THE KYLE BOLEN BUCK —
NOBLE COUNTY’S NO. 1 NON-TYPICAL GIANT!
(found in the September 2011 edition of Indiana Game and Fish, vol. 2011, No. 7)
A case in point is the fine non-typical buck taken by 14-year-old Kyle Bolen last season in Noble County. Noble County ranked fourth in the state last year in total number of deer taken (3,063), behind No. 1 Steuben (4,102), Kosciusko (3,652) and Switzerland (3,223). So, in a county more known for numbers of deer rather than big bucks, a young hunter takes a trophy 22-point non-typical with a final score of 213 6/8, as added up by official scorer John Bogucki. That makes Bolen’s buck the biggest non-typical ever from this high-harvest deer county.
One look at the Bolen buck is all you need to realize what kind of trophy it is. Its a rack that looks like a bush, with matching double drop tines laced with velvet on the tips, along with many other branches and points. It’s a sight to behold and one that mere pictures don’t do justice.
But the huge 22-pointer is not Kyle’s first deer; it is his fourth, and he is four-for-four when it comes to bagging deer. Already, this youthful hunter has his buck-of-a-lifetime, along with scoring a deer on every shot. You’ve got to believe that many seasoned hunters in this part of the deer world were surprised that they never got such a chance at this big non-typical. This time youth prevailed over age and experience. And the hunt itself all came together without much planning and without much time passing from start to finish. Sometimes, everything just comes together in the deer woods and that’s what apparently happened with this young hunter. But it almost didn’t happen at all.
You see, Kyle’s was supposed to be hunting with his dad, but his father was trying to catch up on some household chores, so the young hunter went off on the family’s 6-acre plot of land on his own. He immediately headed toward thick cover found around a nearby pond. Interestingly, though Kyle had located a nice-looking rub along a deer trail, he had never seen a deer of any size using the property. But he and his dad were aware of many does using the area. On this day, Kyle was actually hoping to get a shot at one of those does, which were using the prime habitat for food, water and shelter.
The hunt was his first on his own. As he walked slowly along a path to the pond, he noticed a deer that appeared to be drinking some 75 yards off. Kyle inadvertently stepped on a twig, which snapped under his weight, but even when the buck raised its head and huge rack, Kyle did not realize it was a trophy deer. The big rack actually blended in with the heavy underbrush, shrubs and tree limbs. This may have been a good thing, ’cause there was no reason to get nervous if you don’t know it’s a big buck you’re looking at.
Fortunately, Kyle’s dad had cut the long grass down that leads up to the edge of the wood line. When the deer raised its head to look back, Kyle took aim with his .44 Magnum H&R rifle, and let fly with an accurate shot. The bullet hit the deer in the side at an angle and went through its lungs; a fine shot. It ran no more than 10 yards and fell into the heavy cover.
“I was only back there about 10 minutes when mom and dad heard a shot. It took more time to drag the big buck out. We even had to move a few logs because the deer weighed over 226 pounds,” said Kyle Bolen.
What do you do to top a deer like that? Probably just savor a fantastic hunt for the rest of your life. One thing Kyle did, though, was donate much of the venison to charity. He mentioned a full-body mount will be completed sometime later this year. What a way to remember such a lifetime hunt.
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