Pursuit of the Kicker Tine Buck

Christopher L. Hanes
Dec 28, 2016
10 min read

The Fall of 2016 brought a drastic change to my hunting area. Instead of living in Alaska and exploring its vast game filled fields, I was located in the flat plains of Kansas. In every change, there is an opportunity, and this was no different. For the first time in over a decade, I was within driving distance of my family farm in Missouri and would be able to hunt the elusive Whitetail deer in my childhood stomping grounds. As a young man, I had harvested many Whitetail deer, to include a couple of nice bucks, but after a decade of living elsewhere in the country and stalking game in Alaska, I had to reconfigure my methods to fit the task at hand. The task was to locate and successfully harvest a mature Whitetail buck.

Many things have changed since my last adventures into the Missouri woods, but many things remained the same. Since I would be hunting the family farm, inherent knowledge of the terrain was an advantage to me. As a child and on through college, I have roamed those woods and fields more times than I can count and can easily navigate them on the darkest of nights with no light. After an initial reconnaissance in July, it was apparent that the deer still moved through the same areas they always had, using the same funnels and hiding in the same ditches. The area was the same but had grown up considerably. Hours of chainsaw work was required to thin out the saplings that had grown and began to choke out my favorite tree stand locations. One change that is evident from the deer hunting of years ago are the innovations that have helped drive the popularity of whitetail deer hunting. For this season, I would be integrating trail cameras for the first time in my life, to get an idea of what deer existed on the property and what their routines were. I would also leave my old faithful 243 Win deer rifle in the safe, in favor of a more recently acquired rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, that has been truly impressive.

In an attempt to make the best effort possible at locating and harvesting a mature buck I began necessary preparation immediately in the summer months preceding the fall hunting season. The 100 degree plus days of July found me running a chainsaw, cutting out shooting lanes and improving stand locations. When I wasn’t prepping possible stand locations or checking my fishing lines, I was shooting the rifle that I intended to carry for this hunt. The Savage Model 16 in 6.5 Creedmoor, equipped with a Vortex Viper HS 2.5-10x scope, had proven itself as a handy rifle while hunting Spanish Goats in Hawaii but I knew the range of shooting possibilities in Missouri could be broader. Anything from a close-range opportunity at a spooked running deer up to a 500-yard shot could be encountered. For shooting I utilized Hornady Superformance ammunition, pushing a 129gr SST bullet at 2923 feet per second and steel plate targets from TargetsUSA. This combination provided an accurate round that has been proven in the field and targets that are easily moved to change shooting conditions, facilitate field-based shooting practice and provide immediate target feedback.

Since I owned no trail cameras, I had to decide which ones I would use. The critical factors I determined I wanted the cameras to meet were medium cost, small size for ease of carry, ease of set up and good picture quality and shutter speed. After comparing these factors with the many models available on the market today, I decided on the Cloak 8 model produced by Wildgame Innovations. Four cameras were acquired and emplaced throughout my hunting grounds to determine precise movement corridors and identify what deer were inhabiting the area. Initial feedback was great, showing a healthy deer population and three mature bucks working the property, with one of them being an exceptional trophy and another having an additional kicker point on its G2 to add character. Unfortunately, the largest of the three bucks would only stay on the property through the summer and disappeared around the beginning of September, never to be seen again. This narrowed the hit list down to the kicker point buck and another buck that was a mature eight-point with tall tines but not a very wide spread and was determined that it should be left alone for another year. Thus, began the journey of hunting the kicker tine buck.

Environmental factors would also take its toll on this hunt. While the summer months provided adequate rain for the crops, temperatures were often over 100 degrees. This trend carried on into the fall, resulting in near-record high temps and little to no precipitation. These weather patterns are far different than how I remembered deer season as a child, often with snow on the ground and freezing cold temperatures that seemed to energize rut behavior. These weather patterns drove multiple effects. Even in the late summer to early fall timeframe, the bucks were moving around mostly at night and were simply not demonstrating any specific patterns that would help identify a likely place to intercept them. On a positive note, the deer sign and activity of tree rubs and scrapes seemed to be far more visible and frequent than I ever remembered seeing in my youth. While the bucks were moving mostly in the darkness, towards the middle of October they began to rub trees in nearly every ditch and draw on the property as well as roughing out rather large scrapes. The evidence didn't paint a particularly clear picture, but it did narrow down four locations of mature buck activity. In these areas, I emplaced scrape drippers on either existing new scrapes or mock scrapes that I built. Through these efforts, I tried to draw the bucks into working one long scrape line that was integrated with their current activity but would also provide possible opportunities at my stand locations.

November 12th came and ushered in the beginning of rifle season in Missouri. While temperatures were expected to rise throughout the day at least the evening and morning temperatures were often around the freezing mark. The first weekend seemed bleak with encounters of young bucks and only seeing young bucks chasing does. One indicator of low movement was the lack of audible gunshots throughout the area. In my memory, I seem to remember opening morning sounding like a small battle engagement kicking off, but on that morning, I heard only six shots. Two bucks were encountered during the opening weekend that caused me to bring my rifle to my shoulder, but I couldn't confirm that they were the kicker point buck and they certainly weren't larger than him. While it was very difficult and I was very eager to score on a whitetail buck after such a long hiatus, I never fired my rifle that opening weekend. The tall tined eight-point was spotted a couple of times, but no good shots were presented, and I was desperately trying to avoid taking him.

