Skip to main content

Nick Brown Buck: 171-Inch Kentucky Velvet

nick_brown_fTwenty feet up in a huge ash tree, Nick Brown listened to the steady drone of mosquitoes as sweat trickled down his face. Even by the standards of late summer, the weather was unbelievably hot for opening day of Kentucky's 2013 archery season.

Nick's tree was on a partially timbered hillside and approximately 70 yards above a narrow creek bottom.  A dense thicket of honeysuckle, saplings and briars covered much of the hilltop, while pockets of brush and small trees filled the understory surrounding his position.

nick_brown_stThis part of Campbell County was familiar country. As a youngster, Nick had spent many of his fall and winter days hunting rabbits and squirrels in the hilly terrain with his grandfather, Ardell. Many nights had been devoted to listening to their coonhounds trailing in distant hollows.

Eventually the young hunter had graduated to a deer blind, taking his first whitetail when he was 12. Nick's dad, Randy, is an avid bowhunter, and around that time he discovered the big ash and built a wooden stand where the main trunk split into four  limbs. Over the years, constant exposure to the weather has necessitated the structure being either repaired or rebuilt a number of times, but season after season, the location has proved its worth.

"Deer have always frequented this area," Nick notes. "The hilltop thickets are popular bedding areas, but the location mainly serves as a major travel corridor to the surrounding farmland. There are a number of hay fields, plus some small row crop agricultural fields, scattered throughout."

Nick gun hunted until about five years ago, when his dad finally convinced him to try bowhunting. Since then, the rifle has stayed in the house.

"When I was younger, I did some target shooting and accompanied my dad to several archery tournaments," Nicks recalls. "But I didn't have the patience to wait for a deer to get within bow range. Plus, I wasn't completely confident in my shooting ability under hunting conditions.

"Getting a few years older helped erase most of those doubts. And our long archery season greatly increased my hunting opportunities.  Plus, the extreme gun pressure our area gets in November is nonexistent during bow season."

Under normal circumstances, Nick might have joined the ranks of many other Bluegrass archers on opening weekend and opted to wait a few days for cooler weather. However, the purchase of a trail camera and subsequent photos it had recorded of one particular buck placed a special priority on the opener.

"After buying the camera, I set it up a short distance below the tree stand along an old quad trail that crosses the creek and angles up the hillside," Nick remembers. "Most deer moving up or down the hill generally follow the path of the old trail. Basically, I was simply checking the camera out. I thought it would be interesting to get photos of several different bucks and watch their antlers develop through the summer."

As anticipated, the camera recorded a number of deer images, including those of several bucks. To Nick, the deer all looked similar; each animal had just started growing antlers. But when Randy looked at the photos, he immediately pointed out one deer among them as having the potential to grow a big rack.

"I honestly couldn't see any difference between that particular buck and the others," Nick admits.  "But as the weeks passed, Dad's prediction certainly turned out to be correct. By midsummer, that deer's antlers had begun to dwarf several of the other bucks'."

Recommended


Although the big whitetail remained in the area throughout the summer, he never exhibited any sort of predictable pattern. Trail camera photos indicated he was part of a small bachelor group that also included two or three smaller bucks.

"This wasn't a situation where I was getting a photo of the buck every day or two," Nick says. "In fact, I probably averaged only three or four photos a month. Although the pictures were taken at various times of day, late afternoon seemed to be the predominant time period.

"During August the buck disappeared for nearly three weeks, and I became really worried something had happened to cause him to change locations. Thankfully, about two weeks before the opening of the September bow season, he reappeared."

Although Nick had been unable to establish the buck's specific movement tendencies, he believed his best chance of encountering him would be during the first several days of bow season, with the deer hopefully still in velvet. The hormonal increase that occurs during velvet shedding sometimes keys a sudden behavioral change in mature bucks, such as greatly reduced activity or switching to entirely nocturnal movement.

"I took off from work the first week of the season," Nick notes. "But what I hadn't counted on was the 90 degree weather. Most of the activity on opening weekend involved sweating and swatting mosquitoes, but I did manage to see two or three small bucks and a couple of does."

Unfortunately, there was no break in the weather on Monday. Nevertheless, by 4 o'clock the bowhunter was back in the big tree. Once again, for over two hours the only activity at the site involved buzzing insects.

nick_brown_1"Early in the season, when the trees and brush are fully leaved, my visibility from the stand is very limited," Nick says. "There's one downhill view of approximately 60 yards, but in all other directions the yardage drops to less than 35 yards. From a positive standpoint, if a deer is traveling on or near the old quad trail, I know my shot will be less than 20 yards when it passes the stand."

Around 6:30, the archer spotted a small 7-pointer about 60 yards down the hillside. The deer appeared to be feeding as he gradually advanced up the hill along the old trail. A moment later, another buck of similar size abruptly appeared a short distance behind the first.

