Two Strikes and a Home Run on a Massive Bluegrass Buck

As the 2026 Kentucky archery season approached, Timmy Lanham had his eye on a particular deer. It was an older buck — Lanham estimated him to be at least six years old — that had damaged one antler, which grew back in a large non-typical formation.

After a clean miss on his target buck the day before, Lanham redeemed himself on this nice Kentucky 14-pointer. Images courtesy Timmy Lanham

“This old buck was massive on one side, and the other looked like an arm with four big claws coming out of it,” Lanham laughed.

Recent surgeries left Lanham’s arm full of plates and pins, and he received a crossbow exemption, allowing him to hunt the full archery season with his Ravin crossbow. Opening day was miserably hot with triple-digit heat indexes, and the second day was only slightly cooler.

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“I like to get right in close on the deer I hunt,” Lanham explained. “I’m a huge believer in scent control, Ozonics, Scentlock, and Deer Pimp cover scents, a local company close to my home. I use all of it to help me get close but remain undetected.”

Lanham relies heavily on scent control measures and likes to get in tight on the buck’s core area.

On Sept. 6, he hunted a blind located in a thick, swampy area bordering a lake. He knew he was taking a risk hunting so close to the big buck’s core bedding area, but he trusted his scent-control regimen. Because he was hunting in such tight quarters, Lanham noted that there was only a small window that allowed him to approach the blind without spooking deer.

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“Both days, I walked into the blind about 11:30 a.m.,” he said, “even knowing I likely wouldn’t see a deer until late in the evening given the heat.”

As darkness approached, his target buck came in from an unexpected direction. “It came in behind me,” he detailed. “When I spotted him, he was already five yards away. Quietly, I twisted around to try to get a shot.”

Due to the awkward positioning and because he had switched blind brands this season — his new blind had a different frame system — Lanham worried he wouldn’t be able to make the shot.

“I was concentrating on getting on the buck and not making any noise at all because he was so close. I finally got turned around and got on him, squeezed the trigger. My broadhead clipped the window net, and the arrow sailed harmlessly over his back,” Lanham bemoaned.

Luckily, the shot was a clean miss, and the buck was back on camera later that night.

After seeing several mature bucks that evening, Lanham was finally able to connect.

Lanham hunted the same blind on Sept. 7. Again, a mature buck came in from behind the blind on the opposite side, this time a heavy 8-point that Lanham estimates would score in the upper 140s. Again, he tried to turn around to shoot, but the bolt impacted the blind’s diagonal frame, missing the animal. The buck spooked, but didn’t run far before slowing to a walk and starting to feed. Another buck with a big six-by-six main frame and two extras that Lanham knew from trail camera photos soon appeared. He’d been watching this buck for several years, and the buck was now the largest it had ever been.

By now, Lanham was starting to wonder if he was snakebitten. Since setting the blind and putting out cameras over a month earlier, no buck had entered the opening from that direction. Now, two had done it on back-to-back nights.

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Lanham was still pondering the miss when more deer began filtering in. First came does and fawns, then some smaller bucks. The new arrivals calmed the older bucks, and they moseyed closer.

“The big 14-pointer that I ended up taking hardly ever appears well before dark,” he noted. “He usually takes a turn down by the lake, then comes up. I guess all of the other deer put him at ease.”

The buck was well known to the hunter due to several trail cam photos.

The big buck drew closer and closer. Unlike the previous two, this one was coming from an expected angle. “When he was within range, I settled in for the shot. I knew I should be clear since this is the direction I was planning on shooting, but I still took an extra second to make sure I’d miss the frame,” he laughed.

Lanham shot, watching his bolt hit right where he’d aimed. The big buck ran about 30 yards and piled up.

The buck was a regular on trail cameras, but rarely moved during the daylight.

“It had been a rough and hot weekend,” he said. “I was still sick over the two misses. To see this go down was a little bit of redemption. This is my seventh velvet Kentucky buck. I’m usually done after the first few days of the season. I’ve been blessed over the years.”

The buck had a 6x6 frame with a split G3 and a kicker.

The buck’s 6x6 frame featured a split G-3 and one additional kicker for a total of 14 scorable points. The buck was still in full velvet but was very near shedding, with some visible hard antler peeking through. The buck green-scored in the mid-150s.

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