After so much preparation, I entered my stand with confidence that morning. But I didn't see Heartbreaker. In fact, the same routine repeated itself morning and evening for the entire first week of the season without a sighting.
I saw does, a few small bucks and even the big 10-pointer, but never the deer I was after. By this point I was wondering if what I'd worked for all summer was going to happen after all.
I decided to use my second week of vacation. The routine of meticulous scent elimination and hunting every morning and evening was wearing on me, but I felt I had to keep on.
As the second week unfolded, one thing remained consistent: no sightings of Heartbreaker. But on the positive side, no one else had reported shooting such a huge deer, either.
Approaching the last three days of muzzleloader season with only one encounter with the big 10-pointer and none with Heartbreaker, I felt my chances were pretty bleak. A front was moving in, and I knew this was a good thing.
However, 30 mph winds on Friday made for unproductive, discouraging hunting. It now seemed likely I'd be chasing the buck with a bow during whatever free time I could find in November.
On Saturday, Sept. 28, conditions were much better. Dry-land soybeans were turning yellow, and farmers were cutting corn. The temperature was cool, the moon thin and the wind light. If there ever were a time for Heartbreaker to move, this day looked promising.
While the morning hunt was a flop, that didn't upset me; Heartbreaker traditionally moved better in the evenings. That afternoon I checked my Firefly and found the wind favorable for my ground blind. Once I got there, I turned on my Ozonics and began to wait.
About 7:10 I noticed movement downwind and saw two does standing about 50 yards out. They seemed alert but weren't looking at me. Then they blew and scattered into the trees.
My heart exploded with a rush of adrenaline and I thought, What's going on? Is someone trespassing, or what? As I began to lower another window of my blind, I noticed a coyote trotting around through plum thickets about 40 yards from where the does had been.
I thought, "It's the perfect time for deer movement, and I have a coyote running around spooking the deer." Worse yet, he went into the trees Heartbreaker and the big 10-pointer should be coming from.
I glassed anxiously but saw nothing. Well, this hunt is probably over, I said to myself as I glanced down at my watch. It was 7:23, and legal light would end at 7:45.
Then I heard the coyote howl.
I glanced back up and actually pondered getting out of the area before things could get any worse. But within seconds I changed my mind; I could see Heartbreaker coming out through the trees where the coyote had gone in, and the does were standing with him. That coyote was close and obviously causing problems.
The wind was blowing from me right to the deer, but they gave no indication of knowing I was there. Instead, Heartbreaker and the does were looking back, suggesting the coyote wasn't far behind.
With the deer under 50 yards from me, I reached for my muzzleloader. The deer were all walking away from the blind, but as long as the coyote didn't come out and spook them, I felt I had time to make a good shot. I lowered another window on my blind and slid the gun out. Heartbreaker was in my crosshairs for the first time at 50 yards and was standing broadside with his head up. I flipped the safety off and squeezed the trigger.
Ka-boom! Thanks to the fact I was using smokeless powder, I could clearly see Heartbreaker jump and mule kick. Then he took off running into heavy cover, back toward his bedding area.
It now was 7:25, and despite the fact light was quickly fading, I knew I needed to wait a bit before taking up the trail. I forced myself to wait a full 15 minutes, which seemed like a week. Then I climbed out and went to check for blood.
I immediately found some and started to follow it. As I approached an opening, I looked ahead and saw Heartbreaker lying on his side, dead. I sprinted over to him, fell to my knees and said out loud, "Thank God I finally got him."
I sat there admiring the deer for a few minutes, then reached for my phone to call my dad. Clint was out of town and couldn't be reached, but I called my mom, sister and Ryan and told them the news.
While awaiting my dad's arrival, I tagged my buck and called Sean Beck of Beck's Taxidermy. My brother and Ryan had done business with Sean and had told him he might be getting Heartbreaker if we got him killed. So when I asked Sean if he had room for the deer to come stay with him a few weeks, I could almost see the smile on his face.
As that conversation ended, I saw my dad come through the brush, grinning from ear to ear. We soon had recovered Heartbreaker, just as we had so many other deer together.
The next morning Ian Sparks shot photos of me with Heartbreaker. I'll never forget how good it felt to have my hands on that animal: a 21-pointer the size of which I never thought I'd ever even see on the hoof, much less have a chance to harvest.
