When Hunter Burkhardt received permission to hunt a new property in Kansas, the chance to shoot a world-class buck fell his way. (Photo courtesy of Hunter Burkhardt)
October 14, 2021
By Blake Garlock
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Breaking News Bucks 2021 Hunter Burkhardt is a whitetail outfitter in Kansas, and this year he got access to a new farm. Initially, he just put a few trail cameras out on the new farm. After only a few days, he received a picture of a giant non-typical at midnight.
“A few days later, I put a couple more cameras out trying to get him in the daylight,” says Hunter. “Just a couple days after that, I got a picture of him at 3:00 a.m.”
After getting the buck on camera the second time, Hunter put more cameras out as far west on the property as he could. The non-typical started showing up on those cameras between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. However, he didn’t stay.
“He just disappeared,” says Hunter. “That was earlier in the year when he was still in velvet.”
After receiving nighttime pictures of the buck in velvet, he soon disappeared. (Photo courtesy of Hunter Burkhardt)
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After a month of not seeing the deer, Hunter says that he started to give up on the buck. However, as quickly as he disappeared, the buck showed up again on the cameras located on the west side of the property.
“It was in the middle of the night, but I thought I’d go for him,” says Hunter.
Hunter hunted the buck for two evenings without having an encounter. However, after his second sit, he arrived at home and checked a cell camera.
“As soon as I got back home, I checked the cell cam and he was in there,” says Hunter.
On Sept. 27, Hunter went out for his third sit. During that hunt, it was 90 degrees. Deer activity was lower than it had been, however, he did have a group of does out feeding in the CRP field he was sitting on. Then, all the does scattered.
It didn’t take long for Hunter to find out what spooked the does. The giant non-typical stepped out of the CRP and faced Hunter. After the deer stood facing Hunter for a few minutes, Hunter decided he was ready to take a quartering-to shot on the buck.
Although the shot wasn't perfect, Hunter took his chances and let his arrow fly. (Photo courtesy of Hunter Burkhardt) “He was quartering to me pretty hard, so I snuck the shot in behind his shoulder,” says Hunter.
The buck ran into the CRP after the shot, and instead of chasing the deer immediately, Hunter went back home and got some of his family members to help with the tracking. They went back to the site of the shot a few hours later.
However, when they returned, there was no blood.
“The CRP was so thick, and we couldn’t find any blood. So, we just started searching the CRP,” Hunter says.
While searching for the buck, Hunter saw a light beaming from the CRP. It turned out to be his lighted nock still sticking in the buck.
After recovering the buck, Hunter rough-scored the deer at 202 inches gross. And, to Hunter’s surprise, the buck never fully rubbed all his velvet off.
“I had him on camera still carrying around dried velvet,” says Hunter. “When I killed him, he still had some. He just never rubbed it off.”
This picture shows the buck's velvet still hanging on by a thread. (Photo courtesy of Hunter Burkhardt)
