Rack Magazine

You’ll always find what you’re seeking in the last place you look.

The day after the 2015 deer season ended, one of Jamie Barnette’s trail cameras photographed the biggest – if not, certainly the most unique – whitetail he’d seen in eight years of hunting Kansas. He and his buddies pegged it as a 3-year-old wearing at least 200 inches of antler.

The buck with matching drop tines continued walking in front of the lens for five consecutive days before it became camera-shy. The gang nicknamed him Double Drop.

They found one of the distinctive deer’s shed antlers the following spring, which confirmed their initial estimation of its score. The find also reminded them of why the long drive from Louisiana was worth it.

“A group of five friends and I have been hunting the same Kansas farm for a long time,” Jamie said. “Although we’ve hunted all over the United States for big bucks, we believe Kansas offers the best opportunity to take one with a bow.”

He and a buddy, Peyton Farr, drove to their camp on July 10 to perform a few chores and to pull trail camera cards.

“To reach the spot where we had trail camera pictures of Double Drop, we had to go through a pasture with bedded cows,” he said. “When the cows suddenly jumped up, so did Double Drop. Peyton and I got a good look at him in velvet as he was running toward us from about 75 yards.”

Although Jamie and his friends continued to check their trail cameras, they didn’t get another picture of Double Drop. They assumed they’d spooked him off the 4,000 contiguous acres they hunt.

In August, Jamie put out 10 additional cameras where he’d last spotted Double Drop. Because his sister, Alisha, and her husband, Scott Langley, were going to the property in September, he sent her a map of their locations and asked them to pull the cards and send them to him.

“When I received the camera cards, I sat down and looked through every one. There were no pictures of Double Drop,” Jamie said. “But there were only nine cards.”

Jamie returned to camp on Oct. 1 to kick off bow season. Members usually wait until late October or early November to hunt, but he was anxious.

“When I mentioned to my sister that I got only nine trail camera cards from her, Alisha pointed to a spot on the map where the 10th camera should have been, saying she couldn’t find it,” Jamie said.

Job one was to drive his four-wheeler to the spot, pull the camera’s card, and return to camp to view it.

Of course, his dream buck was among the images.

“Double Drop had walked in front of that 10th camera every day for three to four weeks. That helped me learn the route he took from a giant cornfield to where he bedded, “Jamie said. “I had put that 10th camera on a bluff bank overlooking the Missouri River. Double Drop was crossing a nearby saddle every day.”

Jamie had his wife and family with him at the camp. Before he left, he hung a treestand and trimmed some limbs close to the spot where Double Drop was crossing the ridge. He then took his family home, and then turned around and drove back to Kansas.

He knew a south wind was necessary to hunt from the new treestand, so he didn’t visit the setup the first two days.

“I was sitting at camp, going crazy because I wanted to get in that stand,” Jamie said. “But if I tried to hunt Double Drop with a bad wind and spooked him, I knew I might never see him on this property again.”

While biding his time at camp, Jamie studied topo and aerial photo maps to determine the best route to his stand without Double Drop seeing or hearing him. The stealthiest approach was a 3/4-mile hike through the woods.

Jamie got his south wind on Oct. 14, but Double Drop was a no-show.

Just before lunch the next day, he pulled the card out of that 10th trail camera en route to his treestand. Once aloft, he looked at the photos through his cell phone’s card reader.

Double Drop had come through after Jamie left the previous evening.

As the sun began setting on Oct. 15, does moved slowly through the ridge’s saddle en route to the nearby cornfield. At 7:15 p.m., another doe came in and started feeding on acorns.

To verify he could still see his pin in the shadows, he drew his bow and looked through his peep sight. There was still time to shoot, and he could see.

“Just as I let down my bow, I heard a deer walking very quickly toward the saddle,” Jamie said. “It was Double Drop.

“When he was within bow range, I whistled and grunted to stop him, but he kept walking,” he continued. “I aimed a little ahead of his shoulder and released the arrow.”

The magnificent buck traveled only 50 yards after the Rage broadhead hit its mark.

This article was published in the Jan/Feb 2018 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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