"While watching the two deer moving slowly toward me, I happened to detect more movement behind them," Nick remembers. "Within seconds, the big buck walked into view and also began heading in my direction, following several yards behind the smaller bucks. At that point my concentration was focused entirely on the big one, but I also realized that if either of the other bucks detected anything wrong as they passed me, the hunt would be over."

Nick remained motionless as the two smaller deer walked by. As the big one closed to within 20 yards, the bowhunter turned slightly and came to full draw. At that distance, he decided not to risk a mouth bleat to stop the buck.

"I saw the arrow hit and felt like I had made a great shot," Nick recalls.  "The deer bolted out of sight and down the hillside. For several seconds I listened to the sounds fading into the distance, but I never heard a crash. At that point, there were the inevitable thoughts of second-guessing the shot."

After making a quick call to his dad, Nick got out of the stand to see if he could find his arrow. Within minutes, Randy arrived on the scene.  Although the arrow wasn't to be found, they did locate a blood trail. Then and there, the decision was made to wait an hour before beginning the search.

"Once we started, it didn't take long to figure out that following the trail was going to be a slow process," Nick says.  "For whatever reason, the buck simply wasn't bleeding very much. Naturally, my confidence in finding him was slowly dropping by the minute."

After about 100 yards, the men reached a point where the buck had jumped a fence and crossed a small creek. At that point, he began to lose significantly more blood.

"By that time, we had reached the edge of a hay field with scattered cedars," Nick recalls. "I kept thinking that any minute we were going to look up and see the buck lying on the ground. Instead, we found a spot where the deer had bedded down and then gotten back up.

"Dad immediately said that we needed to back out and wait until morning to continue the search. He was afraid we might push the buck too hard and end up never finding him. I really didn't want to stop looking, but I knew he was probably right. So we marked the spot and left."

Not surprisingly, Nick had to endure a sleepless night. By daybreak, he and Randy were back where they'd left the trail.

"In the early-morning light, trying to see blood in the high grass was really tough, and I was becoming very discouraged," Nick admits.  "Dad was several yards above me, scanning with binoculars. We hadn't been there very long when I suddenly heard him shout that he'd spotted the buck, and it was down."

Needless to   say, there was an immediate celebration, with high-fives shared between father and son.  The buck had traveled maybe 50 yards from where the search had been halted the previous night. While the location necessitated a strenuous 200-yard uphill drag to where the deer could be reached with an ATV, that task was completed with a big smile on each man's face.

The 13-pointer's full-velvet rack exhibits an impressive combination of height, width and mass. The exceptional main beams exceed 29 inches, and the outside spread is 24 1/8. Tine length is also outstanding, with G-2s that tape 10 2/8 and 9 2/8 inches, followed by 13-inch G-3s.  The circumferences average nearly 5 inches.

Put it all together, and the deer's 5x5 typical frame grosses a remarkable 186 7/8. Asymmetry deductions, plus three abnormal points totaling 10 inches, drop the final typical Pope & Young score to 171 0/8. But as strong as that net score is, this whitetail clearly has the appearance of being even larger — especially with his rack in full velvet.

"I realize I took an exceptional buck: definitely a once-in-a-lifetime deer," Nick reflects. "But the really special part for me was being able to share the experience with my dad. That was priceless."

Kyle Heuerman

Any serious whitetail hunter knows that it's not often that we get a second chance on the buck of a lifetime, or even a first chance for that matter. But luck was on the side of Kyle Heuerman and his girlfriend Jennifer Weaver when they put an arrow through this 196-inch Illinois brute. Read the full story.

Joe Franz

We estimate he was 7 1/2 years old. That's based on photos from 2010, when he clearly wasn't over 3 1/2. When I got him he weighed over 300 pounds on the hoof, as suspected. Official B&C measurer Glen Salow came up with a 'green ' gross score of 258 7/8 inches. After the 60-day drying period, he again taped the rack. This time he got a gross non-typical score of 261 3/8, with a net of 230 7/8. The gross score evidently makes this the highest-scoring wild whitetail ever harvested on professional video. Read the full story.

Jon Massie

Jon's no stranger to free-ranging whitetails across the central plains, having guided a number of clients to trophies and harvesting many big ones himself. In fact, going into 2013 he'd shot two net Boone & Crocketts: one a non-typical scoring over 200, the other a typical from public land. With such success behind him, Jon felt all of his hunting dreams already had come true. At least, he did until a buck he'd never seen showed up on one of his trail cameras. Read the full story.

Tom Boyer

Knowing I couldn't even come to my knees without breaking the little concealment we had, I decided to lie on my left side, using my left elbow for as solid a rest as could be achieved within the slight incline of the old fencerow. But when I shouldered the rifle, the sight of the crosshairs oriented at a 10-4 o'clock angle was definitely a different look from the normal 12-6 position we all practice from. Even so, I didn't figure that would matter if I aimed at the right spot and squeezed off a clean shot. I settled the crosshairs where I needed to place the bullet and steadied the rifle. Whispering 'fire in the hole ' while floating the crosshairs on the spot, I gently squeezed the trigger until the recoil removed the buck from my view. Read the full story.

