For years some public floor hunters in northeast Kansas have recognized of a large non-typical buck within the space. They began calling him “The Ghost” as a result of the buck was robust to sample, and since a couple of of them had tried however did not kill him. Doug Pfeiffer had heard a few of these tales, and he’d seen the deer a couple of occasions on his personal path cams. And on the morning of Dec. 18, he discovered himself in the fitting place on the proper time.
“I wasn’t going to hunt that morning as a result of I had an appointment,” Pfeiffer, an Military soldier at Fort Riley, tells Outside Life. “However the appointment acquired cancelled, so I made a decision to go in any case.”
Pfeiffer went to a public land space he’d already hunted this season. He’d seen some smaller bucks buck there however nothing of measurement. However as he headed for his tree stand, he determined he’d arrange in a brand new spot roughly 400 yards away.
“One thing simply informed me to maneuver to a different spot that morning,” says the 29-year-old hunter. “I acquired in there just a little after 7 a.m. and picked a spot in a fallen treetop to sit down on the bottom … I believed sitting on the bottom with good cowl round me would give me a greater view, and I sat down there within the treetop for my morning hunt.”
Pfeiffer settled in. After a couple of hours, he was feeling a bit down on his luck. Then he heard some leaves crunching.
“I believed it was a doe, after which I believed it was a smaller 8-pointer. However then, at 90 yards, I noticed it was him. The Ghost. He was coming down a path, after which right into a dry creek draw.”
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The buck was quartering away, and Pfeiffer needed to flip barely to get a shot angle. At 50 yards the deer stopped, and Pfeiffer fired his scoped .300 Winchester. The 150-grain bullet hit proper behind the buck’s shoulder, and the deer hunched over after the shot. Then it stumbled a couple of yards, fell, acquired up, and fell once more.
“The third time he went down he didn’t stand up. He solely wobbled alongside for 15 yards earlier than dying,” Pfeiffer says. “I used to be in disbelief and sat there for 10 minutes simply to relax.”
He known as his spouse Christina to inform her the excellent news. Then he rang his buddy Adam Tuttle, who instantly got here to assist get well The Ghost. After dragging it out and discipline dressing it, Doug introduced the buck to Brad Forbus, a neighborhood Buckmasters scorer.
Forbus was already nicely conscious of the buck. He acknowledged The Ghost from path digicam photographs he’d seen. He informed Pfeiffer he knew of some bowhunters who had shot on the deer and missed through the years.
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Forbus estimated the buck’s age round 7.5 years previous, and he gave it a BTR rating of 206 7/8 inches. He additionally thinks the rack had already peaked, and he confirmed Pfeiffer some path cam photographs of The Ghost from the 2021-22 season, when he thinks the antlers would have measured nearer to 240 inches.
“I’ve simply the fitting spot for him to hold in my lounge on one facet of our TV set. On the opposite facet of the TV hangs a 10-point, 150-inch Kansas buck I shot,” Pfeiffer says. “They’ll look fairly good turned to have a look at one another like bookends.”
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