When the Plan Comes Together

A big part of deer hunting, especially if a hunter is lucky enough to locate an exceptionally big buck, is developing a plan to zero in on the buck. Unfortunately, a hunter’s plan and the deer’s plan don’t usually coincide.

Such was the case for a father and son team in central Illinois during the 2022 deer season. Hunter Brandon and his dad, Jeremiah, had been hunting a big 6x6 whitetail. They had gotten several Moultrie trail camera photos spread over three square miles of the typical 6x6 buck. The buck’s massive rack had a few small sticker points, and at that time they thought the deer was 4 1/2 years old and would score in the 170’s.

Although they hunted the buck hard during the early youth firearm season, the elusive buck stayed out of sight. Eventually, the 6x6 showed back up on Moultrie camera only to have broken off his left G-4 and G-5 tines. Although Hunter still wanted to pursue the buck, since typical 6x6 racks are rare, Jeremiah really wanted to see the buck make it another year. This was primarily due to the potential in antler growth he exhibited at only 4 1/2 years old. Fortunately, for all involved, they never had an opportunity at the 6x6 during the 2022 season. Instead, Hunter ended the 2022 season taking a very mature 6 1/2-year-old buck during the regular firearm season.

The area they hunt is not what you would call typical whitetail cover. They hunt on several farms over about 6 square miles, but 95 percent of the area is agricultural. Their hunting spots typically have single fields of several hundred acres grown in corn or beans. These fields are perfect cover for whitetails and are often connected by hedgerows, which do provide some great bottlenecks. The Brandon mens’ style of hunting is pretty much spot and stalk, as the deer range over such vast areas and can be difficult to hunt from a stand.

During the 1980s, in the general area where they hunt, Chuck Nixon did a lot of excellent research for the Illinois Natural History Survey. He tracked numerous big bucks by placing radio collars on them to determine what kind of home ranges they had in the central Illinois area.

A lot of the bucks he tracked would spend the entire summer and early fall in those 1000-acre corn fields and only head for the woods when the rut kicked in, usually after the corn had been harvested. This makes early season difficult hunting, due to the large amounts of cover. Hunter and his dad have adapted very well to that type of deer behavior and try to keep the deer from knowing they are being hunted by staying out of the areas until a target deer is moving during daylight hours. They spend a lot of time year-round scouting and patterning the deer’s movements.

Hunter killed his first deer when he was five years old during the Kentucky free youth hunt. By the age of 13, he had killed 14 deer, including three bucks that had a gross score over 150 inches. Throw in numerous turkeys around the country, a recent South African plains game safari, and it is easy to say that this 13-year-old is off to a very exciting start to his hunting career.

During the summer of 2023, Hunter and his dad were hoping to confirm that the big 6x6 typical they had passed up the previous year was still alive. If he was still a typical 6x6, or better, he could be a world class typical! They got the first Moultrie photo confirmation on August 23, 2023. The buck was still in velvet. The amazing thing was they almost did not recognize him. The buck had turned into a truly giant nontypical. He still had the typical 6 points on his right side (plus a small non-typical point), but his left side had blown up into 18 typical and nontypical points.

The next photo they received was on September 1st, about a mile from the first location. Then another photo appeared on October 1st, and they knew they had to come up with a plan for the Illinois Youth Season, which spans over October 7-9. They focused on the locations of the Moultrie trail camera photos and set up some natural ground blinds using brush and tall grass.

During that time of the year, it’s typically best to only hunt evenings. Hunter and Jeremiah set up along a hedgerow with tall grass for cover on the evening of October 7. They only saw a doe, a fawn and a small buck. The next day, October 8, they set up about half a mile from where they had been the previous day. Again, they only saw five or six does.

On Monday, October 9, the last day of the Youth Season, they headed back to the original location. While trying to get into position along the hedgerow, they noticed the neighboring farmer was picking corn on his side of the tree line. They stopped and talked to the farmer and got permission to access his land to have the wind in their faces while approaching their natural ground blind.

They set up at the same place they had used on the first day. Using a makeshift ground blind, they could watch most of the farm they were hunting on. They had tall grass for cover, and Hunter had a tripod for his Savage 220. They were only about 50 yards from where they had gotten an earlier photo of the buck during legal shooting hours.

By 6:00 p.m., they had not seen a deer. The farmer was still picking corn about 300 yards away. At 6:05 p.m., as they were glassing the farm, they saw the giant nontypical stand from his bed next to the hedgerow. The buck was only 154 yards away and only about 80-90 yards from where they had walked in.

The hunters figured the noise from the combine had covered their approach to the ground blind. They watched the buck walk to the edge of the bean field on their side of the hedgerow. Hunter did not have a shot and knew they had to get closer. They started crawling every time the buck would put his head down, feeding. They covered about 100 yards, keeping a few small bushes between them and the buck.