I don't have much land to hunt, and like many of you, I work from sunup to sundown most days. Hunting is just a hobby. I'm a believer, though. And I was reminded of that when things seemed as if they couldn't get any worse. A coyote was chasing the deer around on what I'd felt was the perfect evening. I was watching what seemed a disaster unfolding in front of me. In the end, though, what seemed a worst-case scenario was a best-case scenario instead.
Some might say that coyote showing up when he did was a blessing in disguise. But to me, it was more a blessing from the skies!
Kyle Heuerman
Any serious whitetail hunter knows that it's not often that we get a second chance on the buck of a lifetime, or even a first chance for that matter. But luck was on the side of Kyle Heuerman and his girlfriend Jennifer Weaver when they put an arrow through this 196-inch Illinois brute.
Read the full story.Joe Franz
We estimate he was 7 1/2 years old. That's based on photos from 2010, when he clearly wasn't over 3 1/2. When I got him he weighed over 300 pounds on the hoof, as suspected.
Official B&C measurer Glen Salow came up with a 'green ' gross score of 258 7/8 inches. After the 60-day drying period, he again taped the rack. This time he got a gross non-typical score of 261 3/8, with a net of 230 7/8. The gross score evidently makes this the highest-scoring wild whitetail ever harvested on professional video.
Read the full story.Jon Massie
Jon's no stranger to free-ranging whitetails across the central plains, having guided a number of clients to trophies and harvesting many big ones himself. In fact, going into 2013 he'd shot two net Boone & Crocketts: one a non-typical scoring over 200, the other a typical from public land.
With such success behind him, Jon felt all of his hunting dreams already had come true. At least, he did until a buck he'd never seen showed up on one of his trail cameras.
Read the full story.Tom Boyer
Knowing I couldn't even come to my knees without breaking the little concealment we had, I decided to lie on my left side, using my left elbow for as solid a rest as could be achieved within the slight incline of the old fencerow. But when I shouldered the rifle, the sight of the crosshairs oriented at a 10-4 o'clock angle was definitely a different look from the normal 12-6 position we all practice from. Even so, I didn't figure that would matter if I aimed at the right spot and squeezed off a clean shot.
I settled the crosshairs where I needed to place the bullet and steadied the rifle. Whispering 'fire in the hole ' while floating the crosshairs on the spot, I gently squeezed the trigger until the recoil removed the buck from my view.
Read the full story.Teddy's Buck
With a whopping 40 inches of non-typical growth, he has a gross Boone & Crockett score of 215 3/8. The rack's 21 6/8-inch inside spread certainly helps to show off its unique character. He was just a special deer, and very much a result of patience in both management and hunting.
Read the full story.Ryan Sullivan
Ryan Sullivan was only 19 when, during the 2013 season, he arrowed an Arkansas buck of gigantic proportions. Like many of his fellow Arkansans, Ryan is a deer and duck fanatic. For several years, however, he gave up most of his duck season to lock horns with the world-class buck.
Read the full story.
Junior Key
Junior's outstanding whitetail is the biggest ever recorded from Monroe County, and he ranks as one of the Bluegrass State's top bucks from the 2013-14 season. This great non-typical also is the latest member of Kentucky's all-time Top 30 list.
Read the full story.Mikell Fries
At 16 yards, Mikell took aim at the giant and released his arrow. In an instant, the shaft had passed through him. The deer instantly whirled and ran out of sight . . . but then, within seconds the archer heard him crash to the ground.
'I remained in the stand for several minutes to gather my thoughts and calm down, ' Mikell says. 'I'm sure the entire encounter only took a few minutes, but it seemed an eternity. '
Read the full story.Bill Robinson
Three double-digit tines of 10 2/8 to 13 5/8 inches, plus 7 1/8- and 9 3/8-inch brows and a 21 3/8-inch inside spread, add plenty to this regal crown. Put everything together and you have a gross 9-point frame score of 193 6/8. That's as big as it sounds.
Typical asymmetry and 11 6/8 inches of abnormal points total 25 1/8 inches of deductions, so as a typical, the deer nets 'only ' 168 5/8. But the 8×5 rack's total gross score of 205 4/8 is much more reflective of its stunning size. Regardless of score, the Robinson buck is clearly a marvel of nature.
Read the full story.Nick Drake
The action was fast and furious right from the get-go. At daybreak a doe busted through the cedar thicket with an eight-point suitor following close behind. The doe, however, wanted nothing to do with her pursuer and jumped into a nearby pond in an attempt to flee the buck.
This, however, wasn't the last of the action. Nick continued to watch several bucks harass does throughout the morning, but chose not to take a shot at them.
Read the full story.