With a 184 1/8-inch net score, Jake Hasbrouck’s Iowa buck could be the highest net-scoring 9-point of all time. Photo by Dale Evans
May 15, 2023
By Cameron Coble
During the summer of 2022, Iowa resident Jake Hasbrouck saw a photo of a buck his friend had on trail camera. It wasn’t a great photo, and the buck still had a lot of growing to do, so Jake couldn’t yet tell exactly how big the deer was. But Jake saw enough to know the deer was one he wanted to go after.
Jake acquired permission on a new property to hunt the buck, and it wasn’t until Sept. 25 that he confirmed the buck was still around. “That night, I finally got a few good trail cam pictures of the buck, and I could tell he was really big,” Jake remembers. “He showed up on my camera right at last light.”
It took Jake multiple months to get good trail camera pictures of the 9-point. Photo courtesy of Jake Hasbrouck Jake had plenty of work to do with the fall harvest, so he didn’t hunt much in October. However, on Nov. 8, Jake had time to hunt and knew it was a good time to chase the buck. “About an hour before dark that evening, I could see two deer were about a mile out and walking away from my position,” Jake continues. “I could instantly see the towering rack even without binoculars!”
The next day Jake moved in on where he had last seen the buck. Once again, Jake located the giant with a doe. The buck actually passed by Jake at 50 yards, but the high wind deterred him from taking a shot at the buck.
On the morning of Nov. 10, Jake was glassing from the road. He watched a few smaller bucks that were walking in the same area the big buck and doe had been the evening before. Moments later, the giant buck appeared!
Jake used a deep ditch to move in on the buck, and the move paid off. Jake looked around the corner of the ditch and spotted the huge typical at just 22 yards. Jake drew back his bow and leaned around the bend of the ditch at full draw. Jake took aim on the quartering away buck and released the shot.
Jake’s arrow struck the buck perfectly, and the typical bounded into the brush. When Jake got his hands on the buck, he couldn’t believe its size.
With both beams pushing past 29 inches, and a 22-inch spread, Jake’s buck is an unbelievable typical. Photo courtesy of Jake Hasbrouck When officially scored at the 2023 Iowa Deer Classic, the Hasbrouck buck came in at 198 2/8 gross, with 29 3/8- and 29 4/8-inch main beams and a 22-inch inside spread. This Iowa giant has a net score of 184 2/8. This makes the Hasbrouck buck the largest 9-point buck ever in terms of net score, narrowly edging out the mainframe 9-point taken by Christopher Ramsey in 1983 from Maine, which nets 184 1/8.
The full story of Jake’s hunt for this world-class typical will appear in the June 2023 issue of North American Whitetail magazine.
