Ryan Haworth tagged a giant Kansas buck during the 2020 deer season
Buck Score: 219 1/8 inches
Date Harvested: October 24, 2020 (recovered October 25, 2020)
Location: Kansas
Weapon Used: PSE bow
Ryan Haworth is a longtime deer hunter, and in 2020, he met up with a giant deer he called Flyer. He had some history with it as a 2 ½ and 3 ½-year-old deer, and hoped it’d return as a 4 ½-year-old. It did.
Two months of planning led up to the big day, which was October 24. Conditions were right. It was about 35 degrees with 10-mph winds out of the southeast. Hunting on flat prairie terrain, the wind chill was brisk.
When he walked into the woods, Haworth spooked several deer, but still felt confident he’d see his target. Settling into his treestand for the afternoon hunt, he hoped for a positive outing.
“I was hunting on the edge of a creek looking out into a wheat field,” Haworth says. “It is one of my favorite treestands.”
A group of turkeys eased through before heading off to roost. Deer filtered in and out of view, and then, he saw him.
“When I saw the flyer, I knew it was him,” Haworth says. “I could literally smell his rutted-up body from my treestand being that he was right upwind of me.”
It all happened really fast. The buck stopped, offered a 20-yard shot, and Haworth took it. The deer ran off and bedded down about 75 yards away.
Haworth backed out, and returned several hours later with some help. They took up the blood trail, and quickly realized the deer was no longer in its first bed. They continued following blood.
“We followed the drops of blood across the field to the edge of a creek,” Haworth says. “I did not want to risk it at this point. I knew we would lose blood in the field.”
The next morning, they returned to resume the blood-trailing process. They found the deer within 15 yards of where they stopped the night before.
“I feel truly blessed to just have the opportunity to get a picture of a deer like this,” Haworth says. “On top of that, to have the opportunity to harvest it is absolutely life-changing. I would not be able to do this without the use of cameras. They allow me to figure out the habits of these deer. Once I am focused on a target buck, it’s game on.”
Of course, this deer meant a lot to him. It was a lifelong goal that finally came to fruition.
“I passed a 170-inch deer in order to shoot this buck,” Haworth says. “I would have never known this deer existed if it weren’t for scouting cameras, and the 170 would have probably gotten an arrow. I wanted to shoot a deer over 200 inches. I have come very close twice, but I finally accomplished my goal.”
You can watch the hunt here.
