November 21, 2022
By Josh Honeycutt
Kasey Morgan hunts big Iowa whitetails. This season, he bagged a huge 8 ½-year-old, 187-inch deer. That’s rare just about anywhere — even Iowa. He started seeing the deer in 2018, and the story has continued ever since. That is, until October 7, 2022.
The day brought sunny skies and rising pressure. He was hunting in an area with steep ditches and wooded timber with tillable ag fields up top and wooded draws down below. His destination was a box blind on the edge of a food plot. Morgan was targeting this big deer there.
He’d seen the buck the day before, and almost got a shot, but swirling winds and an open window caused the deer to get a whiff of something he didn’t like. This time, Morgan kept all the windows closed until time to shoot.
Soon after settling in, does started feeding in the field. Then, younger bucks started moving. After that, the big buck stepped out into the open and fed in the soybeans for quite some time. Eventually, the deer offered a shot opportunity.
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With the buck standing broadside 33 yards away, Morgan drew back, settled his pin, and released the arrow. It struck the buck lower than he’d hoped. The buck took off and ran out of sight. Based on the shot placement, he believed the arrow struck below the heart.
Worried the deer might be bedded just out of sight, Morgan belly crawled into the field and retrieved the arrow. Then, he went home and watched the footage to see where the shot was. Because it was marginal, they waited until the next morning to look for the deer.
The track started with good blood, but it dwindled. It was a slow tracking job. They found where the buck bedded 150 yards away, then another about 300 yards into the search. Clearly, if they would have searched the night before, they would have surely pushed the deer. Waiting was the right call. Finally, after going about 370 yards, they found the deer deep in a ravine.
Looking back, Morgan attributes this buck to hunting weather fronts, planting food plots, focusing on green-to-grain transfer food sources, and using good access routes. And with his friend and fellow 10X TV co-host, Greg Glesinger, present for the hunt, it was an incredible experience.
“The history is kind of the thing I take away the most,” Morgan said. “Having a deer reach that age is rare. Getting picture for that long, you almost develop a relationship. The fact that he wore his best rack ever at 8 years old is incredible. Getting to follow him all those years, and getting an opportunity, is truly remarkable.”
