Unique Maryland Buck Taken Two Years Later

Evan Alvey’s father, Joseph, traded out masonry work to secure access on prime ground for the hunting duo years back. They have seen the property divided and developed over time, but the whitetails just keep coming. Evan had the fortune killed a unique Maryland buck there at the beginning of the 2023 archery season.

“Deer don’t seem to live where we are hunting,” Evan said. “But they travel through and feed in the swampy section in the back of the place. If we hunt it right, there is a great chance to limit out and take a trophy buck, even though it is barely 30 acres.”

Because of the small size, Evan and his father have limited the number of stands there, and often rotate hunts on the property. If one of them kills, the other will make the hour drive to help get the deer out.

“Dad and I are really tight,” Evan added. “And we like to share the stories and take pics when one of us fills a tag.”

It's a great father-son arrangement. In January of 2021, an interesting buck showed up for the first time in a nighttime image captured by one of their trail cameras. His tall and very narrow antlers, complete with wavy beams and brow tines, caught their attention right away. Because the rack was so different from other bucks in the area, they named him “Non-Typical”.

“Neither of us saw him during that season”, Evan explained. “And we never had any pics over the summer.”

It was a one-and-done sighting, so they moved on. But during the muzzleloader season that followed, Evan got a call from his dad.

“He had shot a buck with a heavy and tall rack, but we never recovered it,” he added. “I wasn’t really thinking it was the same deer.”

Non-Typical never appeared again.

By the 2023 season, Evan was not expecting to see the buck and planned to hunt like it had never been there.

“I had just about put him out of my mind after so much time had passed”, he said.

His father took a nice buck just a few days into the new season, and also spotted a big 8-point which he thought Evan should try for.

On September 22nd, a big weather change was in the making. Hurricane Ophelia was on the move, and Evan thought it would put deer on their feet. That proved to be an understatement.

“I saw 27 deer throughout the afternoon, but nothing worth shooting at first,” he smiled.

Right before the end of shooting light, he noticed a bigger buck moving in.

“I thought it was the deer Dad had told me about, so I ranged it and took the shot very quickly!” he continued. “Once I decide to shoot, I picked a spot and stopped looking at the antlers.”

The deer thrashed off and Evan called his Dad.

“He wanted to know if it was the one he had seen," he said. "I told him that I wasn't sure —  I just knew it was big!”

The short recovery ended with a real surprise.

“It was Non-Typical,” Evan continued. “I was definitively not expecting that!”

When they skinned him, they found the old healed-over wound from the year before, making yet another connection between father and son. Non-Typical won’t break any records, but he'll certainly look good on the wall — and the memories of the journey that put him there will last forever!

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