Kentucky Hunter Crawls Through Creek, Shoots Monster 22-Point Buck at 10 Yards

With work and a fast-approaching wedding, Austin Hager has been a little busy this summer. Finally getting some free time, he got a camera out at his hunting spot three weeks before Kentucky’s opening day.

After giving it two weeks, he went back in to grab his card and see if there were any good bucks in the area. The camera hadn’t been working. Hager removed the non-working camera and went home to grab another camera to stick up in its place.

With work and an approaching wedding day, Austin Hager didn’t get cameras out until a few weeks before the season opener. Image by Austin Hager.

Not knowing if there were any good bucks in the area, Hager made plans to hunt opening day at another spot. He gave the new camera a few days, and then went in to check it. “I put the card in my phone reader, and it wouldn’t show anything,” he said. “I decided to take it home and look at it on my computer in hopes that there were photos on it and the reader just wouldn’t pick them up.”

There were. As he flipped from one photo to another, Hager came to one that made him stop. It was a massive buck; one he recognized from the season before. “This buck had put on probably 40 or more inches this season over last year,” he said. “The rack was the same basic shape, only bigger in every way, and this year it had a lot of extra junk on it.”

A photo of a giant buck with several kicker points grabbed his attention. Image by Austin Hager.

He quickly went back in to hang a cell camera in the area in hopes that he would get another photo, even though season was only a couple of days away.

The day before the opener passed with no photos of the buck. Not knowing if the buck was still in the area or what his pattern was, Hager decided to spend opening day at another spot chasing a nice 8 he had seen.

Late that evening, Hagar was FaceTiming his fiancé when the camera app on his phone went off. He opened it to see the big buck, along with a 140-inch 8-point, standing in range of a stand he had already hung. His opening day plans changed immediately.

“I knew the next morning that the bucks had been hanging around that spot all night,” he said. “I didn’t want to go in in the dark and risk blowing them out, so I waited till daylight. There was a deep creek that ran right up against the base of the tree my stand was in. I thought maybe I could use it to slip in unnoticed.”

The next morning, Hager got down into the creek and crept to within 100 yards of his stand location, where he crouched and waited for better light. When he was convinced that the deer he was seeing on his camera had moved out, he slowly started to make his way to the stand. As he got close, he eased his head up over the edge of the creek bank for a quick look.

The big 8 was standing just 20 yards away. Hager slowly lowered back down into the creek.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I was hoping the buck I was after was still close as well, and I didn’t want to risk spooking them both.”

He eased down low onto his belly and crawled the rest of the way to the base of the tree where his stand was located. He grabbed his release and left his pack and remaining gear in the creek bottom. Hager eased his eyes up and over the lip of the creek bank and thought it looked like the big 8 had moved away a bit and was out of sight.

Hager was counting on the sound of the moving water in the creek to muffle the sounds of him climbing into his stand. He started up and noticed the big 8 was still visible. Using the tree as cover, Hager made his way up the steps. A slight noise drew the buck’s attention, and he turned to look in Hager’s direction. “I froze,” he said. “I was three steps up by that point. That’s when I looked over and saw the buck I was after already in bow range and getting closer. I didn’t know what to do, I was hanging from the tree by my hand, there was no way to draw and shoot from there.”

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Hager watched as the buck fed near him. A movement from the other buck drew his buck’s attention. “When he turned his head to look at the other deer, I lowered myself down into the tall weeds at the base of the tree,” he said.

The weeds were tall enough to provide good cover. Hager had a narrow 10-inch window he could shoot through. But there was a problem. Dead center into his shooting lane stepped a third buck; a small spike, just 10 yards away.

Hager hadn’t even had time to nock an arrow by that point. With the young buck so close, he was afraid any movement would spook the spike, taking the big buck and any chance at a shot with him.

After belly-crawling, Hager finally found himself face to face with the giant buck. Image by Austin Hager.

Hager waited. He was finally able to slowly creep an arrow into place. Then the big buck did something. He charged the spike, chasing it off. Hager raised up to one knee and came to full draw. By this time, his target buck was standing just 10 yards away. He came to full draw. When the big buck’s shoulder passed through his narrow shooting lane, Hager settled the pin and released. The buck quickly bolted into cover.

“Honestly, I thought I’d made a bad shot,” he said. “The buck had been quartering away, and I was afraid I had held too far back. I texted my dad and my uncle and told them I’d gotten a shot. I decided to go and check for blood and then back out and give the buck some time.”

As Hager got to where the buck had been standing and began to search the ground for sign, he looked up in the direction the buck had ran. That’s when he saw the buck’s white belly piled up just a few yards away. He was down.

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“When we finally got our hands on him, I was amazed,” he said. “I started counting points, and they just kept going. I counted 22 that were longer than an inch, and I was pretty conservative at that. There were several more that were borderline.”

The buck featured a 4-by-5 velvet frame with several kickers for a total of 22 scorable points. Image by Austin Hager.

The big buck featured a tall 4-by-5 velvet main frame with fliers and kickers off the bases, G2s and G3s. The buck taped out at a conservative gross of a bit more than 170. Hager concluded with this: “I didn’t have time to think about it as it was happening, but on looking back, I was blessed to take this buck. So many things could have happened — probably should have happened — that would have kept me from getting a shot. I’m thankful that I was able to make the right moves and that everything worked out the way it did.”