--- title: "This South Dakota Hunter Borrowed a Bow and Tagged a 197-Class Deer — His First Archery Buck" description: "Colby Claussen spotted a massive nontypical buck and decided to move closer to the trail with a ground blind." date: "2026-11-08" modified: "2026-11-08" authors: - name: "Bob McNally" job_title: "Contributor" link: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/authors/bob-mcnally.md" url: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/south-dakota-hunter-borrows-bow-tags-nontypical-buck/" categories: - "Big Game Hunting" - "Deer Hunting" - "Hunting" - "Whitetail Deer Hunting" tags: - "News" --- # This South Dakota Hunter Borrowed a Bow and Tagged a 197-Class Deer — His First Archery Buck ![giant south dakota buck]() *Photo courtesy of \Colby Claussen\* It wasn’t the best conditions for bowhunting in central South Dakota on November 3rd. It was misting and drizzling rain and the wind was blowing between 20 and 30 miles per hour. But Colby Claussen had seen a huge buck the previous week out of a tree stand and decided to buy a ground blind and place it near the trail where the buck had walked. “I spotted him a week earlier from my stand at nearly 70 yards walking a trail along a field edge near a standing corn field,” Claussen tells Outdoor Life. “He was working scrapes. I decided to buy an enclosed blind and put it in the woods 30 yards off the trail he walked.” A week later he was in the blind hunting the buck he’d seen on trail cameras off and on for several years. “I first saw him several years ago through binoculars while hunting,” Claussen says. “The buck was a good 10 pointer then and about 600 yards away – way too far to shoot.” After that the 20-year-old hunter got trail camera pictures of the buck and watched him grow over several years. “This year I saw him from my treestand working scrapes, but he was too far for me to try a shot with the bow I’d borrowed from a friend,” says Claussen, a just-graduated student who farms with his family. The giant buck would be his first ever taken with a bow. ![south dakota buck]() *Photo courtesy of Colby Claussen* By 1 p.m. on Nov. 3, Claussen was in his ground blind, protected from wind and rain. He spotted a couple small bucks and does that afternoon. Just 10 minutes before shooting light ended that day, he spotted the enormous whitetail he was after. “He stepped out of the woods to work a scrape at 30 yards, but it was too thick to shoot, so I waited,” Claussen says. “The buck stayed on the trail and kept coming toward me until he got in an opening, broadside at 30 yards.” Claussen drew his bow and shot an arrow tipped with a G5 Megameat 3-blade expandable broadhead. It hit the buck perfectly behind its shoulders, driving through both lungs, clipping its heart, and exiting the massive deer. “I knew he was hit well, and he went to the treeline, walked in a small circle, and disappeared into the timber,” says Claussen, who owns Sodak Drone Application, an agricultural business. “I went to where he stood and found my arrow and plenty of blood.” Claussen waited 30 minutes before trailing the deer, then quickly found the buck just 60 yards from where he’d shot it. He called family members who soon arrived and helped with field dressing and loading the estimated 300-pound buck into a pickup truck. Then they took it to a meat processor, with the buck’s cape and head delivered to a taxidermist. ![giant south dakota buck]() *Photo courtesy of Colby Claussen.* **Read Next: [The Best Hunting Blinds of 2026, Tested and Reviewed]()** A taxidermist measured Claussen’s buck at 198 1/8 inches, and another skilled deer rack scorer came up with 197 7/8 inches. The non-typical rack has nine points on one side, six on the other, with an inside spread of 21.25 inches. Antler base circumferences are 5 3/8 inches. The buck’s estimated age is 5.5 to 6.5 years. “A couple years ago I had photos of that buck with half a broken rack from fighting,” Claussen says. “I quit hunting him when he broke his rack. But another hunter that year missed him in rifle season. “I’m sure glad that hunter missed, and I got another chance to take my buck of a lifetime.” ## Author Bob McNally has been an outdoor writer since shortly after the earth’s crust cooled. He has written 12 outdoor books, more than 5,000 outdoor magazine stories (including many for Outdoor Life) and more newspaper outdoor columns and features than there are hairs on a grizzly bear.