One Kansas Couple is Bad News for Big Bucks!

Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases.

This story starts in the fall of 2023 in the Flint Hills of Kansas. I (Cody) had been hunting hard — all day every day — trying to get on a big buck. Despite my best efforts, I really didn’t have a bead on a shooter, and I was getting pretty nervous I just wasn’t going to make it happen that year.

In desperation, I decided to circle back to a property where I had permission to hunt, even though I hadn’t really seen much deer activity there on my previous visits. While there, I spotted a giant buck tending a doe out in one of the pastures — sometimes it really is better to be lucky than good! It was right before dark, and I didn’t have time to make a move. So, I just watched where they were headed and made a plan for the next morning.

After dark, I drove home, grabbed a couple trail cameras and hurried back to the property to put them out and hopefully get some additional intel on this deer. On my way, I spotted another giant buck — even bigger than the one I had found earlier — locked on a doe about 30 yards off the side of the road. I was in awe; this was, by far, the biggest deer I’d ever seen!

I immediately called my wife, Mary, to tell her what I was witnessing. I just sat there watching him and his doe before they took off. I knew there was no way I’d be able to hunt him, since I didn’t have permission anywhere around that area. The likelihood of me getting any was next to none, as most of the area had been leased or was already being hunted by locals. So, I did my best to put this giant out of mind and focus on the other big guy I had just found earlier that evening. Fortune smiled on me, and I actually shot that buck the next morning, which means it was now time to focus on finding a buck for Mary.

Lunchtime Luck

A few days later, during lunch at a local diner, we were talking with some of the local landowners, and I told them about the giant buck I had seen. One of them asked where it was, and of course, with me knowing there was zero possibility of being able to hunt him, I told him exactly where he was. He looked at me, pointed to the guy next to me and said, “Well, that’s right where he lives.”

My eyes got wide as I turned to the other guy and asked, “Do you know you have a GIANT right there that you could hunt?!”

He looked at me and smiled and said, “Yeah, I’ve seen him out there a few times.”

I spent the rest of the lunch hour trying to convince this landowner to let me go hang a stand for him to be able to hunt this deer on his property. He laughed and said he had too much work to do and didn’t have the time to hunt like he used to.

When we left the diner, Mary looked at me and begged me to ask permission from this landowner to hunt the buck. So, I got his number and gave him a call but got no answer. So, I texted him. A few minutes later, I got the text that would change everything. “Yep, you can hunt. Have at it.” Just like that, we had permission!

Now, this was a small parcel of land, and I knew there was no guarantee we’d even see the buck pass through. Regardless, we immediately hung multiple cameras on the narrow piece of ground that was not much more than an acre where we thought we might get him on camera. At 9:52 that night, we got our very first picture, and it was him!

Mary hunted that deer every day she had the right wind. On one particular day, she encountered him three separate times but never got a shot. After a long, grueling season and lots of long, cold sits, it became apparent the buck had moved on. So, we started making a game plan for next year.

All the Right Moves

Fast-forward to the fall of 2024, and Mary and I had our cameras out and were eagerly waiting to see if the giant buck would reappear. Finally, in the early-morning hours of Oct. 29, it happened! He made it!

Nov. 6, 2024, is a day I will remember forever. The morning started with a south wind, which was perfect for one of the sets I hung on the north end of the property. I was settled in, watching and listening, but noticed the wind was swirling and seemed to be shifting east. The forecast called for a south wind all morning, but I could feel it changing and started to question where I was sitting. I had another spot set up less than 100 yards away that was perfect for an east wind. So, I decided to make the move, gathering my gear, silently climbing down my tree and sneaking over to the other stand along the edge of the creek. The sound of every move I made seemed magnified as I climbed up the tree. My bow got stuck on some limbs while pulling it up. I spooked a few does as I was climbing in. The limb I had previously used to hang my bow had fallen off. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. I figured my hunt was over. Regardless, I hung my bow on the opposite side of the tree (due to the fallen limb), sat down and set my pin to 45 yards, a distance where I thought the buck might come through, assuming he wasn’t already blown out to the next county!

Forty-five minutes later, I heard the familiar sound of a doe being pushed through the woods in front of me. I just knew it wasn’t him. My bow was ready and near, but I decided to take my phone out to film what I thought would be a “nice buck” pushing one of the does around. Well, the doe came barreling out of the woods and down the creek toward me. When I finally caught a glimpse of the rack behind her, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was him! They were both coming directly toward the base of my tree, where there was a well-worn trail coming up the bank from the bottom of the creek.