For the last 10-15 yards, the hunters crawled across open ground with no cover. As soon as they got to a spot that allowed them a clear shot, Hunter set up the tripod and settled the Savage into place. The deer had continued to feed away from them as they crawled closer. Jeremiah told Hunter: “Don’t shoot until you can get a clean shot behind his shoulder.”

The buck was quartering away, so Hunter aimed right in front of his hind quarter. At the shot, approximately 120 yards, the buck mule-kicked and took off running across the bean field. He ran about 200 yards and went into a brushy ditch. There was plenty of daylight to track him, but the father-son team debated leaving the buck alone until after dark.

The decision was made to go after him in the daylight, in case another shot was needed. They went to the place they last saw him and found blood with bubbles, indicating that Hunter had hit at least one lung. Hunter made sure he was loaded and ready to shoot again as he eased down into the ditch. As soon as he came up out of the ditch, a small buck jumped up and took off. Right then, the giant nontypical stood up about 20 yards away.

The buck tried to run, but Hunter immediately shot him again. This time, he dropped the monster buck in its tracks.

I’m told it’s a tossup as to who was more excited, Hunter or his dad. After taking a few minutes to fully realize what had just happened, and getting their first close look at the giant buck, the full realization of just how big the buck was, started to soak in. After the buck was tagged, the men went to get Hunter’s grandparents to share in the excitement of the moment. The giant buck dropped in a spot right on the edge of the bean field, within easy reach of Jeremiah’s truck! An easy drag by Hunter, his dad, and his grandfather will be a moment they will all cherish for many years to come.

The great nontypical that they estimated to be 5 1/2 years old, had 25 measurable points, and slightly over 41 inches of abnormals. One main beam was over 25 inches, and all the circumferences were over four inches, except one. The buck has a 181-inch gross typical frame, a gross nontypical score of 222 4/8 and a net nontypical score of 210 1/8.

Moultrie Made It Happen

When you see a really giant buck, such as the one Hunter Brandon took during the Youth Season, it’s easy to forget about some of the steps that culminated in the taking of such a buck.

One of the most important things Hunter and his dad, Jeremiah, did was decide to set up some Moultrie Trail Cameras. Cameras can be critical when you are hunting wide-open terrain with hundreds of acres of agricultural fields. This becomes especially important when you are trying to scout the area and determine deer movement patterns, and the only cover is periodic hedge rows between fields.

Moultrie Cameras allowed hunter to do the following:

Learn the Way in Which the Deer Use the Local Habitat and Surrounding Cover

It’s not just about seeing big bucks on camera. You can gather a wealth of information such as which way a deer is traveling and determine whether most of the daylight movement was in the morning or evenings. You can also learn when bucks start making rubs and scrapes. By setting the camera on video, you get to witness social behavior and learn which bucks are dominant and what time of year bucks become interested in does.

Build a Relationship with a Particular Deer

Moultrie cameras allow you to be a part of a deer’s life and see a particular deer during their daily routine. You can then start recognizing those deer, giving them names to identify them, and watching them grow over a multi-year period. Through cameras, Hunter was able to watch the buck develop over the previous three years even though he never once saw him in person. That alone kept him motivated every time he went out to hunt.

Leave Minimal Human Presence

Moultrie Cameras help you to leave a lot less scent around, which means the deer stay comfortable in a given area. Lower hunting pressure translates into seeing more deer during the daylight. You can hardly run a big buck out of his core territory, but as soon as he feels pressure, he will go nocturnal and will not move during daylight, unless he is following a doe.

Moultrie Cameras Make it a Family Event

One of the most important things that occurred with Hunter and his brothers was the increased enthusiasm every time a new picture showed up. Hunter’s dad, Jeremiah, said: “All of my boys would grab my phone and couldn’t wait to see what new pictures had shown up. It was like opening a Christmas present every day.”

React to Changing Deer Movement Patterns

Starting around the first of October, deer (particularly big bucks) can change their movement patterns every week to 10 days. Moultrie Cameras allow you, as a hunter, to not only recognize the change in patterns, but to quickly react and slightly alter your hunting techniques as needed. Hunter and his dad had gotten a picture of the giant buck in August at another farm, about one and a half miles away from where Hunter actually killed him. The last day of the youth season, they suddenly got a picture of the giant buck in a location where they had never seen him before. It was a daylight picture around 30 minutes after sunrise. They immediately made plans to switch their hunting to that area in the afternoon, and the rest is history! Don’t misunderstand, they still had to be very careful how they approached the area because of the wide-open spaces, but they at least knew the buck was somewhere in the area.

Moultrie Cameras Can Help You, Too!

Deer hunting, especially for mature bucks, is a process, and the deer still has the advantage. There are a multitude of small steps involved, and trail cameras help you collect essential data. You still have to absorb the information and put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Once in a great while, the stars will align with the hunter who has been smart enough to make use of the knowledge and information he has been able to collect, resulting in a memorable hunting experience. Hunter Brandon will definitely remember that afternoon for the rest of his life, and being able to share it with his dad makes it even better.

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