The second weekend of the season brought harsher weather but even less deer movement. On one day, the winds were gusting upwards of 40 miles per hour, and they weren't blowing warm air either. At this point, the clothing chosen for wear became crucial to allowing me to stay in the stand throughout the day. Layering was the name of the game and the system available from Kryptek Outdoor Group fit the bill. The Merino Wool base layers and Coldo fleece lined pants did a good job of holding off the elements, but the true performer was the Anorak jacket. The Anorak jacket combined the extreme warmth and comfort of fleece with an impenetrable water and windproof capability, resulting in the most comfortable day sets in a stand during harsh weather that I have ever personally enjoyed. The Anorak jacket is so warm that I wouldn't advise wearing it for a very long walk but for sitting still all day while a 40 mile per hour wind howls at you, it can't be beaten. This became crucial based on the inability to identify any patterns and the fact that deer were spotted at all hours of the day. To increase my chances of spotting the kicker point buck in the open I had to maximize my time in the stand, the Anorak Jacket, other Kryptek layers, and the awesome gloves and beanie from The Buffalo Wool Company made that possible.

While the season would technically last a couple more days, the second Sunday of rifle season was the last day of my hunt. As I remained in the stand that Sunday afternoon I couldn’t help but think about the bucks I had seen and decided not to shoot. Second thoughts began to plague me, and I started to wonder if I had let a shooter walk while waiting for a monster that simply didn't exist. I continued to scan the tree line with my binoculars, hoping to spot a buck sneaking along the scrape line just inside the woods and ranging random locations with the Vortex Ranger 1500, knowing that I probably wouldn’t have time to range an actual animal if the chance presented itself. The constant use of the range finder to verify distances built a mental range card that would come in handy.

As darkness approached, I began to reflect on the great time I had enjoyed over the past few weeks of hunting and months of preparation. While it appeared, I wouldn’t find the buck I was after, I had passed on a few nice deer, that I'm certain I could have taken, enjoyed many Midwest sunrises and sunsets and got to spend some good times in the field with my Dad, in the area where I grew up and developed a true passion for the outdoors. As I stared at the mixed area of tall grasses and cut soybean fields, something told me to turn around. I swiveled around in my chair to see a large bodied buck sporting heavy antlers at a full sprint, crossing the cut bean field behind me. I immediately grabbed my rifle and a bean bag and began fashioning an impromptu shooting position that required me to be on my knees with my rifle over a board and no rear shooting rest. Less than an ideal shooting position but I did feel steady. Based on previous range verification, I knew the buck was over 350 yards but less than 400. As he raced across the field and my window to shoot became narrower, I decided that I wasn’t going to shoot.

The rest was steady; the equipment was adequate, but the buck was moving so fast that I feared not that I would miss but that I would wound. With the reticle on the great buck, the safety off and my finger on the trigger, I prepared to watch the magnificent animal run into the setting sun. At that exact moment, the buck laid on the brakes and went from a full sprint to standing still. Without missing a beat with the reticle steady on the deer, my finger applied pressure, and the Creedmoor barked. Characteristic of the light recoil of the 6.5 Creedmoor, I never lost sight picture throughout the shot sequence and witnessed the buck collapse dead in his tracks through the scope as it was impacted by the 129 grain Hornady SST. I quickly worked the rifle's bolt and prepared to fire again, completely in disbelief that I had just anchored the great deer with one shot from that range, and witnessed the reason for his demise. Six doe’s that had been unseen in the low ground silhouetted themselves as they crossed a nearby ridge. The buck had obviously spotted the group of doe and stopped to observe. After realizing the deer wasn’t going to move I checked the distance to target and verified 363 yards. Having used the dead hold dot in my Vortex reticle for slightly more than 350 yards, I had drilled the buck right in the ten ring.

At that point, I only knew that the season was moments away from being over for me and I had just taken a dandy mature buck. It wasn't until I closed the distance on the deer that I realized I had taken the kicker point buck. I was elated to see that not only was he a great buck but that he seemed bigger in person than his pictures had led me to believe. The unique kicker point was accompanied by a relatively massive frame and a few other random points. The county conservation officer, who just happened to be passing by, stopped to check my permits and verified him as having thirteen scoreable points. After skinning the buck, it was evident that the Hornady SST bullet had been devastating on the animal, resulting in one of the fastest dispatching of a large deer that I had ever personally witnessed. While my previous use of the SST has resulted in a well-mushroomed projectile recovered on the off side hide or a complete pass through, this time was different . I was able to recover the copper jacket of the projectile and a couple of small lead pieces, but the rest was unrecoverable. It appeared that after penetrating the near side of the deer, just behind the front shoulder, the bullet exploded like a grenade, not exiting the other side but severely bruising the offside shoulder. While I would usually say that I prefer a bullet to retain weight and result in nice little mushrooms, I can’t argue with the achieved end state of a large bodied buck dropped in his tracks without breaking any bones.

The hunt was as near to perfect as a person could dream. After months of work, identifying a specific targetable buck, I was able to harvest that buck (by a slight stroke of luck) and do so in the last few minutes of the available hunting time. A relatively new rifle continued to demonstrate its ability to earn a permanent place in the safe and my biggest problem was the processing work that lay ahead of me and the need to line up a taxidermist. This adventures’ backcountry was the wooded draws of the Midwest, and they did not disappoint. The experience mixed old stomping grounds with new technologies and resulted in the harvest of a magnificent buck that will forever hang in my home. I am humbled and grateful for the experience, and I'm already thinking about how I will improve myself and my preparation to make the next opportunity even better.