The east wind was perfect. I carefully slid my phone away, grabbed my bow, hooked my release and began to draw back when I realized my pin was still set on 45 yards. I let down as smoothly as I could, set my pin to 20 and drew again, just about the time the buck made it to the top of the creek bank below me and stopped at 12 yards. I settled my pin, slowly squeezed the trigger, and watched as my arrow hit perfectly. The buck sprinted off directly away from me and, only seconds later, I heard the crash I had been dreaming of since the moment I first saw him. Mary and I found the buck not long after. I will always be grateful for the incredible opportunity I had to hunt such a magnificent buck.

Mary’s Turn

Exactly 10 days later, I (Mary) tagged out on the biggest buck of my life too! Due to the schedule constraints of a working mom, I had only been able to hunt a few times prior to Cody killing his buck. But now that he had tagged out on his giant, I was able to dedicate a small block of time to hunting.

The rut was in full swing, and I had many close encounters with mature bucks, but one specific buck was on my mind. I had discovered him a few weeks prior and couldn’t stop thinking about him and wondering where he was. I hadn’t been having much luck getting shooters on camera. Then, one day in October, I decided to take a camera and hang it in what many would consider the most random place to be found. I remember being on the phone with Cody and saying, “You’re going to think this is the craziest spot, but just trust me, I have a feeling I’m going to get something on here.” He laughed and agreed I was crazy, but I decided to hang it there anyway. What would it hurt? That very night, I got a picture of the biggest buck we had ever seen on that property. I knew it was the deer I would be after from then on.

After I found him, I tried to figure out how he was traveling and what locations I could hunt based on each wind. But no matter what I did, I kept coming up short and seeing almost every other buck on the property except him. One of the most memorable hunts I had from hunting him was a day that Cody and I finally got to sit together like old times. We sat on the ground with our backs to each other against a tree, with a perfect southeast wind, and rattled. I still don’t know how many bucks came charging in within moments of Cody clashing those antlers together. There were two bucks in front of me, another one behind me, another one down in the tree line below us and coming our way, and another big buck trying to circle us, while at the same time we were getting trail-camera pictures of my target buck on a scrape less than 100 yards away! He never showed, and I decided to pass on all the bucks parading in front of me.

From then on, I had multiple encounters with this buck, all within bow range, yet for one reason or another, I just couldn’t get a shot. On one occasion, I bumped him bedded with a doe. Another time, he was chasing a doe with another big buck in the one spot I didn’t have a shooting lane! By the time I was able to let an arrow fly, I had already been in bow range of this buck five times.

The last time though, Nov. 16, 2024, was the best. I hadn’t had much luck getting the buck killed from a treestand, and most of the times I had seen him, he was in a wide-open pasture. So, I decided I had to get creative. It was an hour before sunset. The wind wasn’t right for the stand I wanted to hunt. Running late, feeling defeated and not sure what to do, I had Cody drop me off at a different stand. We were going through options when, lo and behold, we saw the buck out in the middle of a field, locked on a doe and pushing her hard. We quickly made a decision, checked the wind and made our move. Cody drove me around to the other side of the ridge they were on as I grabbed my bow, jumped from the truck and ran straight to the tree line they were headed for.

Out of breath and with the wind in my face, I made it to a small ditch I had seen they were headed toward. I caught a glimpse of them a few hundred yards out. There he was, pushing his doe in circles, in and out of the tree line I was on. My heart was pounding. I kept losing sight of them as I sat on the ground, catching my breath and waiting. I didn’t know if there were any other deer above me, and I didn’t want to keep making my way toward them and risk blowing them out. So, I waited. I could hear them coming closer and knew I would probably only have one brief opportunity.

A few minutes later, the buck and doe appeared just outside of the edge of the brush in front of me and stopped. I froze. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as I waited. He was completely focused on the doe, and she was completely worn out from being chased. Neither deer had spotted me. She then charged directly into the edge of the tree line I was on and stopped again, bringing him just close enough for me to draw my bow, settle my pin at 32 yards and squeeze the trigger.

That was the last thing I saw as both deer bolted off. I honestly didn’t know where I had hit him, or if I had hit him. I was in a panic, convinced I had missed or, even worse, made a poor shot. We backed out and came back later, only to find him less than 100 yards from where I’d shot him. It didn’t feel real. I sat there and took in the beauty of this incredible animal I had seen so many times from afar but was now right there in front of me. I was so thankful. I’ll never forget the wave of emotions as I sat there and looked at Cody, reliving all the events of the past several weeks.

“We did it,” I whispered to him. “We actually did it!”

Cody and Mary Linker are rooted in family and the outdoors. Proud parents to a son, Liam, and daughter, Aspen, they embrace every opportunity to share outdoor pursuits with their children.

Author's Notes

On these hunts, we shot Mathews bows, Victory arrows and Beast broadheads. We also wore Sitka apparel and Crispi boots, used Swarovski optics and Tactacam trail cameras and hunted from Novix treestands.

---