Yesterday, Missouri bowhunting personality Chris Propst took to Facebook to share some details behind the monster whitetail he killed on Oct. 9. The world-class buck sported a 7×7 main frame rack with six extra stickers. It was a deer that Propst had already passed on five times as he and his dad watched it reach its peak.
Propst filmed the hunt with help from his friend and videographer Joe Orf. His dad, Jeff, was also there to help recover the buck.
“So proud of our son Chris,” Jeff wrote in a separate Facebook post. “This buck has been on our minds since the summer of 2022 … we both passed him last year because we knew the potential he had. Truly a buck of a lifetime!”
Propst explained that their history with the buck started in 2021, when Orf took his son Brantley hunting on the Missouri farm where Propst had access.
“All I asked was, ‘If you see a good up and comer, please pass it,’” Propst wrote on Facebook. “Little did I know that little [7]-year-old boy would have to pass about every buck in the country that morning. I honestly felt terrible. One of those bucks was a clean 10 point with forked [G1s].”
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By the following year, that clean 10-point had grown into a 12 and put on around 50 to 60 inches of antler. He and his dad figured the buck was already pushing 170, but they decided to let him grow. They ended up passing on the buck five times that season.
“This year there was no doubt who our target buck was going to be,” Propst wrote. “Almost every day I got his picture on one of the cameras … and after his patterns had seemed to change, I had a hunch that he had moved to a different part of the farm. I went in and pulled a card, and sure enough, I was right.”
The weather was also in Propst’s favor when he started hunting the new area earlier this month. A cold front and a good wind lined up with his time off from work.
“On the fourth sit, I had just told Joe, ‘One day bud, one day we’re gonna look up, and he’s going to be walking right at us.’ Little did I know that in about 10 minutes, that was going to happen.”
It’s unclear what exactly happened next. Neither Propst nor the others involved have responded to requests for comment, but Orf’s photos give an idea of how thrilled they were to walk up on the buck. For those who want to see more, a short video of the hunt is now available on the Drury Outdoors Deer Cast app.
“I can’t tell you how amazing it was to not only kill a buck of a lifetime but have your brother [Joe Orf] right there beside you when it all went down,” Propst wrote in conclusion. “Pretty special day walking up on a buck of a lifetime with your father and your best friend.”