The rolling farmlands and cottonwood creeks of Kansas produce some of the biggest whitetail bucks in America. And Coffey County, located in east-central Kansas, is a well-known hotspot for oversize bucks.
A half-hour before a 30-degree, bright dawn on Nov. 30, Kansas farmer Ben Spencer headed to a lock-on stand. After getting nearby trail camera photos of a buck he’d been after for years, he decided that was the best spot for an ambush.
“I [hung] the stand years ago when I bought the farm, but never hunted it,” Spencer, 32, tells Outdoor Life. “I never saw the big buck I was hunting near it, so I never sat there.”
In addition to gathering trail cam photos over four years, Spencer had found its sheds. He’d been actively hunting the buck for three years and had even seen the heavy-rack whitetail several times, but he’d never had a shot opportunity.
“We did some logging on my farm, and I think the buck moved into some thick leftover cover last November,” says Spencer, who has 185 acres in Leroy, Kansas. “I believe he moved his bedding area to that cut-over timber.
When the buck appeared on camera 200 yards from the unused stand, he placed a camera closer to the stand. Almost immediately, it captured photos of the buck.
That was before Thanksgiving, and conditions were poor for hunting the stand. But when the wind and weather cooperated on the last day of the month, he climbed 17 feet into the stand.
“Trees around the stand were dropping lots of acorns,” Spencer said. “I saw some does 80 yards away after daylight. Then a spike buck and a doe came near my stand. The spike started messing with the doe, pushing her around with his head.
“I happened to look up and saw a huge buck 200 yards away on a ridge side. He came right to me, headed toward the spike and doe.”
Then, at 80 yards, the big buck stopped, watching the spike and doe. It didn’t take long for the spike to back off, however, and the big buck beelined for the doe feeding near Spencer.
“I never thought the buck would walk across an opening, but he came through open grass right to the doe,” said Spencer. “He was grunting all the way.”
When the buck stopped broadside at 23 yards, he leveled his Ravin crossbow and squeezed the trigger.
The shot looked good, but the buck ran just 20 yards then stopped. Spencer scrambled to reload another arrow, but the deer trotted into some thick creek-side timber and disappeared. A few seconds later he watched the buck exit the timber and disappear about 100 yards away.
He climbed down and found his arrow, along with plenty of blood on the ground. Next, he phoned his wife, father, and a buddy, and relayed the news.
“I met them at our home, and we waited about 90 minutes before going back to track my buck. We got back to the blood trail about 10 a.m., and the track to him was great. We found the buck quickly, maybe 200 yards from where I shot him.”
The arrow had passed through both lungs. Ben field dressed the buck, and they got it out with an ATV.
Ben says the 10-point had lost a lot of weight during the rut, but estimated it to be six or seven years old. So far it’s been green-scored by two people, including a buddy who is an outfitter in Kansas. It gross-scored about 197 inches, with a net score of 190.
“He has unusual gnarly brow tines, which he’s had in all the trail camera photos and sheds I have,” says Spencer. “If he’d had normal tall brow tines, he likely would have scored well over 200 inches. But I’m not complaining. I’ll never shoot a nicer deer.”
If the score holds close to the 190-inch mark, it will likely go down in the Kansas state record books as the fifth-largest typical whitetail ever taken during archery season. (Unless this long-lost 200-inch Kansas buck is recognized by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.) The largest, according to state records, is a 193 7/8 inch buck killed in 2001. It would be the largest typical whitetail taken by any method in Coffey County.
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Spencer is planning on a shoulder mount, but is currently in negotiations on where to put it.
“My wife and I have been talking about where it’s going to hang at home,” Ben says chuckling. “For now, we’ve pretty much decided it’s going into my office.”
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