Kyle Hollister Buck
St. Lawrence County, NY 10-Point
As told by Kyle Hollister
On the evening of November 14, 2023, I was hunting in the town of Morristown, N.Y. unit 6A in St. Lawrence County. I had not seen any deer in three days, so I decided to switch things up and sit in a different stand that I had not been to since early muzzleloader season. I saw several new scrapes and a rub appear nearby over the last week or two. With fifteen minutes of legal light left, I was ready to climb down so I'd still have some time in case I saw something on the walk out. As I was putting my calls back in my backpack I heard something crashing through some thick brush about 150 yards in front of me. I decided to stay put for the last fifteen minutes... at least just to see what could be making so much noise.
I stood up and picked my rifle up. I knew if this was going to happen, it was going to happen fast. The crashing got louder as he got closer, but I still couldn’t see him. At about 30 yards I saw a quick flash of antlers and knew he was big. He trotted out into the clearing to my left and I stopped him with a snort-wheeze. I quickly found the vitals in my sights and squeezed the trigger with ten minutes to spare of shooting light.
He bucked like a rodeo horse, turned 180 degrees and ran back through where he entered. I watched him circle around behind me, waiting for a good opportunity for a follow-up shot, but never got one. I could hear his crashing slow and eventually stop. I called my dad, as it was going to be dark soon and I could use the extra help recovering the buck.
I climbed down and found no blood or hair at the hit site. One of the landowners sons, Ezra, had been hunting the field nearby and heard my shot and the buck bulldozing through the woods between us. We concluded that he had most likely went down in a small patch of open hardwoods behind my stand. We found first blood about 40 yards from the hit and began to follow his trail. It looked like a solid hit and he was spraying blood.
My father Gary arrived, bringing his friend Jeff for extra help. We followed the blood until it entered a patch of shoulder-high grass. Finding the occasional drop, I continued to search the grass for blood, while Jeff went to the other side of the patch to pick up the trail where he came out. Dad and Ezra went to search the piece of woods where we thought he had fallen. As soon as Jeff announced he had picked up the blood trail on the other side, Dad and Ezra began yelling. They had found the buck about 30 yards from where I lost sight of him. “How big is he?”, Jeff yelled. “He’s a 10 point”, Ezra yelled back. We quickly caught up to them. It was the biggest buck I had ever bagged.
I called my girlfriend to come see the buck and take pictures. We dragged him back out into the clearing, snapped a few pictures, and began dressing him out. It took three of us to load him in the back of my truck. He weighed in close to 200 pounds, and had a 15” spread. The bases of his antlers were stained dark, and covered with cedar shreds from rubbing. After bagging a big doe the first week of rifle season, I was now tagged out until late muzzleloader. Time to go duck hunting.
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