“Never too Late to Find Your Trophy”

“Never too Late to Find Your Trophy”

By Daniel Mauch

It doesn’t matter if you are sitting around a campfire during hunting season or sitting around the dinner table with family and friends, Hunters always have a story they like to share. My most memorable and most emotional story was written November 12, 2014 at 1:25 in the afternoon and is one about a buck named Kong.

2014 started out like any other year in preparing for the Iowa rut. Planting food plots, preparing stand locations, hanging trail cams, blocking off a week of vacation, and of course endless scouting. For months I watched the fawns grow bigger and bigger, counted doe’s to know how many to manage, and I watched the bucks grow their antlers inch by inch. Before I knew it, sweet November was here. The time I had been preparing for had finally arrived but I was about to make a decision that would make or break my season….

Being a professional videographer for Hunting Is My Life means there is always going to be someone with me. Either I will be filming a hunter or someone will be filming me hunting. This means we both have our own properties to hunt. Even though I had put countless hours in preparing and scouting my own properties, I had a difficult decision to make on how best to spend my limited hunting and filming time. I had one week to hunt and my hunting partner already had a good buck patterned on his property. I knew with that being said I had to give up the work I had done and put my time in around his area. Not wanting to put pressure on his buck on his property, I quickly started planning to call a couple surrounding properties to get permission. It is now November and I didn’t think I stood a chance of getting permission this close to rut. Hoping things would fall into place I dialed the first number. The phone begins to ring. My heart is racing and I am thinking please pick up! They did! Now the conversation between a new landowner and hunter begins. What comes out of my mouth sounds like a plea for help in my mind. I couldn’t believe it. They said yes! I had just got permission for an awesome piece of ground. This was great news but I still had one more piece of ground to go. The phone rang and on the other end of the phone was a sweet kindhearted woman with another yes. This was my lucky day. I called my hunting partner to share the good news and to let him know we had some work to do.

I now had to find out deer movement and where the best locations were to hang stands. With the app Hunt Stand we were able to see the aerial of the property and pinpoint two good potential stand locations where the properties joined. We went in and hung a stand setup in a cotton wood next to what appeared to be a bedding area and we also brushed in a blind on a fence row where we would have a good spot for observation. To finish things off we put out a couple trail cameras to see what deer movement we have and to see what kind of shooters were crossing our path.

I got off work the day before my season started and I already had all my gear packed days ahead of time so all I needed to do was hook up to the camper and go. We were off like kids on Halloween night. We setup camp that night and got our gear organized for in the morning. Needless to say the excitement for what the morning would bring lead to a sleepless night.

I was watching the minutes go by on the clock when the alarm went off. I got out of bed like it was Christmas morning. I hopped in the shower, ate breakfast, put base layers on and out of the camper we went. We were both anxious to know what was on the trail cameras and what we were going to experience on a new piece of ground. We finally arrived and had plenty of time to get our gear ready, finish getting into our camo and for the long walk in. With my bow in my hand and my buddy ready with the camera, we headed out. Not knowing the deer movement for the path we chose, we went into full stealth mode. It was a nice cool damp morning so the leaves were quiet with every step we took. We had made it more than half way to our stand without busting a single deer. When we came upon the pasture we used the waterways to stay concealed. We came upon the last part of the waterway and the fence meaning our stand was close by. “Just a little further and you’ve made it”, I said to myself. As we crested the top of the waterway I heard a doe blow. It echoed through the calm air and what sounded like 30 deer came running by my stand. I will never forget the bottomless gut feeling I felt that morning. Some of the deer didn’t know what they were running from so we hurried to the stand not grabbing the SD card out of the trail camera. We settled in and were hoping that things would calm down and the deer would come back in.

The next hour was quiet and calm. The blue light started to rise and a couple yearlings made their way to our stand to give us a show of playtime. They quickly wore themselves out and bed down under our stand. Within minutes of each other two small bucks came in. One making a rub and another making a quick check for does. I whispered to my hunting buddy “ We are in a hot spot”. I could just feel it. I knew that we had setup in a major bedding area and it could go wild any second. We needed to stay alert. The sun finally started to show itself on the horizon and I caught movement. Three deer were hot on the trail of a doe but with the sun in my eyes it was difficult to tell what they were. I could only see the glisten of a rack in the sun. When he reached a fence I finally was able to see how nice he really was. We were only a couple hours into our morning and I had already given the words to my cameraman “SHOOTER”. He was making his way to us into the thick bedding area but we had a problem. There was a hot doe by us that would lure him away. This is what hunters fear during rut. I watched him as he came in. I started to stutter my words as I was glassing his rack. “He has tines everywhere! He has splits on his G2, G3, G4 and possibly the other side!” I said to my cameraman. He was going toward the doe so I grabbed the grunt call to get his attention but he never turned. I hit him with a snort wheeze and he didn’t turn. I had to try everything so I pulled out the horns and slammed them together. He stopped. He finally turned around and came back at us and to the bedding area. He stayed on the other side of the creek glanced around and back at the doe he went. It was probably a good thing that I couldn’t get a shot on him because my cameraman never did see him. The morning went by fast and noon rolls around when my cameraman received a text that would kick us off that cloud 9 we were on. The big split G2 buck he had patterned on his property was shot by a hunter on a property next to his. With spirits down and also deer movement I started to rethink our strategy. I decided to breakdown our setup and move in where all the activity was at the fence along a good trail. We finished the day slow but did see deer at last light next to the blind we brushed in earlier. A little frustrated but not giving up, we climbed down and made our way back slowly to camp looking forward to tomorrow.

