I put in for preference points in five western states and am a member of Huntin’ Fool. Without drawing any tags in 2017, I still had the best year of hunting in my life. I took two bucks in Missouri, one in Kansas, an aoudad in west Texas, and a nice Dall sheep in Alaska.
The real story began the day after Thanksgiving in 2016. While I was checking trail cameras on my farm, I was shocked to see pictures of a 200" buck. While central Missouri has some great whitetail deer hunting, a 150-160" buck would be what I would normally consider a great buck. During the 2016 Presidential campaign, President Trump used the word “Bigly” and the name stuck to this huge whitetail. Bigly stayed on my property until February 17, 2017. He then moved two miles back to his spring/summer home. A local landowner found his left shed, which scored 112". After an extensive search for Bigly’s other shed, I was able to scout and put together a plan for the 2017 archery season. I gained permission to hunt a 20-acre tract that I believed Bigly was using to bed and then feed on several large alfalfa fields through the summer months.
On the last day of the Missouri spring turkey season, I hung a bow stand and five cameras on the 20-acre tract to begin the search for Bigly. On May 18th, I got a picture of an extremely large buck with 16-18" of growth. On June 5th, I got another picture of an exceptional buck that I thought could be Bigly. On the morning of June 25th, I received three pictures from my Spartan cellular camera and I knew it was Bigly!
Over the next several months, Bigly became very elusive and I received very few pictures. After my return from Alaska in early August, Bigly started to become more active and I began getting weekly pictures with the five trail cameras I had set up in the area. During this time, I worked hard to keep my pictures and Bigly’s location top secret. Unfortunately, many people in our small community had heard of him after his shed was found and they were looking for him.
The beginning of Missouri archery season finally rolled around, and I was extra careful to hunt Bigly only with the correct wind. I was sure he was bedded within several hundred yards of my stand. I crawled into my stand where my camera had showed Bigly had been the evening before just 10 minutes before dark. I was getting closer! I didn’t see him that evening, and he became a no show on my cameras. I was getting very nervous.
Two miles away on my farm, several good bucks were showing up on my cameras but no Bigly. On October 20th, I checked 10 cameras on my property and I discovered three pictures of Bigly! I guess he had remembered my farm and felt safe there. From October 20th to November 3rd, I had approximately 15 pictures of Bigly. I decided to take off work the week of November 6th and hunt all day the entire week.
I crawled into my Shadow Hunter enclosed blind in a brushy field on Sunday, November 5th at around 1 p.m. From Sunday to Wednesday, I hunted all day and saw a dozen bucks and many does. At around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, four does were milling about when out of nowhere Bigly charged into the field only 30 yards directly in front of my blind. All four does scattered, and Bigly was chasing them in small circles directly in front of me. I eased the window open and drew my bow. I settled the pin directly behind Bigly’s shoulder at 30 yards. As I released the arrow, Bigly moved forward and the arrow hit him dead center of the body by his back rib. I knew this wasn’t good, and I watched Bigly as he walked another 30 yards to hide in some tall grass behind several small trees. There was no chance for a follow-up shot, so I closed the blind and waited until 30 minutes after dark to sneak out of the area.
Once home, I contacted my dad and brothers and several friends to meet at 7 a.m. the next morning to assist in the recovery of Bigly. Up until this point, they were all unaware that I was getting any pictures of Bigly in 2017. There was no need to keep it a secret from them at this point, but I did ask each of them to keep Bigly a secret until after we found him. I didn’t sleep three hours that night.
Once I was at my blind the next morning, I removed my bow and found my arrow still stuck in the ground and covered in blood. My nephew, Daniel, immediately picked up the blood trail. The dark red blood indicated a liver shot that I knew was a fatal wound. After following only 50 yards of blood trail, Bigly stood up and ran out of sight. He had stayed in the same spot for 15 hours. I knew he was fatally wounded, so I asked everyone to back out and we would regroup later that day.
After getting home, I called my friend and outfitter, Ralph Reynolds of Prairieland Outfitters. I told him that I had liver shot Bigly and how we had jumped him after 15 hours. He told me, “You are not going to like hearing this, but you need to leave him for another 24 hours. Also, call Ron Slifer of United Blood Trackers.”
I found Ron on Facebook, and he answered on my first call. I explained the situation and that I believed Bigly would score over 200". Ron asked me to call the Missouri Department of Conservation and ask about the regulations for recovery of a wounded deer with a dog. I texted Ron several trail camera pictures of Bigly and contacted a Wildlife Biologist at MDC and discussed regulation on deer recovery. Ron and I spoke again and agreed to meet up later that evening. He arrived at 11:30 with his assistant, Brad, and his bloodhound, Ronnie James Dio (aka Dio). They stayed the night at my parents’ guesthouse.
That evening, my new friend from my Alaska hunt, Austin Allred, was flying into St. Louis from Idaho for the Missouri rifle season. I made arrangements for my son, Caleb, to pick him up at the airport and bring him to my home where he was staying until he was able to harvest a buck.
After another evening with little sleep, Austin, Ron, and Brad had a quick breakfast that I had made for them. While eating, we discussed strategy and looked at Google Earth to discuss where Bigly had last been seen and his possible path of travel. Once again, we met up with the same group that had helped me the morning before. We went to the place where we had found him the day before. Ron explained to our group that he would need everyone to give Dio room to do his job, and then he led our group in a moment of prayer. Dio spent approximately two minutes smelling Bigly’s bedding area and started off in the same direction we had last seen Bigly go. Only 100 yards into the trail, Ron stopped Dio and said, “There is a deer approximately 70 yards into the woods.” I slowly walked toward Bigly and noticed his rear end had been eaten on by coyotes. As I walked closer, the size of Bigly was so enormous that I became overwhelmed with emotions. As the group closed in on Bigly, I asked for a moment of prayer to thank my Lord and Savior for the opportunity to harvest such a majestic animal. Then we had a photo shoot and our group carried Bigly 150 yards to a location I was able to drive my truck to.
I was fortunate enough to harvest five trophy animals in four months and feel very blessed to have the opportunity to live out my passion to hunt.
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