Giant Crossbow Buck Could Be One of Kentucky’s Top 10 Non-typicals

As the owner of Worldwide Trophy Adventures, a company that books hunts and procures hard-to-get tags in limited entry areas, Michigan resident Mark Peterson gets to hunt a variety of animals all over the planet. But even after a lifetime of hunting, he still can’t believe what transpired during this year’s Kentucky archery season.

After taking a chance on an unknown lease, Mark Peterson was rewarded with the buck of a lifetime. Image by Worldwide Trophy Adventures

“We book for over 500 outfitters around the world and own over a dozen outfitters in North America, including Salt River Outfitters in central Kentucky,” Peterson said. “I had hunted with George and the folks at SRO for years before we acquired them, so I knew what kind of deer they were producing.”

But after becoming an owner, Peterson was faced with a dilemma. “I won’t hunt leases that Salt River has for clients. I feel like the best spots should go to the clients and I don’t want to take one of those,” he said. This year he reached out to Joey Cheek, manager of SRO, and asked him to keep an eye out for a lease in a big buck area of the state, but one that SRO clients wouldn’t be hunting.

Peterson insisted on a lease well away from areas where paying clients would be hunting. Image by Worldwide Trophy Adventures

He soon got word of a 175-acre farm in Henry County. The only drawback was that the farm was almost exclusively crop fields, with very few trees for stands. Still, knowing that there were good deer in the area, Peterson pulled the trigger on the lease.

Accessing the interior of the property through the standing crops was difficult, so at first Peterson placed trail cameras along the perimeter. The results weren’t spectacular, with only a handful of does and one small buck showing up. In early August, Peterson and Joey decided to move some cameras deeper into the property, using the field edges for access. They also sweetened the pot with shelled corn and Buck Bourbon 110 Proof attractant, which is legal to use after Aug. 1 in Kentucky.

Peterson got a call from Joey just a few days after putting out the camera. “Are you sitting down?” he asked, “because you are probably going to want to be sitting down when I send you this photo.”

Peterson knew he was in for something when Joey asked if he was sitting down before sending the trail camera photos. Image by Worldwide Trophy Adventures.

It was a giant buck that took Peterson’s breath. “We just don’t see deer like that in Michigan. This is why I started hunting Kentucky to begin with,” he said. While the buck was a regular in front of the cameras in early August, Peterson worried that the deer would change its pattern and leave before the season opener. To make things more complicated, he had a caribou hunt scheduled in a difficult-to-draw trophy area for the same time as the Kentucky September opener.

As the opener drew near and the buck stayed on camera, Peterson made the decision to cancel his upcoming caribou hunt. Image by Worldwide Trophy Adventures

As opening day drew near, the buck was still around. Peterson made the decision to give up the caribou tag. “People couldn’t believe it when I told them I wasn’t going, but I didn’t tell them why I wasn’t going, as I wanted to keep the buck as quiet as I could,” he said.

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With limited areas for stand locations, Peterson knew what wind he would need to hunt the buck. The season opened on Saturday, September 7, and the wind forecast was completely wrong all weekend. Peterson waited until Monday to drive down, when the weather pattern began to change. “I knew with a buck like that we would probably only get one chance, and I wanted to make it count,” he said.

Peterson knew that he had to make the first few tries count so that he didn’t push the buck out of the area or make him nocturnal. Image by Worldwide Trophy Adventures

On Tuesday afternoon, Peterson and his cameraman, Adam, climbed into the stand at around 3:30 in the afternoon. “It was hot, we were both sweating by the time we got into the stands. I was worried about our scent and was running two ozone machines,” he said. “The wind was ok, but the forecast was for calm conditions right at dark and I was worried about our thermals dropping into the field.” Due to a rotator cuff injury that had recently flared up while shooting his vertical bow, Peterson was carrying his Mission Crossbow, along with a doctor’s medical exemption that made it legal for Peterson to use during Kentucky’s early archery season.

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Around 6 p.m., some does entered the beans. Around 7:15, Peterson was watching more does when Adam happened to look across the bean field and spot the big buck, following a drainage ditch nearly 250 yards away. The deer slinked out of sight. Five minutes later, a 150-inch 10-pointer stepped out within bow range. “That is the biggest buck I have ever passed, but I didn’t even consider shooting him because I knew the other buck was still in the area,” Peterson said.

A few minutes later, a second buck, a younger 8, joined the 10 out in the beans. Darkness fell, and Peterson and Adam were forced to stay in the stand another 45 minutes until the bucks walked off before they could get down and slip away without spooking them.

That night, the big buck didn’t appear on camera, for the first time in a couple weeks. Peterson began to worry. Had the deer winded them from a distance? He had already decided to hunt the following night, then back out to keep from over pressuring the area. Even without the buck being on camera, he stuck with the plan.

Wednesday afternoon, they were in the stand by 4 p.m. It was a slow sit for most of the evening but finally, at 7:15, a pair of does entered the field, coming in to 50 yards before stopping, scent checking, and then feeding off in the other direction. A few minutes later, a spike emerged and followed the does.

At 7:45, the does had fed back into the area and were joined by a young 10-point. The deer fed around in the beans as the hunter and cameraman watched. At 8:20, both men looked up to see tines coming through the tree line toward their location. “I’ve been blessed to do a lot of hunting over the years, but when I saw those tines at 22 yards, I started to shake,” Peterson said. “Time slowed down. I watched him take two more steps. When he took the third step and his shoulder opened, I raised my crossbow and took aim, then squeezed the trigger. The buck bolted into the nearby cover.”

Peterson watched the footage over and over while they gave the buck time. The shot looked good. It took around 45 minutes for friends to arrive. Once everyone was there, they started the trail. The SEVR broadhead had done its job and the group soon located the buck. “My first instinct was to keep the news of the buck quiet until I could get some good photos to post, but word got out and there was a small crowd gathered at SRO main lodge once we got back,” he said. By the time Peterson got back to Michigan to get ready for the upcoming youth season with his daughter, he had over 300 messages and texts about the buck.

Word quickly got out and a crowd had gathered at camp to see the world-class deer. Image by Worldwide Trophy Adventures

“I’m blessed and lucky to kill a buck of this caliber. I still can’t believe it,” Peterson said. “I know a number of folks will say something about me using a crossbow, but I did everything legally and had everything checked by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife to verify. I think hunters should spend more time supporting one another and less time fighting among themselves.”

The buck green-scored 245 4/8. If that score officially holds after drying, Peterson’s buck will become one of the top 10 largest non-typical whitetails ever taken in Kentucky.