DANE DRISCOLL
SADDLE GEAR: Tethrd Mantis Phantom, ONE Sticks, LWCG .5 Platform
LOCATION: Kentucky
We got our first picture of this deer in January of 2021. My friend Andy and myself spent that winter/spring scouting and looking for his sheds. Honestly we didn’t find what we were looking for. The 2021 season rolled around and we got random pictures in the middle of the night. Nothing consistent and we couldn’t get on major sign. We bounced around looking for him, scouting way more than hunting, but still not finding what we were looking for. This past winter I told Andy we were going to cover everything that we could. We found a point that was absolutely destroyed. We decided that was him and that was where we would kill him! I told him I wasn’t putting cameras out this year. I know he is in there and I am going to focus on killing him. He went ahead and put his out. He started to get regular nighttime pics of him as soon as the cams were out. Nothing in daylight, but way more than the previous year. On Friday October 21st with a decent little cold front, I went in with a cameraman at 2:00 in the afternoon. We snuck as close as we dared in the dry crunchy leaves to where I thought he was bedding and set up. Scrapes everywhere, acorns raining, we didn’t see a deer from the stand. I went home and started studying the map. A place jumped out to me that we have never walked and that we don’t have cameras. It was 158 yards from where we hunted Friday, but sometimes that’s all it takes. I went in early Saturday morning, October 22nd by myself, found the spot in the dark, and hung my set. It took me 30 minutes as there was deer all around me the whole time. I managed to get set up without alerting a single deer. Deer cleared out and daylight came. At 7:58 I heard deer running and looked down and a doe ran into 15 yards. It was super thick and I could only see in spots more than 20 yards. I heard a buck grunting and stood up and grabbed my bow. That’s when I heard the most amazing thing in my life. He ROARED!! It was the loudest, most awesome thing I have ever heard in the woods! He was probably at 40 yards, but I still could not see him. I drew my bow as soon as I heard it, there wasn’t another deer that would make that sound. She buggered a little and started trotting to my right. He went to swing in behind her and I got my first look at 25 yards. I looked at him for 1 second and knew it was him. Moved my pin to a gap in foliage in front of him at 21 yards and he stopped in it. I squeezed off the shot and watched the arrow disappear into his front shoulder. He mule kicked. Trotted 50 yards and stopped. I couldn’t see him, but there was no more noise. I called my buddies and they wanted me to wait for them to get there for the recovery…..2 hours I sat in that stand waiting. EXCRUCIATING! They finally got there and I got down. We got on blood immediately and followed the 50 yard trail to a buck that none of us would have ever believed. He is officially the largest typical ever taken with a bow on Ft. Knox Military Reservation. He ended up being a 193 1/3” typical and is the second ranked typical in Buckmasters history for typical hard antler archery in the state of Kentucky. I am extremely blessed and thank God for the amazing opportunity to harvest such an amazing animal!
