Iowa is a whitetail hunter's Mecca because it produces big-bodied bucks with superior genetics year after year. But bucks like the one Matthew Mogenson arrowed on the evening of October 18 are rare trophies—even by Hawkeye State standards. Here's the full story of how Mogenson finally connected with the double-drop-tined behemoth after collecting one of its sheds in the offseason—before its antlers ballooned from 160 to well over 200 inches.
Mogenson found out the buck last year when it was a tall-tined, perfectly symmetrical 6X6. "He was a typical 160-inch main frame 12 pointer," he told Field & Stream. "He showed up very consistently on one of my cell cams during the heat of the rut. I hunted him a few times last year then ended up killing a different buck in the southern part of the state. Luckily, he showed up on my camera again the day after the 2023 season ended. I searched hard for his sheds but never found them."
He finally got one of the buck's sheds in hand after the landowner's dog dragged it up to their house. "That got me pretty excited," Mogenson said. "I was looking forward to hunting him this year and hoped he would survive the summer months. I began running trail cameras through a 2-mile stretch of timber along a river that I knew he'd be passing through."
Mogenson captured new photos shortly thereafter. Not only did the buck survive the summer months, its rack had absolutely exploded. "I knew right then I was hunting a 200-inch deer," he said. "I began hanging stands, putting out more trail cameras, and making mock scrapes."
As the summer progressed, the buck's home range narrowed. "He began showing up every day, and he stayed in one area," Mogenson said. "Then once the corn started coming out, and he shed his velvet, his attitude changed. He left that side of the property and made his way to the far east side where there was still standing corn."
With his velvet off, the buck's pattern became increasingly nocturnal, Mogenson said. "He started showing up every night after shooting hours, and I knew I needed to start hunting cold fronts," he recalled. "I went out on the afternoon of October 18, the day of the hunter's moon, and decided I was going to rattle really aggressively."
Mogenson was hunting the edge of a cornfield. Toward the end of his evening hunt, with 20 does milling around in the field, he started banging his rattling horns together. "I did one aggressive rattling session that lasted just a few minutes," he said. "Fifteen minutes later, I heard something behind me in the timber creeping through the woods. I thought it was a racoon at first, then I saw this giant rack with tines going everywhere."
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The deer walked right past his stand, and Mogenson released a perfect double-lung shot from just 20 yards away. The buck, which he'd named Mega, ran 60 yards and crashed into the timber.
An hour later, Mogenson walked into the woods with a good friend and found Mega lying on his side. He had 19 points with two drop tines off the right beam measuring 12 and 9 inches. It's inside spread stretched to more than 18 inches in length. "I couldn't believe the chase had finally come to an end," he said. "I was stoked beyond belief."
