Hopefully We will have something like this walk in front of one of us when we are in Kansas next week.
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The Wichita Eagle
BY MICHAEL PEARCE
From 2005 to 2007, the White brothers doggedly hunted a buck called "Big Nine."
Luckily they didn't get him until this week.
"Last year he was a 160-class deer and this year he's a 200," Scott White said.
Monday evening, White made a 30-yard shot on the 11-point buck that's expected to eventually net about 185 inches, after grossing 200 7/8.
That's about one-tenth of an inch per hour the Whites annually invest in their passion for big whitetails.
Brothers Scott, Nick and Matt White are usually in a stand every day of Kansas' bow season until they've all killed trophies.
Summer evenings are spent watching feed fields from a distance or sitting close enough in a ground blind to video good bucks.
They have many trail cameras over corn piles in the midst of some of central Kansas' best deer habitat.
In the late winter and spring, they walk miles searching for shed antlers.
Scott White said they've found at least one shed antler each year from the legendary buck beginning at age 2.
"He was a 120-inch deer as a 2-year-old and then he just blew up to 160 inches as a 3-year-old," said Scott White, of Marquette.
It was like the buck's IQ increased as fast as his antlers.
"He's the smartest deer we've ever hunted," Nick White said. "We never got a picture of him over a corn pile. We never got a really good picture of him on a trail camera. He just totally avoided those things."
The buck was also largely nocturnal.
Still, enough hours in tree stands and ground blinds offered the hunters some glimpses of the buck.
Scott White figures he got about 15 looks at the buck in 2006.
Going into this bow season, the brothers knew their chances had never been better to see the buck in bow range.
"We finally got a good break when we figured out he was bedding about 150 yards from the landowner's house," Nick White said. "We were able to find a good tree to hang a stand in and figure out a way to get to and from the tree."
As he has most weeknights since the season opened, Scott White hustled from his Hutchinson job Monday afternoon, showered at home and headed for the tree stand.
"It was just such a perfect afternoon. It was cool and the wind about quit blowing," he said. "I just had a feeling it was going to be a good night."
A little before 7 p.m., sounds of a deer walking through some trees got Scott White's attention. Antler tines rising far above a massive rack told him it was the buck they'd been after for many years.
His 30-yard shot was good. The buck made it 80 yards and died.
Scott White called his brothers before he climbed from his stand.
They walked to the downed buck together.
"I'd thought he might go 190, but didn't think he'd go 200 inches," Nick White said.
"We've been after one like that for such a long time."
As well as two extra points compared to years past, Scott White was surprised by the big buck's dimensions.
It carried 27-inch main beams and tines to 16 inches tall. Both third points are more than a foot.
If the measurements hold after the mandatory 60-day antler drying period required by the Pope & Young Club, the buck could make it into the Kansas top 10 or 15 of all time.
Would the buck have grown more had it lived another year?
"I don't know how big he'd have been next year," Scott White said. "I've thought about it and it's kind of scary, but I'm glad I got him."
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