Glen Yazell Jr. first saw this giant 8-point buck back in early October of 2021. My wife and I were out riding around the farm and putting out some corn at some camera sites when we popped over the hill and saw the buck drinking out of a stream,” Yazell said. “It was one of those deer that immediately makes you stop everything and stare.” The buck only hung around for a few seconds, but it was long enough for Yazell to realize he’d dedicate his season to hunting him.
Over the next few weeks, the buck was a regular in front of Yazell’s trail cameras, but only at night. In November, Yazell finally got photos of the buck in the daylight hours. I was hunting morning and evening, and he showed up in the middle of the day while I wasn’t there, the hunter said.
While other hunters had cameras nearby, the buck was only showing up on Yazell’s and his sister-in-law’s cameras. The two were hunting the same farm, with about 500 yards separating their stands. My buddy had cameras a half mile down the creek where he was hunting, and we usually both got photos of the same bucks, but he never got this deer on camera. Same went for the guy hunting the farm on the other side of ours. I think the buck had a pretty small core area, Yazell said.
November came and went with mostly nocturnal photos of the deer. Come December, the story was much of the same. With the Kentucky season ending on January 17, 2022, Yazell was starting to worry he wouldn’t get a chance at the massive buck.
But with just over a week of season remaining, his luck changed for the better. The buck was on camera one morning just after shooting light. As Yazell went through the photos, he saw the buck had repeated the pattern a few mornings in a row. He knew then that he needed to be in his nearby shooting house the next morning.
Friday, January 14th, dawned cold. Deer were moving ahead of an approaching front. As Yazell sat in his elevated blind overlooking the area where the buck had appeared the last few mornings, he saw what he was after. The buck was coming to his corn pile (legal in Kentucky) along with several younger bucks.
I had borrowed a friend’s Ravin crossbow for the hunt. When the buck got in range, I raised the crossbow and took aim. I squeezed the trigger and felt the crossbow jerk to the right. My bolt sailed 2 feet wide of the buck, Yazell said. He soon realized the crossbow limb had snagged on the string that holds the blind window open, causing the errant shot.
At the sound, the bucks scattered. Luckily, they weren’t spooked bad. The younger bucks came right back to the corn and started feeding again,” Yazell said. “The big buck trotted out about 200-300 yards away and started grazing there. He hung around a few more minutes before eventually walking away.”
Yazell returned to the stand the next morning, but the buck never showed. That evening, though, he got photos of the buck and knew immediately that with bad weather coming in the next day — and only two days of season left — he needed to be back in that blind on Sunday morning.
Just after daylight, Yazell noticed movement in the picked corn field about 140 yards from his stand. It was the big buck, and it was headed right toward Yazell’s stand.
After several excruciating minutes, the buck eventually got into range. Taking care to make sure the crossbow limbs would clear the window string, Yazell took aim and squeezed the trigger. He watched the bolt disappear into the buck’s shoulder. The deer took off, but a good blood trail led the hunter to the buck, dead just 90 yards away.
Yazell knew the buck was huge, but seeing the deer at close range confirmed just how big it really was. The world-class 8-point main frame was a full 24 inches wide with incredible mass and tine length, and a few small kickers. The buck taped out just over 175 inches green score. Glen Yazell’s deer season ended on a high note, and with a full day to spare.
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