Father and Son Duo Stalk into Bow Range of 25-Point Buck

Justin Redeker and his son Nolan film for Midwest Whitetail. Last November, they captured trail camera images of a big buck that they had no history with. Justin was already tagged out, and Nolan was targeting a different buck. Further, the Redekers assumed the new buck was young, based on its body size. Other than the photos, Justin saw the buck once, maybe twice, from the road while Nolan was hunting.

Justin and Nolan Redeker first spotted the buck last season, but decided he was young and held off for another year. Images courtesy of Justin Redeker

The buck had an abnormal G-2 that curved in toward the middle of the rack. It broke that tine off, and the Redekers have a picture of the buck missing the tine. While shed hunting in February, Justin actually stumbled upon that broken tine.

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“We had antlers in our hands,” he said. “Nolan was wearing a fanny pack, so I had him put it in there. We finished our hike, and it turned out that the tine fell out of his pack. I named the buck the ‘lost tine buck’ to jab at Nolan a little bit for losing it. I searched and searched, and finally, I found one of the buck’s shed antlers in April.”

With trail camera photos and actual sightings of the buck, the Redekers determined that the buck, while impressive, was still young.

Based on that intel, Justin hung a stand this year specifically for the deer, hoping it would frequent the same area this November as it had in November 2024. In addition to using trail cameras, Justin likes to drive around in the evenings during the summer and early fall to glass bean fields.

Before this season, Justin hung a stand to target the big buck.

“I felt like I had him narrowed down to about three fields,” he said. “But I looked and looked and could not find him. And he didn’t appear on our trail cameras.”

The mysterious buck had the upper hand until Lynn, Justin’s wife, spotted the animal on Oct. 5.

“I don’t see very well late in the evenings,” Justin explained, “so I convinced her to go for a ride with me that evening. She spotted the buck bedded with about 20 minutes of daylight left. She took some video footage with her phone. I couldn’t quite tell if it was the buck I was after for sure, so Lynn sent Nolan the video. He’s better at judging deer, and he felt certain that it was the buck.”

After not seeing the deer all fall, Justin’s wife Lynn spotted the buck on Oct. 5.

Justin cruised through the area once more, intentionally looking for the deer, but didn’t see it. On Oct. 12, while driving through the area, Justin spotted the deer again.

“With my naked eye, I spotted the buck bedded within five yards of where he had been when Lynn and I saw him exactly one week earlier,” Justin said. “It was about 10:30 a.m. I’ve tried stalking deer before, but I haven’t had any success with it, so it didn’t even cross my mind.”

The area wasn’t where he expected the buck to show up this year. In fact, Justin had no stands hung in the vicinity. But with eyes on the monster, he called Nolan to explain the situation. Nolan was out of town, but hurried back to his parents’ home, where he and Justin discussed plans.

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“My thought process was that we knew right where he buck was,” Nolan recalled. “The conditions were perfect for stalking, with high winds and warm temperatures, and I felt like we had to give it our best shot. It took some convincing, but Dad finally agreed.”

They put on their blaze orange — a three-day antlerless firearms season was open — and headed back to where Justin had spotted the bedded buck. But upon arrival, the mega-buck’s bed was empty. They parked and made new plans. Given the time when Justin spotted the buck, they assumed the buck had only moved a short distance to seek better shelter from the climbing temperatures.

“Rather than try a stalk, we decided to sneak in close to where he had been bedded and set up on the ground,” Justin explained. “We hoped he’d get up and head for a field to the west before dark and walk by us.”

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Working a creek edge, the father and son tip-toed through the trees and began paralleling a small thicket that’s about 20 yards by 20 yards. They were about 40 yards shy of the spot they were trying to reach and only about 15 yards from the thicket when Justin spotted a deer.

“He saw some movement but couldn’t tell what the deer was,” Nolan said. “Dad was in front of me, and we both dropped down. I was able to determine that it was a small buck feeding in the thicket. We knew we wouldn’t be able to get around that buck without spooking it, so we held tight. It started heading west, and after about 20 minutes, it had moved off. Dad told me to keep an eye out while he crept forward, and then we’d reverse roles.”

Justin was about seven yards ahead when Nolan spotted some more movement in the thicket.

“I just saw his rack turn a little bit,” Nolan said. “We had been 20 yards from him for 30 minutes and had no clue he was there. Dad caught glimpses of movement, but couldn’t see that it was the big deer.”

It was 3:30 p.m., and Justin was exposed in full sunlight. And the sun in his face made it difficult to see into the thicket.

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“We held still,” Nolan said. “As we were sitting there, the buck miraculously stood, scratched its back with its rack, and walked right into Dad’s opening.”

“I had two windows,” Justin detailed. “With the direction he was going, I don’t believe he would have entered the second one. Fortunately, he stopped in the first opening — about the size of a television — quartering away at 18 yards. I rose onto my knees and shot him, and knew my hit was perfect. I had practiced shooting from my knees at home earlier in the day, which boosted my confidence.”

Due to the limited visibility, Justin did not see the buck pile up. Nolan thought he might have seen the buck fall, but was unsure. Regardless, they both heard what they thought was the buck crashing about 10 seconds after the shot. They waited a bit, walked in that direction, and found the monster buck, expired.

“We truly didn’t know how big the buck was until we found him,” Nolan said. “We would have been ecstatic if he was 160 inches. But we quickly realized that he was well over 200 inches.”

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Justin’s buck has 25 scorable points. Interestingly, the inside spread is only 14 inches, but the rack sports exceptional mass. The buck’s right side has 26 inches of mass measurements, and the left has 21 6/8 inches. In all, the gross score is 219 inches.

“We had no idea whatsoever that he was so big,” Justin said. “To get him by stalking and having Nolan film the entire thing … I never thought this would happen in a million years. I was so excited that I don’t even remember doing the little jig that I did in the video.”

Click here to watch this heart-pounding hunt on Midwest Whitetail’s YouTube channel.