The Troy Hansen Buck

When we think of trophy mule deer, we normally think of the mountainous western states that produce huge bucks with antler crowns that make us weak-kneed at the sight of them. More recently the north mid-western states have been producing monster mule deer bucks far remove from high mountain basins and remote ravines.

The South Dakota plains is one such area.

On this cold, sleeting November morning, Troy Hansen waited in his treestand near his hometown of Pollock, SD. He was hunting a draw where several coulees intersected hoping that this freezing rain would push a good buck into the cover of the timber.

Now this setting in mid-November, hunting from a treestand in cold freezing rain and at the peak of the whitetail rut, you would expect to see some big whitetail chasing a doe down the trail leading to your stand. Not so on this morning.

Troy first saw the big mule deer as it crossed the open country and enter the trees heading directly toward his stand. He recognized the buck as one he had seen before in another area he hunted nearly two miles away. 

As the large racked buck neared Troy’s stand, he readied himself for the shot. This buck would travel directly under his stand and with the buck being that close, Troy was concerned of the noise that the ice-covered arrow would make as he drew. As the buck stepped into the clear shooting lane Troy drew his screeching arrow and released. The bucks crunching footsteps in the frozen snow covered all the sounds of the ice-covered arrow. The shot was straight down and as the arrow found its mark, the buck bolted and ran about 60 yards. Not knowing what had happen, the buck turned and looked to see what the commotion was about and dropped in his tracks.

Troy recalled his first thoughts after the buck fell, “I thought this buck had one of the smallest bodies I had ever seen for a mature buck, but it was actually the large size of the antlers that dwarfed the body”.

And dwarf the body it did!

With main beams measuring 27 2/8” and 28 6/8” and an inside spread of over 25 inches this 30-inch buck grossed a whopping 202 0/8” and netted a South Dakota State Record of 196 3/8”.