Old Cattle Farm Produces a Giant 211-Inch Whitetail

Kevin Cottrell’s dad’s farm had been in the family for years, but it had consisted almost entirely of pasture, with very little cover. It had always had cattle on it and was never used for hunting. “We’d see a doe or two occasionally while working on the farm, but never anything that would point to it being a good spot for a big buck,” Cottrell said.

After sticking a trail camera out on an unhunted farm, Cottrell was surprised to see a pair of big bucks. Image by Kevin Cottrell

The cattle were sold in 2022, though, and after that, Cottrell did see a big 8-pointer on the farm. In 2023, while scouting and putting out cameras on his own farm, Cottrell decided to stick a camera up on his dad’s place, too, just to see what came in before the season began.

After hunting a different deer on his farm for the first two weekends of last year’s season, Cottrell remembered the camera hanging at his dad’s place. He drove by and grabbed the SD card one evening, and was shocked by the photos he found on it. A pair of shooter bucks, a big 8 and a big 10, had been in front of the camera morning and evening for several days.

Knowing the farm still lacked much cover, Cottrell wondered why the big deer were hanging around. “Since the farm had never really been hunted, but several of the surrounding farms were, I thought they might look at that farm as a safe haven,” he said.

Cottrell slipped in and put up a blind near his camera. He also switched out the regular camera for a cell cam so that he could keep closer tabs on the spot. But by that point, three weeks into last September, both bucks had shed their velvet and moved away from their early season pattern. The big 10 never showed back up for the remainder of archery season, and the big 8 was sporadic in his appearances and mostly nocturnal.

This year, Cottrell put out cameras early and was amazed at the buck’s growth. Image by Kevin Cottrell

Cottrell turned his attention to a big buck behind his house for the remainder of last season before putting his tag on the mid-170s deer in late December. While he was tagged out for the season, he kept the cameras going on his dad’s farm. Both of the big bucks returned in late season and Cottrell watched them all winter and into the early spring.

Fast forward to this summer. Cottrell put his cameras out on the farm in hopes of patterning one or both of the bucks for the early archery season. As season approached, both bucks were coming in on a regular basis. The big 8 shed his velvet early and became mostly nocturnal, but both bucks were still in the area.

The buck was a regular on camera throughout the summer. Image by Kevin Cottrell

Opening day came and Cottrell was in his blind and ready. Deer movement was slow. Just as darkness fell, three bucks came in, but there wasn’t enough light for a shot. Cottrell had a problem. All three bucks were feeding in the darkness just in front of his blind. He didn’t want to climb out and spook them, so he called his wife, Gina, and asked her to drive in to pick him up, reasoning the bucks were used to vehicle traffic on the farm and would leave without being overly spooked. But on Sunday evening, Cottrell returned to hunt and didn’t see a deer.

Still, he knew he needed to get on the bucks early, before they left the farm, and so he decided to hunt again the following evening. At 7:05, he looked up to see a deer in the clover food plot in front of his blind. It was one of the big bucks at 100 yards and angling away. As soon as he recognized the deer, Cottrell said his legs began to shake.

Cottrell immediately recognized the buck when he stepped out at 100 yards. Image by Kevin Cottrell

As the buck continued to walk away, it stopped and looked back into the woods toward the blind. Soon, Cottrell noticed a doe picking her way through the cover next to him. She popped out right in front of the blind and the big buck turned all of his attention to her.

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“Come on, come on,” Cottrell whispered to himself as the big buck turned and began to walk toward the feeding doe. “The buck kept getting closer, 70 yards, 60, it was tearing me up. I finally had to make myself stop watching,” he said.

Then the buck turned and walked out of view. To keep his scent down, Cottrell had all but the front shooting window of the blind closed. After a few minutes, he leaned over to the side the buck had turned to and peeked out the edge of the closed window. The buck was standing there just 35 yards away, but with the window closed and the buck so close, there was nothing Cottrell could do but wait.

The buck walked by the blind well within range but offered not shot because of a closed window on that side. Image by Kevin Cottrell

“It was probably only 30 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity,” he said. The buck finally started moving toward the feeding doe again. Cottrell kept up with his movements out the side window until the buck angled in front of the blind far enough to be seen from the front shooting window.

When the deer stopped at 30 yards, Cottrell drew his bow, leaned back to make sure his arrow would clear the window, took aim, and let fly. His shot was true. Cottrell could see his Lumenok hanging from the buck’s shoulder as it crashed off.

He watched as the big buck made it 70 yards, then jumped a fence and disappeared from sight. Everything got quiet.

After the shot, the buck jumped a fence, disappeared from sight, then everything got quiet. Image by Kevin Cottrell

“At that point I pretty much just fell apart. I called Gina, then a hunting buddy, Josh. I was pretty much losing it,” Cottrell laughed. He then called his son, Zach, and another buddy, Nathan, and they all decided it would be best to slip out and give the buck some time before going in to look.

Cottrell went home to get his side by side and to meet Zach and Nathan. Once they got back, nearly three hours had passed since the shot. They took up the trail across the field, but there wasn’t a lot of blood initially. When they got to the spot where the buck had jumped the fence, they found blood on the wire and on the landing side, and then Zach looked up and spotted the Lumenok on the ground a few yards down the trail. They went toward the Lumenok and as they got closer, Cottrell swept his light up ahead and saw a fuzzy tine sticking up out of the cover. He had his buck.

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The giant mainframe 10 was incredibly symmetrical and just the frame would have scored right at 185” before adding in the junk and kickers off the main beams. On top of the main frame were another 20-plus inches of abnormal points. The giant frame had 13- and 14-inch G2s and 3s on both sides and ended up with a green score of right around 211 inches. Cottrell says he is waiting to hear back from an official scorer on whether or not a broken point that was still held on by the velvet can be counted.

“In all the years Dad had this farm, I never dreamed a buck like this would come from here. It was really special that this was the first buck any of us had ever taken off this land,” Cottrell said.