As with all my posts about deer hunting success, I give God all the credit. He deserves it all anyway.

I drove up to Fort Knox last Friday (11/4), and the group I go with had planned to hunt from 11/5 - 11/11. The weather Saturday was terrible, with 30 mph winds and a huge storm front rolling in. We only hunted about 3 hours that morning, and then elected to live to fight another day due to the wind and rain. Never saw a deer that morning. Sunday morning I put myself in a gar-hole, which was a 4-5 cutover that was really thick. I’m sure there were deer in there, but it was thick and I never saw anything.

Things took a great turn for the better Sunday afternoon. I hunted an area that afternoon I had never been in - picked it based on the wind direction and topo features. I pulled up and no one was parked where I wanted to go in, so that was a good first sign. Then I got in the woods and found some scrapes (good sign #2). There was plenty of cover for deer, but it was also mature hardwoods. Around 1:30pm I got about 1/4 of the way onto a huge hardwood flat and climbed 33’ up. Great view, wind was perfect, had some cover trees nearby, etc. I rattled and grunted for about 5 seconds at 3:27pm. At 3:28 I hear and see the buck coming from the other end of the hardwood flat I was on (upwind from me),and he was coming to my tree on a string! He passed my tree at 12 yards, and I double-lunged him with a NAP Killzone MAXX mechanical. He ran in a big sweeping circle about 125 yards and I heard him crash! The first 10 feet of blood trail was spotty , but after that it really opened up. As the crow flies he only went about 90 yards from my tree to where he died.

Here’s how I found him.


And here’s a few more of him.




He’s a very symmetrical buck, with the extra kicker on his right side. He gross scored 126 4/8”.

One bit of info on Fort Knox… because they are a federal facility they make their own rules regarding seasons, bag limits, etc. They allow hunters to kill one buck with archery, AND one buck with a gun. Those two bucks are also considered “bonus” kills, so they don’t count towards the state limit.

Sunday evening was a late night, so I slept in while the other guys in our camp went hunting Monday morning. That afternoon I went into an area I had hunted once before back in Nov. 2018. Again, I pulled up to where I wanted to go and no one was parked there (probably 50% of the time someone is already nearby). I walked in and climbed where I had planned, again based on having the right wind, as well as having studied topo maps previously. This time I was 30’ up. I did rattle and grunt, but had no luck with that in this spot. At 4:17pm I was finishing a text with an AlDeer pro hunter and resident deer hunting expert (top cat!). Thankfully we finished that conversation and I had put my phone down…. at 4:20pm I hear a deer walking to my right. I looked over in time to see a deer walking behind a massive oak, which blocked the deers view of me. I immediately turned that way and brought my shotgun up, just in case it was a shooter buck. As you can imagine, once he cleared that big oak I quickly determined he was in fact a shooter…. This guy had points going everywhere, and it was clear by the way he was walking that these were “his” woods! He was around 65 yards from me when I shot him with a 20 gauge slug gun, and he went straight to the ground. He lifted his head once, and that was it. At this point I just stopped what I was doing, watched him through the scope for several minutes to make sure he wasn’t faking it, and just thanked the good Lord for his blessings. I couldn’t believe (still can’t) that I’d just killed two great bucks in two days. We all know how hard it is just to kill one in a season. For me to kill two in two days is unheard of. While I did do everything right from a hunter perspective, God has to orchestrate this kind of thing.

So I climbed down, get over to him, and am honestly shocked at what I find. He’s got tons of mass, a split brow tine on his right side, an extra 15” main beam on his right side, a broke off main beam on his left side… just an incredible buck. He gross scored 161 2/8”. I personally think he’s an old warrior. Matt Brock figured he’s minimum 5.5 years old, and maybe older. Given Matt’s background, I reckon I’ll have to go with his opinion (but I was thinking between 6-8 years old).

Here’s some pics of him.




Just for grins, here’s a couple of pics of how I load deer onto the front rack of my 4-wheeler when I’m by myself (which is almost all the time). I use a snatch block and the 4-wheeler winch to lift him - an idea that Wiley offered up several years back. These two pics also show just how big this buck was.



Last is a pic that my taxidermist took for me. He had put my first buck in his walk in cooler and hadn’t skinned it yet, so he was able to get a pic with both bucks laying beside each other.


It goes without saying, but most likely I’ll never have two back-to-back deer hunting days like this again. And I may not ever kill another buck like the second one again. Only time will tell, but I will tell y’all that I’m gonna keep trying!

Holy smokes CR. How in the world did you manage to talk about guns this morning without mentioning these two studs you killed?!?!? Congrats buddy, that’s walking in HIGH cotton right there. What an accomplishment 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Very nice congrats and yep once in a lifetime probably

Congrats again, those are some mighty fine bucks you got there. Amazing that this all happened in a two day period. 30’ is quite high, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts and experience on hunting that high.

Awesome hunt claims rep great story and you won't ever forget..... congratulations

Haha what I was thinking…congrats CR that’s awesome n I reckon Shaw is right 🤣

Buddy, that's some great hunting memories. Congrats man!

Awesome congrats on 2 great bucks!

Congratulations on two really nice bucks. Thanks for sharing pictures and details!

Go get you a Lottery ticket now! Congratulations!!

Congratulations great bucks and a weekend you will never forget

Congrats!!

Awesome great story.

Once again, congrats! You da man.

Damn what a hunt. Congrats!!!

Wow ! Taxi bill gonna be pretty stiff.

Awesome story and awesome bucks, congrats..

Awesome - congrats

Congrats CR. Hunt of a lifetime right there!

Incredible! Congrats on two studs. I'm a certified scorer and that's the biggest 126" gross buck I've seen.