Braton Kay sought and gained permission to hunt 50 acres in October 2023 “just to keep him busy” while going to college in Wichita. The land is close to the school, mostly pasture, but there are a few timbered draws and a small pond.
The day after he gained access to the Sedgwick County tract, the now-22-year-old hunting manager at the local Scheels store put out four or five trail cameras. The deer he would shoot a couple of years later was among the first photographed.
At the time, it was an 8-pointer carrying maybe 110 inches of antler. It also appeared to have a broken front right leg, which earned him the nickname Crip.
“I wrote him off,” Braton said. “He was pretty dang sick, and I didn’t think he’d live through the season.”
That first year, Braton went on to arrow his largest whitetail to that point, a 164-incher.
He was shocked to see photos of Crip in 2024. The deer was skinny, but antler growth had really outpaced body weight.
While the new rack had gained about 60 inches, Braton decided not to take it. If the antlers were a third again the size of what they’d been the previous year, he wanted to see what would happen in another year.
He wound up tagging an 11-pointer.
Two bucks were among the first whitetails he spotted in midsummer 2025, and one of them was markedly larger than its companion. Braton couldn’t help wondering if it was Crip.
On Sept. 9, a week before the Sunflower State’s bow opener, one of his cameras captured video footage of the bull of the woods. Braton guessed it was easily a 180-plus.
The deer was coming to a water source regularly, and Braton began counting his chickens. Before any of them hatched, however, the buck must’ve found someplace else to drink.
Braton was distraught until he found where the animal was likely crossing a fence to reach the neighbor’s hay field. The problem, however, is it was never near the crossing during prime time.
“I realized later that the neighbor was riding his horse along the fence every evening, which kept the deer away until after nightfall,” he said.
Braton’s answer was to move inward, away from the crossing.
To set the stage, he left work one evening and hiked into the area with 100 pounds of corn on his back. He left at 6:15, and cameras revealed the buck was on it a half-hour later.
“That’s when our cat-and-mouse game started,” Braton said.
On the night of Oct. 29, Braton began laying out his hunting gear in preparation for a morning hunt. He’d forgotten a work commitment, however, and couldn’t go. Of course, the deer showed while he was away.
The next day, Halloween, Braton was in a saddle stand in an old cottonwood tree two hours before daybreak. He spooked a deer going in, but he had no idea if it was the buck. He’d been having difficulty with his trail camera lenses fogging.
“When morning broke and it was that gray light period, I usually see lots of deer. But I saw nothing that day, so I really thought I’d blown it,” he said.
Finally, however, a doe materialized in the gray. She was followed by a spike, another spike, and then an 8-pointer that chased the doe out of the frame.
Braton was left watching the two adolescents.
When both spikes turned simultaneously to glance at the trail, Braton picked up his bow. He knew something was approaching, and he wanted to be ready. When he glimpsed antler, he picked up his binoculars for a closer examination.
“As soon as I saw the forks, I knew what deer it was and began feverishly ranging different spots,” he said.
When the buck was in the clear, it gave the spikes a hard stare, bristled up and began approaching, which sent the underlings skedaddling. When it was at 30 yards, it saw Braton.
“I just knew it was about to bust me, but it lowered its head and began eating grass,” Braton said. “I waited until it lifted its head again, and then I released.”
The buck ran 20 yards and stopped. By the time Braton had nocked a second arrow, the deer coughed hard and collapsed.
“I had to put my bow back on the hanger in order not to drop it,” he said.
Calls to his brother, dad and maybe 20 friends followed.
“Everybody knew how much I wanted this deer, how special he was,” Braton said.
When the estimated 6 1/2-year-old specimen was skinned and being processed, it was obvious the front leg bone was shattered, leaving Braton to believe that it had been hit by a car back in 2023.
Barry Raugust measured the 28-pointer for Buckmasters, arriving at 209 2/8 inches. The mainframe 6x6 benefits from 36 1/8 inches of irregular growth, which placed in that category.
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