After three seasons of trail cam cat-and-mouse and a gutsy stalk, patience and luck finally played nicely together. 

By Brandon Hunter 

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Ever since I was a little kid, I have had two major hunting goals. One was to shoot a 6x6 buck. The second, a much larger goal, was to shoot a 200-inch buck. I knew that if I ever wanted to achieve these goals, I would need to put in a lot of work in the years ahead. Time went by, and I harvested some very impressive deer, but none came close to meeting my goals.

That changed during the 2021 season, when we saw a 6x6 on our trail cameras. From that moment, I went out every chance I got to sit in a stand, often not seeing a single deer. Unfortunately, I did not get him that year, so I had to wait for the 2022 season.

After what felt like forever, the next fall finally came around, and I was full of hope that I could get that deer. Everything was going well; we could watch his movements and track his patterns. My dad often said, “The most difficult deer is one that does not follow a pattern,” meaning that as soon as they start following a routine, your odds of getting them go up significantly. Everything was going great until we got pictures of him early that season with several of his main points broken. Because of that, we stopped going after him.

The 2023 season rolled around, and we saw that he had gone from a typical 6x6 to something extraordinary, with many abnormal points coming from his antlers. Finally, I got the opportunity of a lifetime. One afternoon, my dad told me, “We got a daylight picture of the 6x6 this morning.” We ended up skipping wrestling practice and went out after the deer instead. We got set up and saw nothing until just before dusk. Then, out of the hedgerow, not 80 yards from where we had walked in earlier, we saw him stand up. At that point, he did not provide an ethical shot, so we made the gutsy move of trying to sneak up on him. We made the move, I got set up, and I took the shot. My heart was racing. Finally, he went down, and I was beyond excited. I had just shot a 222-4/8-inch gross mainframe 6x6 with 13 abnormal points. My goals had been achieved!

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The Future of Fair Chase 

We know that the future of conservation rests squarely on the shoulders of tomorrow’s hunters. That’s why we’re celebrating the stories of our youth hunters in this section called The Future of Fair Chase. Many of these stories are plucked straight from the pages of our 32nd Big Game Awards Book. Other stories have been submitted by young hunters, who are rightfully proud of their achievement. If you are a young hunter or know a young hunter who might like to submit a story, please email it to [email protected].