The Warren Holder Buck

The Warren Holder Buck – I Won the Battle, but He Still Won the War!

As told by Warren Holder

The story of this deer begins in the summer of 2015. We had just acquired a new piece of property. As usual with any piece of ground we acquire we start by putting trail cameras out hoping to catch a glimpse of a beast that already calls the place home. A few weeks passed by and we made our way to the property to pull cards. The initial card pull was quite disappointing. There was nothing of significance on any camera, except one. A really nice hefty body 10 point probably 4-5 years old with a small g5 and great mass. We got one velvet photo of him, he then disappeared for months not showing back up until November.

Later that year a good friend of ours was hunting a stand on the farm and saw the deer. He described him more as a moose than a deer, due to his large body and abnormally heavy rack the name “Bullwinkle” was born. As November pressed on we managed to get a handful of photos of him. Other than a random photo or two, we never managed to get close to him. Once our deer season closed, we pulled cards hoping to confirm he had made it through the gun seasons, but we got nothing.

As the 2016 deer season approached we continued to work on the farm and improve our stand placements. There was one particular stand we hung that both my dad and I had a great feeling about. Located on a pinch point that we had discovered just off a popular bedding area. Our efforts paid off, but got us no closer to Bullwinkle. On Nov 11th 2016 I killed the largest bodied deer I have ever seen, 265 pounds field-dressed. After I killed my deer we pulled a card from a nearby camera and there he was, Bullwinkle!!! I was thrilled he was still alive, but now convinced more than ever that this would be a difficult deer to ever put a tag on. He was now a mid-170’s deer that appeared to be carrying baseball bats on his head, the heaviest deer I have ever personally seen.

Spring rolled around and we again had no photos confirming whether or not Bullwinkle was still alive. We hoped shed season would tell the tale. We found several sheds on the farm, but none belonging to the owner we had hoped to find. We had time to check one more spot, on the way there I could see an antler laying in the middle of the alfalfa field. As I got closer I realized it was him. It was Bullwinkle! I couldn’t believe it, the weight of it was unlike any other antler I have ever found! The shed scored right at 80” and that was his smaller side.

November 2017 arrives, and after no sign of him all summer my Dad and brother finally laid eyes on him. Even though the encounter was short and he never got closer than a hundred yards, it confirmed both he was alive and he was huge! He was now the largest he had ever been, 180 to 190 easy! After their encounter with Bullwinkle I got the opportunity to sit the same stand on a crisp November morning. The spot produced as it always had, several does then some decent bucks, then Bullwinkle!!! We only got to lay eyes on him for about 30 seconds but there was no mistaking the unnatural mass he carried. He did the same thing to me as he had done to my brother, right up the hill following a doe. We put a stand on the brim of the hill in hopes of catching him a 3rd time, but no luck. Once again, he disappeared for the remainder of the season.

Shed season came and went, we didn’t find his sheds, but we did find something else. We discovered a new area of the farm that had a large amount of sign that we had been neglecting. Summer of 2018 rolls around and we got our cameras back out. I knew I wanted to add a stand in the new area we found in the spring, so I talked Dad into fighting the Iowa heat to help me hang a set in the new area. We pulled cards that day, and were surprised to find a velvet photo of Bullwinkle! This was the first velvet photo since 2015. Not only did he show up, he actually showed up several times, sporting an insanely massive rack.

He seemed to have gone downhill a little since 2017, he may not have scored as much, but we didn’t care he was an absolute beast. We were now more optimistic about our chances, as it seemed we had found part of Bulliwinkle’s core area. I spent more time hunting this property than ever before. Once the deer had shed their velvet, Bullwinkle seemingly disappeared. I was at a loss with this deer and didn’t know what else to do. So instead of going completely crazy, I focused on other deer on the farm. An early October cold front arrived and provided a perfect opportunity to hunt the new stand we hung that summer.

We made our way to the stand with great anticipation for what this new spot may provide. We saw several does and small bucks, but no shooters. A few days later (Oct 23) we got the right wind to hunt the stand again. The evening started off slow with only a few does, but it quickly picked up. My camera man tapped my shoulder and said “there’s a buck behind us”. I got my bino’s on the deer, and realized this wasn’t “a buck” it was “THE” buck! My heart was racing as I could see just how big he was, and thought we might actually get a shot. There was plenty of daylight left, and every other deer had come right by us. But it wasn’t meant to be. He began working a large scrape, about a hundred yards behind us, it was unreal watching an animal of that caliber destroying a tree and making a scrape.

He finished making the scrape and moved on straight away from us. Although I didn’t get a shot, I was getting closer. After doing some research I believed we had been missing his core area the entire time, he wasn’t disappearing, he just wasn’t where we thought he was. My theory quickly consumed me, I immediately moved a camera and our stand within shooting distance of the scrape. My plan was to hunt that stand every day the wind would allow until he returned, or until the rut kicked in and the scrape was abandoned.

