Austin New, of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, had patterned a good buck from July of this year until the evening of the state’s opening bow deer season on Sept. 5. He’d located the buck in the same hayfield in Central Kentucky this summer as he had in 2025.
“It grew 45 inches in antler mass from last year to this year,” the 37-year-old lineman told Outdoor Life. “I figured the buck was a 150-incher in 2025, and I decided to let him grow another year before trying to take it this year.”
Late in the afternoon on Sept. 5, New was in a low-to-the-ground lock-on tree stand just 11 feet off terra firma.
“With cameras, I knew in the evenings the buck would come out of a creek bottom, along the edge of the hayfield I had permission to hunt near, as he was headed to a soybean field to feed,” New explained. “I’d placed some tree limbs along the trail he used so when he passed by my stand on his evening feeding route, he’d turn just right and offer me a good quartering-away shot.”
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The deer showed late that afternoon, and New had the buck at 7 yards. But he waited for the deer to walk farther along the tree line beside the hayfield, until it stopped perfectly quartering away at 19 yards.
New drew his 72-pound Mathews VXR bow and sent a 125-grain mechanical two-blade Swhacker broadhead completely through the buck’s massive chest.
“The arrow went right through him and he took off running,” New explained. “I was tucked up in heavy cover and couldn’t really see him, but I heard him fall just 60 yards from my stand. He died while running.”
By the time New gathered his hunting gear and got down from his tree stand, it was dark. He needed help loading his deer into his truck, so he called his friend Kolton Raizor, and the two of them got the whitetail out of the woods.
“He was a whole lot bigger than I thought it was,” New said of his deer. “His body field dressed was well over 200 pounds, and I think that made his rack look smaller than it actually was.”
The deer can’t be officially scored for 60 days. But several people who have taped the deer’s rack have given it a score ranging from 195 inches to over 200 inches. The buck is a main-frame 10-pointer, with several sticker points nearly three inches long.
“I’ve been bowhunting for over 20 years and this buck is my biggest ever, and I’ll definitely have it mounted with velvet antlers,” said New, who is preparing to leave for a three-week Colorado elk hunt. “There was never a doubt about leaving that velvet on for a mount — I’m not about to spoil what nature made.”