Randy Birdsong Arrows His Personal Best Buck in Kansas

Bowhunter Randy Birdsong is all smiles behind his 2024 Kansas monster, which grossed 192 inches. It is the buck of his lifetime. Photo courtesy of HeadHunters TV.

Randy Birdsong of HeadHunters TV is having an unforgettable deer season. You may remember the story we posted a few weeks ago about Birdsong’s massive North Dakota buck, which scored nearly 160 inches. His streak continued when the buck of many lifetimes walked by his stand in Kansas during mid-October, a period of the hunting season when many hunters believe most mature deer move only at night.

With a Sunflower State deer tag in his pocket, Birdsong had a particular buck on his radar. He hunts with some friends in Kansas, and the crew had known about the buck for at least three seasons. Clearly, the deer was a special deer with loads of potential, so they elected to pass on him until this fall. At 5 1/2 years old, the monster whitetail sported his largest crown of antlers yet, but he wasn’t exactly a trail camera regular.

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“I nicknamed him Cage,” Birdsong explained, “because he was extremely cagey and because his right antler resembles a ribcage. He wasn’t very regular on the trail cameras. It’s not surprising because those really big bucks seem to have a sixth sense. He was visible enough that we knew we had a chance, but he wasn’t on the cameras daily. I passed up several other great bucks between 140 and 165 inches while waiting on Cage. It was tough because I’m normally stoked to shoot bucks like those, but I knew that Cage was in there.”

Birdsong and the buddies he hunts with in Kansas had paid the deer attention for about three seasons. Photo courtesy of HeadHunters TV.

While hunting on Oct. 17, Birdsong encountered the buck. “I just couldn’t get him killed,” he said. “With trying to film and get everything lined up, it just didn’t work out. He slipped through the cracks, and I was scared to death that we wouldn’t get another opportunity to take him. Things looked good two days later, though, when we got a picture of him going into a bedding area late in the morning about half of a mile up the creek bottom in an area that he had not been in all year.”

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Birdsong and his cameraman, Kody Mattson, moved in tight that afternoon and pulled off a hang-and-hunt setup near the bedding cover along a dry creek bed. They suspected two nearby winter wheat fields would be the buck’s feeding destination. The buck was likely bedded 150 yards away, so they were very careful as they hung the stands. It helped that the winter wheat fields were being irrigated; the pump provided some noise coverage to help disguise their maneuver.

“Once we settled in, we were waiting and waiting,” Birdsong recalled. “I had just about given up all hope that he was going to show up. Then, I noticed him walking right up the dry creek bed toward us. The foliage was super-thick where we were hunting, and he was already within 35 yards of us. He walked up out of the creek bed on a trail about 25 yards away. He passed behind some trees, and when he did, I drew my bow. As soon as he stepped out and turned broadside, I smoked him. I knew that he was the best buck I had ever shot at. Seeing that my arrow hit where it needed to was a great feeling. I knew that all we had to do was climb down and get our hands on him. It was a pretty surreal feeling. I think I pretty much blacked out in the tree.

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“I’m 40 years old, and I get to hunt some really good ground,” Birdsong continued. “This is the only deer of this caliber that I’ve ever gotten a crack at. It just goes to show that, even in Kansas, bucks this big don’t come around every year.”