Stealthy Setup Nets Opening Day North Dakota Velvet Buck

Randy Birdsong of HeadHunters TV kicked off his deer season with a bang when this bruiser North Dakota buck presented a 25-yard broadside shot opportunity. Photo courtesy of Randy Birdsong.

Bowhunting whitetails in North Dakota is nothing new for Randy Birdsong of HeadHunters TV. For the past five or so years, he has hunted with his good friend John Arman. This year, however, Arman got Birdsong connected with Wes Maley of Drop Tine Lodge, a small-scale outfitter that offers guided whitetail hunts in southeastern North Dakota.

If you read my recent article about North Dakota, you know the state’s deer herd was hammered by winter kill in Winter 2022/2023, and the area Randy hunted was affected extensively. In fact, he said that Wes believes the winter kill claimed about half of the area’s deer. Still, several shooter bucks were roaming the area leading up to the Flickertail State’s Aug. 30 archery deer opener.

“We shipped some trail cameras out to Wes this summer,” Randy said. “He had a handful of really nice bucks on the cameras, but the buck I killed was the most consistent to appear in daylight. We decided to make a play on him because he was so consistent, and because we had only a few days to hunt.”

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The huge-bodied buck was frequenting an area that would baffle many deer hunters.

“When Wes showed us the spot, we were somewhat surprised,” Randy said. “It was just this huge, wide-open soybean field with waist-high soybean plants. At the back of the field was a really small cattail slough, which is where the buck was bedding. There was just one lone tree out where the slough meets the bean field, and Wes had positioned a ladder stand on that tree. Daily, the buck would exit the slough and head into the beans to feed.”

The buck was very consistent on the trail cameras. Photo courtesy of Wes Maley.

On opening afternoon, Randy and his cameraman knew they had to be incredibly stealthy as they headed for the ladder stand and got set up.

“We knew the buck was bedded within 150 yards of the stand,” Randy said. “We tiptoed in there and were extra careful with setting up our camera equipment. We were as quiet as we could possibly be.”

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Later that afternoon, Randy actually heard the buck stand up in the cattails.

“He had been bedded only 75 to 80 yards away from us,” he said. “As soon as I heard him stand, I told my cameraman that I was sure it was the buck we were after. We saw a little buck come out of the cattails first, and then the big one came out right behind him. He was on his feet even earlier than he had been the previous evenings. It was broad daylight, which was awesome.”

The buck walked right down the pipe as planned. Randy had identified a small window through the tall grass, and he planned to stop the buck when it entered that window, but the huge velvet buck stopped in it naturally.

Look closely and you’ll see Birdsong and his cameraman in the tree as the buck walks by. Photo courtesy of Randy Birdsong.

“He stopped exactly where I needed him to 25 yards away,” Randy said, “and he never even looked in our direction. I made a great shot, and the buck ran 35 yards or less before he went down. At 159 inches (gross), he is my best velvet buck.”

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HeadHunters TV viewers can anticipate Randy’s hunt for this incredible velvet buck to air on the Outdoor Channel sometime in the middle of 2025.