A Giant Early Season Buck with a .45-Caliber Muzzleloader

Todd Bigbee is a land specialist with Whitetail Properties. And this is a story of a buck with a lot of history. In fact, Bigbee watched this deer for the last three years, and finally dropped the hammer on this stud during Kansas' early muzzleloader season in September.

The buck was frequenting an area he knew well. All that he needed were the right conditions to move in and go after this giant buck. That day came on September 12. That's when he found himself setting up in some rolling hills in hopes that the big booner would show its face during daylight.

The weather was warm. Really warm. The skies were clear. But the wind was right. And they opted to set up in a ground blind to further help reduce the scent factor.

We were watching a creek bed lined with cottonwood timber and cedars, Bigbee said. The edge has lots of plum thickets and high grass for bedding.

Even though they were set up in a great area, he didn't have high hopes of bringing down the giant buck.

[It] was a deer I really wanted, but I only [had] one picture in over a month (at 1:00 A.M.), Bigbee said. That lead me to believe it had changed areas.

The beautiful thing about deer hunting? You never know what's going to happen. Even when you run cameras and think you know what deer are around, there is still plenty of room for surprises.

We had an east wind, Bigbee said. That made us have to hunt the west side of the farm. It would not have been my choice stand. But, thank goodness an east wind came so I had to set there.

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Thank goodness is right. He wouldn't have seen this deer if not for that one simple, yet influential factor. And it wasn't long before it happened.

He'd been watching several does and three smaller bucks, when all of a sudden, the giant stepped out. Bigbee put the sights on the deer's shoulder, took careful aim and slowly pulled the trigger. The buck instantly took off. But it was all in vain. The deer didn't go far.

The deer was a main-frame 9-pointer with two sticker points, Bigbee said. I'm extremely grateful.

This record-book buck was aged at 5½ years old and officially green scored 194 2/8 inches. That's a heck of a buck. Have you ever killed one like it?

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