Kansas Man's Plans Change; Results in Enormous 250-class Whitetail

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Kansas bowhunter Nick Dosch wasn’t even planning on chasing whitetails in the fall of 2023. Instead, he was going to focus on mule deer. Nick and his brother had been pursuing mule deer in western Kansas. Unsuccessful in chasing mule deer, Nick switched gears and began targeting whitetails.

“Our family has had access to one particular property for the past 20 years,” Nick says. “And no one had hunted it for the past 10 years, so I was going in blind. My brother, Adam, and I went out on Tuesday November 14th and set up a ladder stand with a mineral block 15 yards to the north of it. We hung a cell cam over the mineral block.”

With no fresh intel from the property, Nick really didn’t know what to expect. That next day he had a couple different small bucks showing themselves on his cell camera, so he was glad to see there was some movement happening on the property.

“On November 16th at 2:25 p.m., I received a notification from the camera,” Nick says. “As I opened up the picture, I truly couldn’t believe what I was looking at. It was an awesome picture of this giant deer standing at my mineral site.”

As anyone would want to do, Nick left work and ran home to change clothes so he could get in his tree stand. Unfortunately, he sat until dark without seeing any activity.

“Laying in bed later that night, I received another trail cam notification,” Nick recalls. “As I opened up the picture, that is when I truly realized what a monster whitetail I was dealing with.”

On Nov. 17, Nick arrived at the property at 4:45 a.m. and sat at the gate until 6:00 a.m. Nick says he settled into his stand at 6:15 a.m. and anxiously anticipated the morning hunt. At 7:00 a.m., Nick looked to his west and spotted the giant at 40 yards!

“I couldn’t believe he was heading in my direction,” Nick explains. “When the buck was a mere 15 yards from my stand, I already had my Hoyt at full draw. When I released the arrow, I knew I hit him a little back. He ran 30 yards to the east, stopped and started walking slowly.”

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Not wanting to risk pushing the massive buck, Nick grabbed his bow, walked back to the truck and left the property.

“I can tell you that was the worst five hours of my life,” Nick claims. “I paced back and forth at home until 3:30 p.m. That’s when my two brothers, dad, and another close friend all went out with me to look for the buck.”

The group looked for blood for 45 minutes and couldn’t find a drop, so they came up with a plan to all spread out in the tree row and slowly start walking where Nick thought the buck went. In less than five minutes, Nick spotted an object 50 yards in front of him behind a big cottonwood tree. It was his Kansas giant! The excited bowhunter yelled to his brother, and together they both walked up on the buck.

“That moment was the most special, being able to see this Kansas beast up close for the very first time,” Nick says. “It’s honestly a story I still can’t believe is true.”

With an unofficial gross score of 255 7/8 and a net of 247, this 36-point giant could potentially be a top-10 Kansas all-time archery kill. After showing the buck to some neighboring hunters who had known of the deer, Nick saw some of the giant’s sheds from previous years. It was later discovered the buck had been running an area over seven miles.