BRUCETON MILLS, W.Va. — Preston County hunter Kari Kahl had reservations about using a crossbow as the 2025 archery season approached in West Virginia. She typically hunted with her compound bow every year on property she and her husband own near Bruceton Mills. But as she recovered from shoulder surgery from earlier this year, the choice was use the crossbow or don’t hunt at all. The latter choice for Kari was a non-starter, especially given the bucks she and her husband had been seeing on their trail camera.
“We had been watching him for a while. He would come and go. He would disappear for a couple of days and then come back. But he had been consistent for the past three or four days before I sat in the stand,” said Kahl in an interview for West Virginia Outdoors.
Kahl had no particular game plan for being in her stand at any particular time. She was at the mercy of her work since she has two jobs and typically can only hunt when she gets time. September 30th she left work early because she wasn’t feeling well. After a couple of hours of rest she felt a lot better and decided to spend the rest of the day in her stand. It proved to be the right call.
“There had been three bucks coming in and one was a little lighter,” she explained.
As she sat in her stand, the first two bucks appeared. She wasn’t sure if the bigger buck she had hoped to kill was there, but she heard movement in the brush and had a feeling.
“I was looking and I didn’t know if that was the bigger one or if the bigger one was in the brush. I figure he was in the brush, since the bigger one always comes out last.,” she laughed.
But in this case, the other buck wouldn’t present himself. Kari eyed the massive buck which exposed and within shooting range and made up her mind.
“I waited and then I thought, whatever I’m going to shoot, I’ll be happy with it,” she added.
Kari needed the buck to take a step from behind a small tree and until he did she continued to watch the brush waiting on what she thought might be the bigger buck. But the present buck finally took the step she needed and was in the clear. She sent it.
“I didn’t think I hit him. They both just jumped to the side like ‘What was that?” My nock was lit-up and it had hit the tree behind him,” she said. “I thought ‘Dang it how did I miss?'”
Being new to the crossbow, she wasn’t sure what to expect. She stayed in the tree with another bolt ready to go and waiting hopefully on the deer to return. They never did. Later her husband showed up and found her bolt which had blood evidence of a good shot.
“He said, ‘You got good blood.’ I thought I had missed,” she said.
A short track located the buck only a few feet away from where she had shot him. He had fallen within earshot and Kari had no idea. She was also in for another surprise.
“It ended up being the bigger one,” she laughed.
The buck is an eight pointer and the rack is massive. Kari, who is small in stature, couldn’t fit her hand around the main beam of the old buck’s antlers. She could barely muster the strength to hold up his giant head for a picture.
“He’s a mature deer and he’s old with a HUGE body. Several years ago, my husband shot a huge buck and I killed a doe that was almost as big. That’s the first deer since then I’ve seen that big. It’s just hard to describe how big his body is. The rack, at this point, is just a bonus.” she said.