It was the first time Jamie Coldiron had tried for a legendary Kentucky buck that many of his friends and hunting buddies had been seeing in places far and wide for more than six years. The buck had such a wide and unusual rack, that they called him “D9” — similar in look to the front of a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.
Using intel from other hunters, plus trail camera photos and his knowledge from 35 years of bowhunting in Kentucky, he picked a prime spot in the hill country to ambush “D9.”
It was the evening of Oct. 16 and Coldiron was sitting 15 feet up in a maple tree in a sling-style stand on public land. He was watching a hardwood ridge gap far from a road in the steep rolling hills of the 700,000-acre Daniel Boone National Forest in southeast Kentucky.
“I found a gap in the steep hills that I figured D9 might be using coming from a bedding area that afternoon,” Coldiron tells Outdoor Life. “The spot was just a natural funnel honeycombed with well-used deer trails.”
Photo courtesy of Jamie Coldiron.
Coldiron says at about 6:00 p.m. a doe appeared on a ridge above his stand and started acting spooky.
“She was feeding, spotted me, and her head started bobbing,” says Coldiron, 48, of Morehead. “About that time I heard something beyond the gap and saw D9 at 80 yards headed my way. The doe saw the buck, too, and that settled her down.”
As the buck neared, it saw the doe and headed toward her.
“As D9 got closer she moved away, but he kept coming,” says Coldiron, who is a corrections officer for Rowan County. “He stepped out from behind a tree at 22 yards, and I shot him behind the shoulder with my crossbow.”
The arrow was so fast Coldiron never saw it in flight. But he believed his 100-grain B3 Exoskeletal Broadhead found its mark. He used a 150-pound Raven crossbow fitted with a scope. It was the first time he’d ever used a crossbow to take a deer, although he’d arrowed many whitetails previously with compound bows.
“I watched him run off alone and could follow him for 50 yards before D9 disappeared,” Coldiron says. “I could tell he was hurt. But I didn’t want to push him. So, I climbed down from the tree, and messaged a couple friends who knew about the buck. I told them I got him.”
Coldiron waited for his pals Tyler Crawford and Nathan Conley to show at his parked truck. When they arrived, the three men went back to where Coldiron had been hunting. They found the blood trail right away and quickly located the downed buck only 100 yards from where it had been shot.
Then the hard work began, as the three hunters dragged the estimated 200-pound buck about a half mile to Coldiron’s truck. They loaded the deer, then cleaned it.
Photo Courtesy of Jamie Coldiron.
Coldiron is having the non-typical rack buck mounted by a taxidermist, who green scored D9 at 186 inches. The buck has a 22.5-inch inside spread and 13 scoreable points.
“My taxidermist says he’s 8.5 years old, and we have photos of the buck going back six years,” Coldiron says. “We believe his rack was headed downhill due to his age. Two years ago we figured he was a 200-incher.”
The left side of D9’s rack is pretty funky, with a couple unusual and large drop tines. One has a 4-inch base and is nine inches long. Another long drop tine goes straight back behind his head.
“His rack never looked like that until this year, and we think he had some type of injury to make it grow that way,” Coldiron says. “D9’s right side always looked the same, so we know it was the same deer.”
Read Next: Best Tree Saddles, Tested and Reviewed
Coldiron has remained humble about his public land mega-whitetail.
“The end of an era has come,” Coldiron wrote on his Facebook page. “A lot of good hunters have chased this deer for a long time with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I spent a lot of time this year trying to pinpoint his home. My first day after him, and he came right by. Pure luck, but it’s a deer of a lifetime for me.”
