Rack Report | Bowhunter's Multi-Year Chase Ends With Opening Day Kentucky Bruiser

This story began several years ago on a farm nearly two miles away from where it recently ended. Brennan Stevens and his brother, Lucas, noticed a promising young buck on the trail cameras at Lucas’s farm. The buck had a wider-than-usual frame for its age and a somewhat palmated left main beam.

Stevens first noticed the buck four seasons ago on his brother’s farm nearly two miles away. Images courtesy of Brennan Stevens

The buck disappeared, and they thought little of it, assuming it simply switched home ranges upon shedding its velvet. And it had, to Brennan’s farm, which is 2 miles away. Brennan had pictures of the same buck, out of velvet, a couple weeks after it had disappeared from Lucas’s farm.

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The following spring, Lucas sold his farm. Brennan ran trail cams as usual on his farm, but with no signs of the buck during the summer. Then, in early September, the deer reappeared. Now three and a half years old, the buck's antlers exhibited the same frame and webbing as the previous year, but were noticeably larger. Brennan hunted a different buck that year, but he kept a close eye on this one.

In 2024, the buck was nowhere to be seen. Brennan hunted during the early season and targeted a different deer, which he ended up shooting. But the palmated buck showed up later, and was definitely a shooter by that point, making it target number one for 2025.

Last fall, Brennan watched his trail cameras intently in late summer and early fall, hoping the now 5.5-year-old buck would reveal itself. By the archery opener, the deer still hadn’t appeared. Brennan was in the stand on another farm on Sept. 10th when a trail camera notification pinged. On his phone was the wide-framed buck in front of one of his stands.

When the buck showed on a trail camera on September 10th of last year while he was hunting a different farm, Brennan Stevens placed his arrow back into his quiver and climbed down, knowing he would hunt the buck the remainder of the season.

“As soon as I saw the picture, I knew that it was my target buck,” he recalled. “I took my arrow off the bowstring and got down. I decided right there to hunt this buck the rest of the season.”

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He did just that. Unfortunately, the buck always seemed to be a step ahead of him. Brennan hunted hard in the afternoons but with no encounters. He was also coaching his daughter’s t-ball team. It seemed the buck was on camera every night there was practice or a game. “I started calling him Mr. Right, because this deer never seemed to make a wrong move,” Brennan laughed.

The big buck always seemed to show up on camera when Stevens wasn’t there, earning him the nickname “Mr. Right”.

But he didn’t give up. In late October, he finally saw the buck. It stepped out onto a trail 80 yards away.

“I had my bow in hand and was ready,” he said. “I thought he was going to come straight in, but he didn’t. Instead, he stopped, looked around, then turned and melted back into the cover.” It was the only time Brennan encountered the deer in 2025.

Then, the buck seemingly vanished. “I was sure he’d been killed,” he said. “I was pretty bummed. I started hunting other farms, but my heart wasn’t really in it.”

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Then, at the very end of November, the buck showed back up, and the pursuit resumed. On Dec. 2, it snowed. Obligations kept Brennan from hunting, but he believed the buck would show. It did, right before dark.

“It would have been perfect. I was devastated,” he lamented. He hunted the rest of December, at times enduring single-digit temperatures. The buck had resumed a nocturnal pattern, complicating the chase.

In late December, Brennan tried a morning hunt, but to no avail. At home, he checked his camera; the buck was by his stand only 20 minutes after he’d left and had shed one antler. Appropriately, the pursuit was off once again. The deer reappeared the following night, now without antlers at all. Brennan knew he needed to find the sheds and hopefully locate the buck’s core bedding area.

After Stevens got a photo of the buck having already shed one side in late December, he stopped hunting and started scouting the buck’s home area in preparation for the next season.

“I thought he was bedding nearby, but we hunted hard for a week where I thought he was bedding and didn’t find his sheds,” Brennan explained. “I started to think his core area was well off of the farm.”

This year, Brennan thought about the buck all summer. He set trail cameras, but by this point, he knew the buck’s pattern; it wouldn’t show until well into the fall, or so Brennan thought.

“I wasn’t even going to hunt the opener,” he said. “But two days beforehand, the buck showed on camera, freshly shed, in daylight. This year, the buck had grown even larger, adding an extra point, making it a 6-by-5 frame, still with palmation on the left antler. The next night, bow-season eve, the buck was back.”

This season, the buck showed back up on camera just days before the season opener.

Saturday’s season opener was hot, pushing 100 degrees. Brennan got settled into the stand around 5 p.m. Around 7:15, a doe, two fawns, and a spike came in. Ten minutes later, another deer stepped into a nearby lane. He instantly recognized the rack. The buck was 60 yards away and closing.

As the deer approached, the does and fawns scattered. The buck continued, stopping just 25 yards away. One problem: the buck was directly facing Brennan. Then, a sound in the woods drew the buck’s attention. The hunter seized the opportunity to reach full draw.

“I thought the buck would turn broadside and give me a shot, but he didn’t,” he explained. “He went right back to feeding, still facing me. I held at full draw for what seemed like forever. I knew he’d pick me out if I let down. I was shaking and near the point of having to let down. My thoughts were racing. With four years of history and hunting him over thirty sits in 2025, I just thought, please, Lord, let the buck turn and offer an ethical shot.”

After holding at full draw for what seemed like an eternity, Stevens was finally able to get the shot angle he wanted.

Just as Stevens was about to let down, the buck finally turned. Brennan settled his pin and released the arrow. The buck emitted a groan and dropped in its tracks. “I can’t explain it,” Stevens said. “I hit him in the vitals, not the spine, but he went right down. I’ve never seen that happen before.”

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The next day, Brennan posted pictures of his deer on Facebook. Almost immediately, he received a message from the cousin of the guy who had purchased Lucas’s farm four years ago. The conversation shed a lot of light on the buck’s lifestyle. The current landowner had watched the buck all summer and early fall in velvet for the past few years, only to have it disappear right before bow season. Throughout the buck’s six-and-a-half-year life, it had spent late winter through late summer on one farm, then would travel nearly two miles to spend the fall on the other farm.

The family that now owns the farm where Stevens had gotten the first photo of the buck reached out to let him know the buck had continued to summer on the property every year.

The outstanding buck featured a heavy six-by-five frame with a webbed G-3 and G-4 on the left side. Those two tines both measured 10 inches, as did the G-3 on the opposite side. The inside spread was right at 20 inches. A quick green score put the buck at around 152 inches.

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