Teddy's Buck

With a whopping 40 inches of non-typical growth, he has a gross Boone & Crockett score of 215 3/8. The rack's 21 6/8-inch inside spread certainly helps to show off its unique character. He was just a special deer, and very much a result of patience in both management and hunting. Read the full story.

Ryan Sullivan

Ryan Sullivan was only 19 when, during the 2013 season, he arrowed an Arkansas buck of gigantic proportions. Like many of his fellow Arkansans, Ryan is a deer and duck fanatic. For several years, however, he gave up most of his duck season to lock horns with the world-class buck. Read the full story.

Junior Key

Junior's outstanding whitetail is the biggest ever recorded from Monroe County, and he ranks as one of the Bluegrass State's top bucks from the 2013-14 season. This great non-typical also is the latest member of Kentucky's all-time Top 30 list. Read the full story.

Mikell Fries

At 16 yards, Mikell took aim at the giant and released his arrow. In an instant, the shaft had passed through him. The deer instantly whirled and ran out of sight . . . but then, within seconds the archer heard him crash to the ground. 'I remained in the stand for several minutes to gather my thoughts and calm down, ' Mikell says. 'I'm sure the entire encounter only took a few minutes, but it seemed an eternity. ' Read the full story.

Bill Robinson

Three double-digit tines of 10 2/8 to 13 5/8 inches, plus 7 1/8- and 9 3/8-inch brows and a 21 3/8-inch inside spread, add plenty to this regal crown. Put everything together and you have a gross 9-point frame score of 193 6/8. That's as big as it sounds. Typical asymmetry and 11 6/8 inches of abnormal points total 25 1/8 inches of deductions, so as a typical, the deer nets 'only ' 168 5/8. But the 8×5 rack's total gross score of 205 4/8 is much more reflective of its stunning size. Regardless of score, the Robinson buck is clearly a marvel of nature. Read the full story.

Nick Drake

The action was fast and furious right from the get-go. At daybreak a doe busted through the cedar thicket with an eight-point suitor following close behind. The doe, however, wanted nothing to do with her pursuer and jumped into a nearby pond in an attempt to flee the buck. This, however, wasn't the last of the action. Nick continued to watch several bucks harass does throughout the morning, but chose not to take a shot at them. Read the full story.




GET THE NEWSLETTER Join the List and Never Miss a Thing.

Recommended Articles

Recent Videos

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Team NAW Tests Taurus' Raging Hunter on Texas Axis Bucks!

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Winchester's Continued Legacy: The .400 Legend

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Savage Unveils New Line of Popular Axis Hunting Rifles

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Browning's Brand-New X-bolt 2 Hunting Rifle

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Ripcord Arrow Rests Rejuvenates Lineup with Three New Models

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Don't Sleep on Conventional Trail Cameras

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Browning Trail Cameras Announces Cellular Innovation for 2024

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

ATA 2024 Core SR First Look from Bowtech

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Browning OVIX Camo: Ultimate Concealment for Any Time, Any Place

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Air Venturi Avenge-X Classic PCP Air Rifle Reviewed

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Primos Edge Carbon Fiber Tripod Shooting Sticks

Danny Farris puts his Browning OVIX camouflage to use in the rocky terrain of Texas.
Gear

Bowhunting Aoudad in Texas with Browning OVIX Camo

North American Whitetail Magazine Covers Print and Tablet Versions

GET THE MAGAZINE Subscribe & Save

Digital Now Included!

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Give a Gift   |   Subscriber Services

PREVIEW THIS MONTH'S ISSUE

Buy Digital Single Issues

Magazine App Logo

Don't miss an issue.
Buy single digital issue for your phone or tablet.

Get the North American Whitetail App apple store google play store

Other Magazines

See All Other Magazines

Special Interest Magazines

See All Special Interest Magazines

GET THE NEWSLETTER Join the List and Never Miss a Thing.

Get the top North American Whitetail stories delivered right to your inbox.

Phone Icon

Get Digital Access.

All North American Whitetail subscribers now have digital access to their magazine content. This means you have the option to read your magazine on most popular phones and tablets.

To get started, click the link below to visit mymagnow.com and learn how to access your digital magazine.

Get Digital Access

Not a Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Enjoying What You're Reading?

Get a Full Year
of Guns & Ammo
& Digital Access.

Offer only for new subscribers.

Subscribe Now

Never Miss a Thing.

Get the Newsletter

Get the top North American Whitetail stories delivered right to your inbox.

By signing up, I acknowledge that my email address is valid, and have read and accept the Terms of Use