Florida Hunter Shoots One of the State’s Largest Bucks in Years

Jacob Combs lives and hunts in Florida, and so he has always tempered his expectations for seeing big bucks. Plenty of whitetails live in the scrub brush and pine woods of the Sunshine State, but few of them get big. In fact, Florida only has two entries into Boone & Crockett’s big-game records, one from 1941 and one from 1959.

Florida hunter Jacob Combs took one of the largest bucks ever tagged in the Sunshine State this season. All images courtesy Jacob Combs

This year, Combs secured a spot on a new lease. The place is nearly 400 acres of timber company land, mostly with pine in various age stages with a few scattered food plots. But most interesting to Combs was that the land is surrounded by ag fields, including perennial peanut hay that the deer love to feed in.

In mid-September, Combs headed to the lease to do some work and put out a few cameras. After bush hogging some overgrown areas, he stuck a camera on one of the newly mowed trails. That night, he received a trail cam notification on his phone with a picture that blew him away. Standing in front of his camera was a buck unlike anything he had ever seen in his home state, and would be a giant anywhere whitetails live. The huge buck returned the following night, and then just about every night after that for the next couple weeks.

After doing some work on his new lease, Combs hung some cameras and was shocked by the buck that showed up the very first night.

While this was the first time Combs had seen the buck, its existence wasn’t unknown to other hunters in the area. “Just about every time I’d talk to the neighbors, they would ask if I had any big bucks on camera, kind of like they were fishing to see if I knew about it. I played it pretty quiet and didn’t say much,” Combs laughed.

While Combs had never seen the buck, other hunters in the area knew of his existence. Everyone, including Combs, was keeping word of the giant buck quiet.

Combs knew he needed to hunt the area, but there was a problem. There were no trees large enough for hanging a stand anywhere nearby. Combs tried popping up a ground blind, but the big deer wasn’t having it. It quit showing up on camera.

Worrying that the blind was spooking the buck, Combs removed it and instead put up a ladder stand against the biggest tree available. The tree was small, and about 10 feet was as high as Combs could get the stand without pushing the tree over. He only had a small amount of cover to help hide his outline.

But the move worked. With the blind gone, the big buck soon returned to his evening pattern. Combs hunted several mornings and evenings, whenever work and the wind allowed, throughout the month of October and into early November, but he never saw the buck during daylight hours. On Halloween afternoon, Combs was at a party with his wife and kids when his phone alerted with a trail camera photo. It was the big buck. “That one hurt a little. I’d been after him just about every evening at that point and the one day I couldn’t be there, he was standing right there,” Combs said.

After removing a ground blind that seemed to spook the buck, Combs was happy to see him return to the area.

On the afternoon of November 16th, the hunter climbed into his stand early so everything would be settled by the time the buck normally moved. “I got in real early with the intention of watching the Florida vs. LSU football game on my phone. I had just settled in and turned on the game when I looked up to see three does and a spike come down the trail in front of me,” Combs said.

A bit later, a few more does came out and crossed the ditch about 30 yards from his stand. As he watched the does, Combs looked up to see another deer standing 20 yards beyond where the does were coming up from the low area.

It was the giant buck he was after, just 50 yards away. The big buck moved toward the does that were now standing between it and Combs. With the buck facing him the entire way in, Combs didn’t have a good shot. “It only took a couple minutes for him to get into range. I tried not to look at the antlers to keep from getting even more excited,” he said. When the buck got to 31 yards, a spike stepped out near the trail. The giant buck turned to push the smaller buck away, finally offering Combs a shot. He raised his Mission crossbow, took careful aim, and squeezed the trigger.

The big buck appeared at just 50 yards and worked his way toward Combs, who was just 10 feet in the air on the only tree around large enough for a stand.

The shot looked good, and Combs heard what sounded like a solid hit. Deer exploded everywhere, making it hard to follow the buck as he crashed into the heavy cover. Combs thought he might have heard the buck crash, but he wasn’t sure. After giving himself a few minutes to calm down, Combs called his wife, Jessi, to tell her he had just shot the giant buck.

He then climbed down to look for his bolt. The broadhead was covered in fat, but the fletchings had what looked like good blood. He slowly followed the trail the buck had crashed down as it had exited the area. Finally, just before where the buck had turned to enter the timber, Combs found a few spots of blood.

He called a couple of his buddies to tell them he had shot the deer. They both suggested he give the buck some time and told him they were on their way to help. Combs’ brother, dad, and grandfather were also on their way. By the time everyone had assembled, nearly three hours had passed since the shot.

They took up the trail from where Combs had found the blood earlier. At first, the trail was light, with just a few specks of blood here and there. A few yards in and the blood picked up. Then it got heavy, with blood dumping out on both sides of the trail. Another 30 yards and the group was looking at the giant whitetail on the ground in front of them.

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As big as the deer looked on camera, it was even bigger in person. The deer was measured by officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and the typical frame scored 162. Several kickers and non-typical points upped the gross score for the 16-point rack to 187 2/8, and the green net score is 180 5/8, just shy of the minimum required for a B&C non-typical whitetail award. Still, Combs’ buck is likely one of the largest deer ever killed in Florida, and within an inch of the Calhoun County record. The buck was big all the way around, too, tipping the scales at 216 pounds, which is unheard of in an area where deer often weigh half as much.

“I still can’t believe I got a buck like this here,” Combs said. “I feel blessed and I can’t think my friends and family enough for the help and support. As happy as I am, I think Jessi is even happier than I am. At least now I’ll be home for dinner for a change.”

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