Matthew Daniels poses with his 194 5/8-inch Kansas giant — his biggest buck ever and his first taken with a muzzleloader.
November 25, 2025
By Cam Coble
During the summer, Kansas resident Matthew Daniels spent many days driving around scouting for deer.
"It was pretty featureless countryside with most of the landscape dominated by agriculture fields," Daniels said.
Through his many scouting trips, Daniels stopped one evening to glass a bachelor group of bucks.
“I was watching several nice bucks feeding in the soybeans when out walked a buck bigger than anything else in the field," he recalled.
After a heartbreaking hang fire on opening day, Daniels kept grinding through multiple close encounters. The buck was a regular feeding in the soybean field throughout the summer, and with a worthy buck now on the radar, Daniels now had a target to go after. His next step was gaining permission to hunt where the buck was regularly frequenting.
"I’d asked the landowner several times to hunt, with an agreement finally being struck with the him allowing me to hunt the first week of season only," he explained. "I had limited time, but it was better than nothing."
With Kansas having an early muzzleloader season that coincides with opening day of archery season, Daniels decided to pursue the buck with a muzzleloader. Purchasing a new CVA Optima muzzleloader and having no experience with it, Daniels knew this would all be new to him. The land where the buck was regularly seen was void of any trees that would allow for an optimal bowhunting setup, so he made the decision to hunt off the ground.
Fearful of scaring the buck off the only property he had at his disposal to hunt, Daniels said he avoided any intrusion on the property — including going without trail cameras to monitor the buck.
Daniels finally tagged his biggest buck ever on September 23rd. When opening day rolled around, Daniels was eagerly awaiting his opportunity at the big buck. Doing as the buck had all summer, as if on cue, the buck stepped out and gave Daniels an 80-yard shot.
"As I pulled the trigger there was a slight delay," Daniels remembered.
The muzzleloader had hang fired. Unsure if he’d hit him, Daniels walked out to the spot where the buck had been standing only to see the buck beginning to walk back toward the hunter. Gunless, all he could do was watch and hope for another opportunity in the future as he watched the buck turn and fade away.
Seeing the buck a total six times while hunting — with a few close encounters and hiccups along the way — Daniels was positive that he wasn't going to kill the buck.
The giant 6x6 was a regular in a late-summer soybean field, giving Daniels hope for the upcoming season. Refusing to quit though, his persistence paid off on the evening of September 23rd when the big buck stepped out at last shooting light. This time, Daniels made the shot count!
The main frame 6x6 typical gross scores 194 5/8 inches, making it Daniels' biggest buck to date and his first with a muzzleloader.
Of note, big bucks clearly run in the family. In 1995, Daniels' father, Albert, shot the current Kansas state record archery typical buck that scored 200 0/8 net inches.
