Hunter Takes 21-Point Buck at Fort Riley

Doug Pfeiffer didn’t think he was a good enough hunter to kill a buck of this size, but his persistence was the ticket to success during the middle of Fort Riley’s deer season. Photo courtesy of Doug Pfeiffer.

Back in 2022, when it was still legal to use trail cameras on public lands in Kansas, Doug Pfeiffer, an active member of the U.S. Army, captured an image of a a monster whitetail buck at Fort Riley. The picture was a bit blurry, but the buck was obviously world-class. Pfeiffer didn’t see the buck while hunting that season, and trail cameras were banned on public lands the following season. Pfeiffer hoped the buck was still around, but he didn’t see it while out hunting.

Other hunters in the area knew of the buck as well, and there were even some shots fired at the deer. “One guy missed him,” Pfeiffer said. “Another guy shot at him and hit the buck’s main beam on the right antler. Local hunters called the buck ‘The Ghost’ because nobody could get him.”

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Pfeiffer admits that he had actually forgotten about the buck going into the 2024 hunting season. Being in the Army, and having a wife and children, Pfeiffer hunts when he can. “In 2024, I got out hunting quite a bit,” he said. “The area I hunt is a big draw with a dry creek bed, and it has cedars on the slopes and CRP up top.”

On the morning of Dec. 18, Pfeiffer wasn’t planning to hunt because he had a meeting scheduled. The meeting got canceled, so he went out. That was a good decision.

“I was going to head for one spot,” he explained, “but something told me to go where I was hunting last year. Because of the canceled meeting, I reached my spot at about 7 a.m. I realized that I’d left my binos in my truck. I spent a little bit of time settling into a fallen tree, clearing out a spot in the middle, and sitting on the ground. There are a few places the deer tend to cross through at that location, and I wanted to make sure I could cover everything.

Pfeiffer wasn’t the only hunter in the area who knew about the buck. Other hunters had encountered and even shot at the deer but had come up empty-handed. Photo by Brad Forbus.

“About 45 minutes later, I heard leaves crunching,” Pfeiffer said. “I spotted the tail end of a deer. I assumed that it was a doe. When the deer stepped out, I saw that it was a nice buck. I figured it was one of the 8-pointers that I’d been seeing all season. He came a little closer, and I got my rifle ready. That’s when I realized that it was a really good buck. It was late in the season, and that was all I needed to see. The buck was behind me and over my shoulder, so I swung my rifle around and was looking for a clean shot.”

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When Pfeiffer acquired the buck in his scope, he realized that it was absolutely huge. The buck walked down into a dry creek bed and provided a broadside shot.

“I squeezed the trigger,” he said, “and I noticed that he hunched. He dropped a little bit and then made a few bounds, stopped, and fell over. He stood back up and took a few steps, and then he flopped over and didn’t move again. I stayed put for about 15 minutes to collect myself and process everything. When I walked over to him, I realized that it was the buck I’d captured on my trail camera in 2022. I was in shock. All along I had thought I wasn’t good enough to kill a buck of this caliber.”

This is the blurry trail camera image that Pfeiffer captured of the buck back in 2022, when trail cameras were still legal to use on Kansas’ public lands. Photo courtesy of Doug Pfeiffer.

Pfeiffer took some pictures for the Kansas’ electronic tagging process, and then he sat down and admired the giant non-typical for several minutes. He cleared his rifle, walked back to his truck, cased the rifle, and drove to a hilltop to get cell coverage.

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“I called my wife,” he said. “She dropped the kids off at school and came straight out to meet me. I also called a buddy, and he dropped what he was doing and came to help me drag the buck out. If it weren’t for my wife, this wouldn’t have happened,” Pfeiffer said. “A big thanks to her for all she does to keep things together while I hunt.”

Pfeiffer hopes to stay active in the Army, but he’s working through some medical issues and recovering from a recent surgery. Regardless, his wife has had enough of Kansas and is ready for a change. With it being his last year to hunt in Kansas, Pfeiffer said that his buck — a 21-pointer with a Buckmasters BTR score of 206 7/8 — is “a great one to go out with.” We couldn’t agree more.