That night a friend stopped by camp to see how the morning went. We told him that we had seen a giant and then gave him the details of the rack. He knew where I had gotten permission and stood there with a smile on his face. “I bet you had seen Kong” he said. I looked at him and said, “Do you have a pic of Kong?” He pulled out his phone and proceeded to show us trail cam pics of the giant I described to a T. The buck was a 14 pointer with a split G2 on his right side and the left side had a split G2, G3 and G4. We were now after a buck named Kong.

The next morning we made it in without getting busted this time. The morning began slowly so we let out a series of grunts and a few rattles. I glassed back to where we had the stand the day before and there stood Kong. Looking right at us. It felt as if he was looking right through me. He quickly turned to run a small buck off and then started chasing a hot doe. I knew we were going to have the same results as yesterday morning. We did. That afternoon and evening was also a repeat of the day before, it was very slow and we had seen the deer again at last light by the blind we had brushed in.

The forecast for the next few days predicted extreme warm weather for November and by the looks of the extended forecast it wasn’t going to change for a while. We decided to pack up and come back when once it got colder. Each day that I had to work was the longest day of my life. Finally a cold front and high-pressure system was in the forecast and I was able to take November 12th through the 16th off and dedicate it solely to Kong.

With the weather moving in we decided to hunt the food sources so we setup in the blind where we were seeing the deer movement previously next to some alfalfa. I had carried in a decoy but waited to put it out knowing that I wanted to kill a doe first thing that morning. The snow began to fall and we started seeing some deer movement. Soon a doe made her way in at an easy 27 yards. With my itchy trigger finger, I let the arrow fly. The sweet “thwak” rang through quiet winter air. It was a good shot. I gave her a couple minutes before I went out and setup the decoy. The morning went on kind of slow. Few small bucks cruising and a couple does came by. It was nice just sitting there enjoying each other’s company and the great outdoors.

It is now around 1:00 pm and I start to glass around. I look into the pocket of timber in front of us and catch a glimpse of a deer. As we both scramble to get eyes on the deer we see that it’s a buck making a rub. When he lifted his head and turned toward us we both in unison said, “That’s him! It’s Kong!” Kong jumped the fence and is on our side. The cards are in our favor. I am in full kill mode as he walks out. He stops to make a scrape and I am thinking that he cannot see the decoy so I grunt at him. He acts like he is going to walk away so I grunt again and follow it with a snort wheeze. He finally turns and looks right at the decoy. I let out another snort wheeze. My heart is pounding out of my chest and I am praying to the man upstairs and boom, he licks his nose a few times and starts walking towards us. I am locked on him and he is now within 20 yards of the blind with no clue we are there. I draw my bow and go into tunnel vision. I hear my cameraman say, “Don’t shoot. Your camera is in the way.” I let him walk a little ways further towards the decoy. Peep is good, range is good, elbow relaxed, good grip, pin buried…You got this! He stops and looks right at me. The gig is up. He started to load his launch gear as I let my arrow fly. As if it was in slow motion I watched him drop about a foot. As I have practiced a thousand times before I allowed for a drop and my arrow hit its mark. Another “thwak” echoed through the air. He jumped the fence and we could already see good blood.

It was 1:25 pm and I had just arrowed Kong after the third sighting. We wanted to give him some time so we called everyone with the good news and celebrated over a well thought out plan. We waited until around 3:30 before we started trailing. I crossed the fence expecting him to be lying right there but to my surprise he wasn’t. We followed the blood in but it led us to my doe I had shot earlier. We couldn’t really find a good second blood trail. I started up the hill and found a couple specs of blood. I knew this had to be him. Now with no blood I started to question my shot placement. I ended up finding my arrow with only about 6” broke off. A friend had come up to help us search but dark was setting in fast so we backed out. After not finding my biggest buck, I wasn’t going to be able to sleep.

We started back at square one the next morning but we could not pick up any more blood. We decided to go into full on search mode and walk the entire property. We did this for about 10 hours straight with no luck. I headed back to camp and tried to get some rest for the next morning. When I woke up I pulled up the app Hunt Stand and noticed a pond on the property that we didn’t check. Our last ditch effort unfortunately didn’t produce Kong either. As we were walking out though I could see a doe in the field being chased by two bucks. One was a bigger buck favoring his front leg. I let out a sigh of relief that Kong was alive but also disappointed that I didn’t get to take Kong home.

Fast-forward a few months to February. The hunting seasons have come and gone without seeing or hearing anything about Kong. My cameraman, a friend, and I head down to shed hunt the area in hopes of finding Kong’s sheds. If he was injured he could have dropped early. We split up and I decide to walk my shot back one more time. As soon as I cross the fence my phone rings and it’s my cameraman. “WE FOUND HIM!” he said. I thought he was joking. Still to this day I don’t know how I ran up that hill so fast and to them 200+ yards away and still had breath in me to hoot and holler without passing out. As I approached my friends standing over Kong’s skull I was overwhelmed with relief. Relief that it was a quick painless death like I intended and he wasn’t injured and of course relief that I finally get to put my hands on the buck named Kong.

We contacted the local DNR officer and explained the story and situation and made sure it was legal to remove from the timber.