WESTON, W.Va. — Kyler Doss of Buckhannon promised his wife when they were married he wasn’t a guy who hunted the early part of the bow season, so she’d never have to worry about him wanting to go hunting on their anniversary. It was a promise he wound up breaking on their anniversary in 2026.
“I must have found a good wife because she knew I needed to hunt this deer. I told her, ‘What’s the chances, both my best catches came on the same day,'” he laughed in a recent interview for West Virginia Outdoors.
September 30th will be a date which lives forever in the Doss household. Kyler had noticed the big deer over a year earlier, but it was a picture from a trail camera in the month of May on his hunting property in Lewis County which captured his attention.
“Last year he was a typical main frame 10-point, but I got that picture in May of him crossing a skid road and that was a deer I knew I wanted to keep an eye on. During June and I narrowed down the area he was using and from there on, luckily he was just a very consistent deer,” he explained.
Doss was in his stand during the early part of the season. The day before he was in his stand he had pictures of the deer around 7:30 a.m.
“It was about 7:40 and I looked down about 80 yards and I just saw the body of deer come through an opening. Just by the body I could tell it was the deer I was looking for,” Doss said.
In the thick brush, the buck disappeared from site. But Kyler could still hear it moving through the brushy cover and closing the distance. When he finally emerged he was less than 20 yards from Kyler and was moving in.
“I got a pretty clean drawback, but didn’t know how well the shot was. I knew it was at the center of the deer and he was quartering a little, but I knew it was a fatal shot,” he explained.
The buck disappeared after it retraced its steps back to where Doss had first seen him. Blood was sparse, so Doss backed out and gave the deer a few hours to die. He then called in the guys at Longspur Tracking. When the dog showed up, the trail was evident and within no time, Doss had his hands on the buck’s massive rack.
“They were there within an hour. I think the deer made it about 140 yards, but it was an ethical shot and the dogs had had it found in no time,” he explained.
The buck featured a pair of split brow tines with two points on one side and three on the other. The antlers also had an odd and unique wave pattern in their shape.
Doss said he planned to keep hunting throughout the season, but also realized, there’s a sizeable honey-do list which needs attention, possibly requiring extra attention for his bride’s graciously giving up her anniversary supper for whitetail dreams.