"Those weren't the biggest bucks we saw, either," my customer said. "We have at least two truly world class bucks on us right now. To give you an idea of what is possible here, one of our guests wounded a buck two years ago, and it was killed later during the rifle hunt on a neighbor's land, and that buck scored 254 and was the fourth biggest killed in North America that year. We have killed a buck that scored over 191. We are not interested in taking a lot of hunters because we don't like shooting small and medium-size bucks; we like the 150s growing up to be 180s."

Citing increased costs, the outfitter has decided to accommodate paying customers to help him cover his expenses. You must apply for a license by June 2, so call now if you're interested.

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House accommodations and home-cooked meals are included in the price of the hunt.

"We will show the hunters bucks for sure," the hunt provider said. "We have an excellent deer herd, and we don't overhunt. Last year we videotaped two bucks bigger than our biggest bucks that we killed last year. We have a huge number of deer. If hunters want to shoot some does, they're welcome. You're allowed five deer in our area, which is Unit 7. We have some great property scattered over the area, probably 8,000 acres or so if I added it all up. Last year we had a 181 buck shot on a little 40-acre place that borders us by a bowhunter from California. He got off our property and got shot on the neighboring 40 acres, and he got killed on the second day of bow season. The guy didn't even know what he had.

"I have 70 or 80 stands set up. You never have to hunt the same spot twice unless you want to hunt a particular deer. I have 20 places that I either own or lease, so we have plenty of ground. I don't put food plots on every place, just on those I have long-term leases on. That's another reason I'm selling a few hunts. I used to pay $1,250 for one of my leases, and this year it's $5,000 and the owner wants more next year.

"It is a draw hunt, and hunters must apply for tags by the end of May, but they got rid of landowner tags and put them in the nonresident pool, so everybody who applies draws a tag now.

"The rut is over by the time the rifle hunt ends. We usually kill the big deer during rifle season if it snows and the deer come to the food plots and feeders. The rifle hunt starts between about Nov. 28 and Dec. 4, depending on the year. The secondary rut might start about Dec. 1. The little ones by then have their butts whipped by the big bucks. If you see a hot doe, you'll see a big buck.

"The guy who helps me and looks after my property counted 245 deer in one afternoon in a 10-mile circle.

"It's a fun hunt. It's not like hunting in Canada, where I've sat and froze my ass off to see two or three deer and sometimes you don't see any in Canada. You're gonna see deer here.

"We have two houses, nice houses. The hunters will have their own private bedroom, shower, and TV. These aren't cabins; these are regular houses. "

Hunters have seen as many as 25 to 100 deer a day. One hunter passed up 25 bucks in one sittting. Hunter success depends mostly on the hunter's goals, but about 75% of rifle hunters and muzzleloader hunter score. The outfitter's friends usually bow hunt and are extremely selective, so usually their hunter success is no more than 50 percent, but they all could shoot mature bucks.

"Most hunters will have chances at bucks in the 150s and 160s," the outfitter said, "but we have some really big bucks, and so some guys naturally hold out for a trophy of a lifetime. We really don't like to shoot bucks that score less than 150 because they'll be bigger in just a year."

The average buck taken on this hunt in the past four years has scored more than 160 Boone and Crockett points if you don't count three small bucks (139 to 150 Pope and Young) shot by TV hunting show crews in 2008, In 2007 16 hunters took 11 bucks that averaged 165 B&C while the biggest three racks scored 186, 181 and 177. The biggest typical killed in 2008 scored 170 6/8, and the biggest non-typical grossed 185 even with three broken-off points. The average was back up in 2009 with six bucks over 160, which includes a 216 class buck that crossed a bordering fence before it died. The outfitter had to pay $4,000 to get the rack back. The 2010 hunt produced mostly bucks in the 160s and 150s with the largest being a 17-point that scored 174. It was the third largest buck captured on trail camera photographs, and only two other of the top eight bucks photographed were killed.

"We usually get six or seven of the biggest eight bucks we know about," the outfitter said, "but I guess the bright side is that those bucks will be a year bigger this year."

