After the big typical buck busted her on opening day, Morgan Hourigan adjusted her setup closer to the bedding area with a climbing stand, and the move paid off
Rack Report Details | |
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Buck: | 148 |
Time of Year: | September 8, 2024 |
Place: | Adair County, KY |
Weapon: | bowhunting |
Sometimes a buck looks different on the hoof than it does in trail camera photos. That is what avid Kentucky bowhunter Morgan Hourigan was experiencing on opening day. She and her husband, Cody, had been watching a pair of bucks on camera all summer. One was a nice typical, but Morgan thought the non-typical buck he was running with was a cooler buck and decided to make him her target this season.
Even though she had watched the buck all summer on trail camera, Hourigan wasn’t prepared for how big he was once she saw him in person. Image by M Hourigan
On opening evening, Morgan was in her stand overlooking the edge of a standing bean field. The hours ticked by with no action. But finally, at about 6:30, a lone doe made her way down the trail and into the beans. Morgan watched her pass by.
A few minutes later, she looked up to see another deer coming down a trail through the thick cover leading out into the beans. It was the non-typical she wanted, and Morgan thought she was about to get a shot at her target buck. The big deer slowly made its way along the dirt edge of the field straight to Morgan’s stand.
After getting busted by the full-velvet buck the day before, Hourigan switched spots and took the fully shed buck the next day. Image by M Hourigan
But before the buck could get into range, Morgan saw another deer emerge, the non-typical’s typical-framed running buddy. Morgan couldn’t believe her eyes. The full velvet deer was much larger in person than it had appeared on camera. She immediately changed her mind on which buck she was targeting.
By this time, the non-typical was in range, offering Morgan a clear shot. It would have been the biggest buck she had taken with archery equipment, but the allure of tagging the typical buck was strong. She held off in hopes he would follow the first deer into range.
But he didn’t. Big bucks get big for a reason, and the typical could sense something amiss. Instead of following the dirt path like the first buck, it made a big loop through the beans and out of range. The buck eventually worked its way back into range, but tree limbs blocked a shot from the direction he had approached.
“He finally caught my scent or noticed something wrong. He stood there in range and stomped and blew and all I could see clearly was his legs and feet. The more he stomped, the madder I got. I wanted him now more than ever,” Moran said.
Eventually both bucks got nervous and blew out. Morgan texted Cody to tell him what had happened. When she got home that night, they discussed what they could do to get her a shot. “Cody suggested moving closer to the bedding area they were coming from each evening, but that would mean using a climbing stand, something I had never done before and wasn’t real excited about.”
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Still, after going over all the options, Morgan realized that a climber might be her best bet for getting a shot. That night, she and Cody got another trail cam photo of the buck. He had shed his velvet since she had seen him just hours earlier, and was now fully hard antlered.
The next afternoon, Morgan and Cody headed in to find a good tree and get Morgan up and into position in a climbing stand. “I went about 10 feet up and that was as far as I was going to go. I was more than a little nervous about being in a climber for the first time,” she said.
After making sure she was situated, Cody went and climbed into the stand Morgan had been in the evening before so he could watch the evening’s events.
“Cody couldn’t really see me from where he was. He said he might shoot a doe for the freezer if one came by and I worried a little that he might spook a buck he couldn’t see if he did,” Morgan said.
As the evening wore on, a doe came in from behind Morgan and passed right under her stand. The deer could smell where Cody and Morgan had stood earlier as they got the stand into position. She was just feet from Morgan in her low stand position, and nervous. A short time later, a small spike entered the clearing in front of Morgan and the doe.
When the doe threw her head up, Morgan was afraid she was about to spook. But she noticed that the deer was staring at something behind her. “As close as she was, I couldn’t risk turning my head to look,” she said. “I turned my phone off and slowly rotated it so that I could use the black screen as a mirror. As soon as I did, I saw the buck right behind me. He was only 15 yards.”
The buck moved into a position that offered Morgan a shot, but she couldn’t turn and draw her bow without spooking it. The buck started to stomp, and Morgan felt the familiar frustration from the day before start to build. Then the doe started to trot away. The doe snagged her foot on something and stumbled. When she did, the buck turned his head and attention to the moving doe.
Hourigan had the buck in range on opening day, but cover kept her from getting a clear shot. Image by M Hourigan
Morgan realized it was now or never. She drew her bow and turned to the buck in one motion. She settled her pin and released, watching the arrow hit the buck exactly where she had been aiming. The buck bolted into the heavy cover.
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“I screamed loud enough that Cody could hear. He immediately called me and asked if I had shot the spike, since that was the only deer he could see from where he was. I told him no, that I had just shot the big buck from the day before!”
Morgan knew she had seen the arrow hit, but when she and Cody got down to look for blood, they didn’t find any, at first. She started to worry. They turned to go back to the scene of the shot, and Morgan noticed her arrow in the nearby cover, with good blood and bubbles on it. Cody told her it looked like a great shot.
The 11 pointer with 24 inch main beams is Hourigan’s largest buck to date. Image by M Hourigan
They backed out and gave the buck some time while waiting for Cody’s dad, Lonnie, and other family members to arrive. The group took up the trail at the spot where they had found the arrow. It was a short 60-yard trail to the buck. “Lonnie and Cody got there first. They turned to me and said, Morgan, what have you done? When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it. It was my biggest buck to date.”
Morgan’s buck featured a giant 5x6 frame with long main beams measuring 24 and 24.5 inches.