After drawing a Kansas muzzleloader tag, Jake spent time scouting and slept in his truck while trying to locate the buck of his dreams. ( Photo courtesy of Jake Clark.)

October 02, 2026 By Clifford Neames

“After I drew my permit for the Kansas Muzzleloader season, I used OnX to look for public lands that might hold good bucks”, Jake Clark says. “Then I borrowed a CVA .50-caliber muzzleloader from a friend and drove down from Michigan on a solo hunt.”

Jake spent the five days before the season opened scouting and sleeping in his truck.

“On Thursday, right before it got dark, I spotted a huge buck with a drop tine and plenty of trash on his rack.” “He was stepping out of low spot headed to a soybean patch”, he recalls.

Over the next three days Jake checked out fifteen more places, returning each afternoon to glass for the big buck. But the giant non-typical wasn’t coming out again while the sun was up.

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The massive whitetail has drop tines, mass, trash and brow tines that add up to a gross score of 213 inches. (Photo courtesy of Jake Clark.)

“Since the Youth Season was in progress, I was concerned that someone might spook him, or see him and start hunting there, so I parked right at the entrance to the property, hoping that might keep them away”, he continues. “I’m not sure if that worked, but I never saw anyone else around.”

On opening morning Jake woke up to a steady 35 mph wind, blowing in exactly the wrong direction for his planned access.

“I didn’t know where the big deer was, but it was blowing right toward where I had seen him, so I drove around and came in from the back side of the tract”, he continues.

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His new access put him walking two rows inside of standing corn, with the wind covering any noise he would make.

“It was very early and I could see a tree that I could set up my saddle rig on, so I headed that way.” The plan was to sit there and watch the head of the drain where he thought the huge buck was staying. But he was about to get a big surprise!

 “I was easing along and he popped out of the creek bottom 30 yards from me”, Jake explains. “I aimed and fired in one motion, then watched him fold up in 20 yards!”

The velvet rack sports two impressive droppers off the right side. (Photo courtesy of Jake Clark.)

Overcome with emotion, Jake reached out to call his dad on his cell phone. He was so rattled in the beginning of the conversation his dad asked, “Are you alright?”

Yes, he was! But now, still solo, he had to deal with an oversized whitetail that was down far from his truck. Jake set up his phone to get some video, then caped out and quartered the deer so he could pack it out.

The giant antlers feature 24 scorable points, incredible mass, and 4 drop tines. Preliminary rough scoring has the rack at 213 2/8ths.

An incredible reward for Jake’s determination and hard work!

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