Update on 2010 season:

"We got only three of the eight biggest bucks we had on trail cameras," the outfitter said, "and the biggest we got was No. 3. He was a 17-point that went 174. That was the only buck over 170 we got, which was unusual because we usually get three or four of them. Most everybody saw deer that would score 160 or better, but for some reason we just didn't do as well on the giants this past year. I've talked with the guys who lease ground around us, and they had the same thing happen. They had big bucks on their trail cams, but they didn't kill very many of the giants." The price this year is $5,250, and you must apply for a tag, which is easy to get in this area. You cannot wait until after the drawing anymore because the state has done away with transferable landowner vouchers.

Update on 2009 season:

"We had a good season," the outfiter said. "We got a 16 pointer with three mule deer forks, as well as a 13-pointer that scored in the low 170s. The littlest buck we shot in 2009 scored about 150 and had 14 or 15 points. Altogether we got six bucks over 160 on the regular hunts, and I had a youth hunter get a 170-class nine-point. We also hit and lost a 216 gross buck that crossed a fence after it was shot and died on the neighbor's land. I had to pay $4,000 to get it back. We had four rifle, three muzzleloader and 10 bowhunters. Two of the rifle hunters filled out in the first two days, and one of the others filled his tag later. I couldn't get one of the rifle hunters into a lot of my favorite places becuase we had 16 inches of snow five days before the season. The best rifle buck scored 168 or 169 and had 10 points plus a double brow and a kicker. We paid $3,800 to have a farmer leave 6 1/2 acres of standing corn just for the deer, and we also put out mineral licks. 2010 should be great because we saw a ton of 150 to 170 class bucks, one of which had five brow tines and four main beams, and we saved some 170s that we either saw or got on trail cam and never killed. I showed a muzzleloader hunter a 16 pointer that I think will score 170. Later I had a rifle hunter miss that deer. We hosted a former defensive tackle for Kansas State, and he saw 25 to 100 deer every day. One day he let 25 bucks walk by his stand just in one sitting."

Update from the outfitter, 12/11/08: "We did not get as many really big bucks this year, but we have trail camera photos of a lot of them, and so we'll have some great trophies to hunt in 2009. The biggest two we got were 185 gross with both G4 points and a cheater broken off. That buck should have netted over 190. We also got a 170 6/8 typical. Last year we had four or five in the 170 to 190 range. I still have one rifle hunter out, and he's after a big 190 class typical that we saw first in the velvet and captured on trail cam, and then we had three bowhunters see him almost every day but they were unable to get a close shot. Since the rifle hunt opened, he's gone nocturnal on us, and we've continued to get trail camera pix of him, but they've all been between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. We'll be limiting the number of our hunters quite severely in 2009. We want just four rifle hunters and four blackpowder hunters. We could handle a few more bowhunters because they get to hunt during the peak of the rut and usually see a lot of nice deer. We are managing our property very conservatively. Some of our parcels we didn't hunt at all in 2008. We want to take nothing but the bigger bucks. We had only two rifle hunters in 2008, and besides the guy who is still hunting the big typical, we had a hunter shoot a 154 Boone and Crockett after passing two to three bucks a day. We had three muzzleloader hunters, and they killed a the 170 6/8 typical, and the two who didn't fill their tags both missed big bucks. One was a huge 12-pointer. The bow hunt was a bit disappointing in that we had two film crews. ONe of them got a 139 point 10-pointer and a 141, both of them smaller than what we want shot. Another film crew got a 150-class nine-pointer on the last day after turning down two bigger bucks. We also had two bowhunters who were after a 180-plus buck. They had him at 26 yards but didn't shoot because they thought it would see them. They later got the broken 185 at another place we own. Two of the bowhunters who saw the 190 class buck might come back after the rifle season ends in December, but it's pretty tough to get an arrow into a big buck after the rifle hunt. We now have 35 total pieces of property between what I own and lease, and they total over 10,000 acres. One of our new properties has some alfalfa. It borders a property I already own, and we've been seeing some 185 class bucks go to that alfalfa and so we decided to buy that parcel to avoid losing those big bucks to a neighbor. I just closed on purchasing another 160 acres where we'll put in some food plots. We ended up taking only seven bucks in 2008, including a deer that a 15-year-old girl killed on the youth hunt, and we lost two deer that were hit and not recovered. So we think we're hunting really lightly and continuing to build up the trophy quality. Outside high-fenced operations, our properties probably offer as good a chance to take a truly trophy-size whitetail as you'll find anywhere.

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