Muzzleloader Misfires, Hunter Gets Second Chance at 194-Inch Buck

The first time Matthew Daniels took a crack at this Kansas buck his muzzleloader hang-fired, causing the bullet to miss its mark. Thank goodness for second chances. Image courtesy of Matthew Daniels

For the Daniels family of Melvern, Kansas, big whitetails aren’t just hunting stories. They’re part of the family history. In 1995, Matthew Daniels’ father, Albert, killed a buck that became the Kansas state record typical whitetail.

This fall, it was Matthew’s turn to add another story to the family’s legacy. On Sept. 23, the 24-year-old killed a screamer 194 5/8-incher with a muzzleloader. It was his first deer ever with a smoke pole.

Matthew first spotted the buck grazing in a Coffey County bean field back in July.

“I marked where he was on a map and went out there every few days to look for him,” he said.

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After several encounters through his spotting scope, Matthew started working on getting permission to hunt where he was seeing the buck.

“I had to ask several times for permission to hunt the property. I had to be persistent,” he said. “But after seeing a deer of that caliber, I was going to do whatever I could to get permission to hunt him.”

Once he had the green light from the landowner, Matthew had one more obstacle to overcome. With wide-open ground and few trees, the area wasn’t exactly bow-friendly. So Matthews decided to buy a muzzleloader, a CVA Optima V2, in hopes of swinging the odds in his favor. “I specifically bought the gun to shoot this deer,” he said. “I’m a bowhunter at heart, but with a deer like this, you do what it takes.”

By Sept. 15, the opening day of Kansas’s muzzleloader season, Matthew was ready. About 45 minutes before sunset, he spotted the buck on a hillside near its usual bedding area, about 500 yards from where Mathew had posted up on the ground. The deer was coming straight toward him and it finally stopped to give him a perfect broadside shot at 80 yards.

“I thought without a doubt that I was going to kill him that night. He was standing broadside, the biggest deer I’d ever seen in my life,” Matthew said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.”

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Matthew had the big buck in his crosshairs, but when he squeezed the trigger, disaster struck. The primer snapped, and then nothing. Just as he pulled his face away from the scope, the gun fired.

When the smoke cleared, Matthew started searching for the buck through his binoculars, not sure if he had somehow managed to hit it.

“He probably went 60 or 70 yards and stopped and started looking around,” Matthew said. “Honestly, I was expecting him to fall over. But he ended up taking off across the field.”

Most hunters would’ve chalked it up as a blown chance, but Matthew stayed in the game. He hunted nearly every evening, spotting the buck six more times. The deer stayed on the same pattern but always hung up just out of range.

“I knew as long as I could get in and out clean without bumping him, he’d keep coming back,” he said.

Finally, after two days of storms, Matthew got another chance. On the evening of Sept. 23, with only minutes of legal light left, the buck followed a group of does into the beans. This time, the muzzleloader barked true, and the bullet connected.

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“When the smoke cleared, he was already down,” Matthew said. “I called my wife, and she met me out there for the recovery. There was a lot of excitement, but a lot of relief, too. After missing him once, I was just glad it worked out.”

The buck is a mainframe six-by-six with nice, long tines and split G-2s. Image courtesy of Matthew Daniels

Again, it was Matthew’s first deer with a muzzleloader, and the first deer he’s taken with a firearm since his very first whitetail years ago. The buck was officially scored at 194 5/8 inches by Buckmasters. Matthew plans to have it mounted for the Kansas State Taxidermy competition and then displayed on a pedestal mount right next to his father’s record deer.

“It’ll look good next to Dad’s,” he concluded.