We ended up only getting to sit the stand twice due to the wind. During that time period I had pictures of him during daylight hours multiple times. Frustrated as I knew I had missed my window to catch him working scrapes, but I was now confident I had discovered where the ancient monarch was living. I continued to hunt the spot when the wind would allow throughout the season. On Nov 15th I was fortunate enough to have another mature deer come by that we were also familiar with, I couldn’t pass on him. He gave me a great shot at 25 yards and I sunk my arrow into both lungs. This ended my quest for Bullwinkle in 2018 as my tag was filled.

Going into the 2019 season I was focused on Bullwinkle. I felt like I had finally figured this deer out. After reviewing everything, I thought he might be smarter than I had initially given him credit for. I believed he was bedding right next to the only access point to the back part of the farm, which meant he had us patterned. One of his sheds had been found less than 150 yards from our stand, yet not once did I see him from there. On another occasion just after the season closed my brother and I made a trip to move a few cameras. We drove the atv past that same stand and dang near ran him over! Another day my brother forgot his harness forcing him to improvise by sitting on the ground where we accessed the back part of the farm. Low and behold he saw Bullwinkle bedded 120 yards out for the entire evening! I had now found a shed and seen Bullwinkle right next to our stand. Now I figured out he had been bedding right next to where we access our stands. He would bed down in the thick cover and then watch us go to the back part of the farm. If he saw us, he would go out the other way. If he saw our vehicle parked there he would do the same.

Now convinced he had us patterned, it was time to change my approach. I would park my vehicle 500 yards from anywhere I felt that he could see it. I also changed my access point. Instead of going down our usual path, I began going farther west and entering the stand from the beanfield. Making it impossible for him to have any idea we were in the farm from where I believed he was. There was only one stand that gave me a legitimate chance at seeing him. So my strategy was simple. Once the deer started hitting scrapes hard, hunt the stand next to his scrape every day the wind was right.

The first two hunts Bullwinkle was a no show, and the third hunt was looking like the same. It was windy that day, but the wind was supposed to die the last half hour before dark and I prayed that would be the window we would need. There was only about 10 mins of light left when we heard the unmistakable sound of two bucks fighting, the clanking was deep and quick and just out of our sight. Immediately after the fighting quit, I could hear a deer coming, I was scanning the thick brush frantically trying to see the buck. Suddenly there he was “Bullwinkle” was at forty yards and closing. My heart is now slamming against my chest, I am doing everything I can to keep my composure. I start telling myself, stay calm, and look for a place to shoot. He is now at twenty yards on a trail that goes directly underneath the stand.

I have bow in hand and feet set for him to walk out into my opening to the left. He is underneath my stand, I am literally looking at him through the cuts of the stand. I have no idea how he didn’t notice me with my heart pounding, knees shaking and praying so loudly I couldn’t hear myself think! Finally he cuts back to the right. Casually walking but checking the surrounding area, I am now starting to panic, as I am set up to shoot to the left and he is now going to the right. He is only a mere 5 yards away, so each time he looks away I shuffle my feet around. Hoping and praying he doesn’t catch me or hear the stand creek as it is now dead silent. Miraculously I manage to get all the way turned around with him still at 5 yards. He starts to walk, I come to full draw, heart racing telling myself look for the exit, look for the exit. He was quartered away and still only 8 yards making the shot nearly straight down. I force myself to bring the pin back from his shoulder and about 6 inches down from his back to account for the angle.

I squeeze the trigger and the arrow is perfect. For an old guy, he booked it out of there, but we thought we heard him crash. I was in a state of disbelief, excitement and nervousness, as I prefer to see them fall. Dakin and I exchanged high fives and enjoyed the exhilarating high that only bowhunting a special deer can deliver. I couldn’t believe it, after 5 years of chasing him we finally got a shot at less than 10 yards. We reviewed the footage and confirmed it was a good shot. We quickly climbed down and began to look for blood. It didn’t take long before we found the first drop, from that point forward it was an easy walking blood trail. We were only 80 yards from the stand when my flashlight caught the light of a white belly. There he was!!!

As I walked up to Bullwinkle it really felt like a dream. This was the only time and only deer I have ever killed that truly didn’t feel real. I was shocked by the size of his body, he looked more like an Angus bull laying there than a deer. I set my bow down and picked up his head. The excitement, admiration, joy, and thankfulness poured over. He was much larger than I thought, his mass and character was astounding. It was the most surreal moment to date in my hunting lifetime. After the emotions had calmed a little, I couldn’t help but stare at him.

The size of his body, the uniqueness of his rack, the countless scars that covered his blocky head. I couldn’t help but to feel a connection with him, an unmeasurable thankfulness as well as some sorrow as this deer truly epitomized the definition of a monarch.

A friend of mine said to me, “I think you won the chess match”. That statement caused a lot of thought, but I have mixed feelings as to whether he is right or not. This deer had outsmarted us for years, he always knew where we were, while we never knew where he was. I truly believe, I may have won the battle, but “Bullwinkle” certainly won the war!