It was the primary time Jamie Coldiron had tried for a legendary Kentucky buck that lots of his buddies and searching buddies had been seeing in locations far and broad for greater than six years. The buck had such a large and weird rack, that they referred to as him “D9” — related in look to the entrance of a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.
Utilizing intel from different hunters, plus path digicam photographs and his data from 35 years of bowhunting in Kentucky, he picked a main spot within the hill nation to ambush “D9.”
It was the night of Oct. 16 and Coldiron was sitting 15 toes up in a maple tree in a sling-style stand on public land. He was watching a hardwood ridge hole removed from a street within the steep rolling hills of the 700,000-acre Daniel Boone Nationwide Forest in southeast Kentucky.
“I discovered a niche within the steep hills that I figured D9 is perhaps utilizing coming from a bedding space that afternoon,” Coldiron tells Outside Life. “The spot was only a pure funnel honeycombed with well-used deer trails.”
Picture courtesy of Jamie Coldiron.
Coldiron says at about 6:00 p.m. a doe appeared on a ridge above his stand and began appearing spooky.
“She was feeding, noticed me, and her head began bobbing,” says Coldiron, 48, of Morehead. “About that point I heard one thing past the hole and noticed D9 at 80 yards headed my means. The doe noticed the buck, too, and that settled her down.”
Because the buck neared, it noticed the doe and headed towards her.
“As D9 obtained nearer she moved away, however he stored coming,” says Coldiron, who’s a corrections officer for Rowan County. “He stepped out from behind a tree at 22 yards, and I shot him behind the shoulder with my crossbow.”
The arrow was so quick Coldiron by no means noticed it in flight. However he believed his 100-grain B3 Exoskeletal Broadhead discovered its mark. He used a 150-pound Raven crossbow fitted with a scope. It was the primary time he’d ever used a crossbow to take a deer, though he’d arrowed many whitetails beforehand with compound bows.
“I watched him run off alone and will comply with him for 50 yards earlier than D9 disappeared,” Coldiron says. “I may inform he was harm. However I didn’t wish to push him. So, I climbed down from the tree, and messaged a pair buddies who knew concerning the buck. I instructed them I obtained him.”
Coldiron waited for his buddies Tyler Crawford and Nathan Conley to point out at his parked truck. Once they arrived, the three males went again to the place Coldiron had been searching. They discovered the blood path immediately and rapidly positioned the downed buck solely 100 yards from the place it had been shot.
Then the arduous work started, because the three hunters dragged the estimated 200-pound buck a few half mile to Coldiron’s truck. They loaded the deer, then cleaned it.
Picture Courtesy of Jamie Coldiron.
Coldiron is having the non-typical rack buck mounted by a taxidermist, who inexperienced scored D9 at 186 inches. The buck has a 22.5-inch inside unfold and 13 scoreable factors.
“My taxidermist says he’s 8.5 years outdated, and we’ve got photographs of the buck going again six years,” Coldiron says. “We consider his rack was headed downhill resulting from his age. Two years in the past we figured he was a 200-incher.”
The left aspect of D9’s rack is fairly funky, with a pair uncommon and huge drop tines. One has a 4-inch base and is 9 inches lengthy. One other lengthy drop tine goes straight again behind his head.
“His rack by no means regarded like that till this 12 months, and we predict he had some sort of damage to make it develop that means,” Coldiron says. “D9’s proper aspect all the time regarded the identical, so we all know it was the identical deer.”
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Coldiron has remained humble about his public land mega-whitetail.
“The top of an period has come,” Coldiron wrote on his Facebook page. “A variety of good hunters have chased this deer for a very long time with a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I spent a whole lot of time this 12 months making an attempt to pinpoint his residence. My first day after him, and he got here proper by. Pure luck, but it surely’s a deer of a lifetime for me.”
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