn’t believe it was mine,” Johnny said. “Even now when I think about how close we were to losing that buck during those three river crossings, I almost can’t believe I’ve got those enormous antlers hanging on my wall.”

This article was published in the June 2017 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

• Dad’s Gun: Here’s why a Kentucky hunter is glad he walked away from his favorite stand and swapped rifles.

• 928 Inches and Counting: Ohio man is one deer away from owning records in every triggered category.

• Collision Course: Just when this Ohio man thought he was out of the hunt, he turned to see a giant bearing down on him.