A low-percentage stand in a wobbly tree puts bowhunter in the right place at the right time.
When Jeremy Way found both sheds off the buck he’d been hunting for two years, he was thrilled to learn it had survived the 2014 season. But when the 32-year-old hunter didn’t see the whitetail during the fall and winter of 2015, he was sure someone else had shot it.
Imagining the worst sent him into a funk.
Jeremy was so obsessed with the deer and so enamored of its world-class rack, he gave serious thought to taking the antlers he’d found to a taxidermist and having them anchored to a mount with a different cape. It seemed unrealistic to hold out hope the animal was still breathing.
Oh, he of little faith!
Jeremy first became acquainted with the MIA whitetail in 2013. He’d just gained permission to hunt property within walking distance of his home. His trail camera yielded one photograph of the buck.
The next time he saw the deer, or at least several nighttime images of it, was late into the 2014 season. But just because the nocturnal buck was less camera-shy didn’t mean it would stroll around in the wide open while the sun was shining.
Following that uneventful season, Jeremy searched long and hard for the buck’s shed antlers, and he found them on Jan. 19, 2015. His appetite was further whetted when he retrieved a couple of trail cam photos of the deer sporting its next rack-in-progress.
For the first time since collecting the single photo in 2013, Jeremy thought he had a decent shot at tagging the buck. But the animal dropped off the radar about a week before the Sunflower State’s firearms season opened.
It would remain gone for almost another year.
“I thought it was dead, to be honest,” Jeremy said. “I was sure somebody shot it during rifle season.”
Convinced the deer of his dreams was in a taxidermy shop somewhere, Jeremy gave serious thought to having the shed antlers mounted. He might’ve, too, if the 2016 season hadn’t arrived.
On a hot and windy Oct. 3, despite an unfavorable breeze, Jeremy and his brother-in-law, Teddy Barnes, walked to their stands about 5:30 p.m. That was before daylight saving time ended.
They made a spur-of-the-moment decision to hunt that evening while visiting Jeremy’s brother.
“It was definitely last-minute. The wind wasn’t right, and I didn’t really expect to see anything. Everything was wrong for hunting that place that day,” Jeremy said.
“Well … I guess it wasn’t wrong, was it?
“Because it was so late, we just went to my house,” he added. “The walk to the property is just 200 yards.”
Teddy was relatively new to hunting. He’d shot his first deer, a doe, the previous season.
To help Teddy get his first buck, Jeremy offered him the high-percentage spot while he went to a hang-on stand beside a standing cornfield. The perch was 15 feet up a very skinny tree.
“It’s so wobbly, you can’t even hunt out of it during a big wind,” he said. “I didn’t expect to shoot anything.”
However, about 10 or 15 minutes into his vigil, Jeremy turned to see the elusive palmated buck standing 40 yards away at the edge of the corn. He thinks the deer was stretching, because it went right back down and remained in its bed for nearly an hour.
“It might have been there the whole time,” he said. “For all I know, it could’ve watched me climb the tree. All it did was lie there and watch the corn.”
Accustomed to shooting stationary targets from 40 yards, Jeremy would’ve taken the shot if he’d had one. Unfortunately for him, there wasn’t a clear lane through which he could thread an arrow.
The buck made it easier when it finally rose and began walking toward Jeremy. There was plenty of space when the deer reached 30 yards.
After the arrow smacked it – a little forward – the buck spun and ran. Jeremy lost sight of it after 50 or 60 yards, but he heard a tremendous crashing noise he hoped was the deer going to ground.
He and his brother-in-law chose not to follow the trail that evening. Jeremy didn’t want to push the buck onto someone else’s land, so he spent an almost sleepless night waiting for the new day.
The search didn’t take long.
“I couldn’t stop counting the points. It was HUGE,” Jeremy said. “I was shocked. I didn’t even think the deer was still alive!”
Jeremy believes the whitetail was at least 6 1/2 years old. He’s since learned that a neighbor has trail camera photos of it from 2012, a year before he knew it existed.
The animal was clearly mature.
“I didn’t have any scales. But I weigh 270 pounds, and that buck made me look little,” said the 6-foot, 3-inch hunter. “I’ve shot some good deer, but nothing like this.”
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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