Michael Pulido is a true patriot, and actively serves in the United States Army. He’s traveled to see many places during his service to this country. Part of the experience has been chasing whitetails.

“Being a combat veteran and current active duty soldier, hunting is a major outlet for me to forget about all the things that come with experiencing combat and daily stressors of life,” Pulido said.

In 2016, he began hunting at Fort Benning, Georgia. And for the past several years, he’s carried a bow afield. The last couple of years, he spent a good bit of time at the military installation at Fort Riley, Kansas. So, he decided to see how things were on some public land close to the base, and fate would eventually prove that to be a swell decision.

In 2019, upon his return from an overseas rotation, he hunted the area a little and familiarized himself with the property. Then, in 2020, he decided to get back out there. On September 27, he went to a spot he knew of. “I knew that this place was special,” Pulido said. “It bordered private land that was in crop fields, had thick swamp/marsh-type bedding cover and had a huge CRP field adjacent.”

With 10- to 15-mph winds, it was perfect for easing to a spot he had high expectations for. Unfortunately, there were only a couple of trees to climb that allowed him to see into the bedding area he was targeting. So, he picked one, hung his XOP treestand, and settled in at around 18 feet.

“I was able to see pretty much the entire area,” Pulido said. “As soon as the rain stopped, I had a small 6-point and spike come from behind me and catch my wind. They eased out. About 15 minutes later, six does come right by me and headed to the marsh and crossed over to the corn field.”

Then, numerous small bucks filed past him into the marsh bottom, and some of them started sparring. Shortly afterward, he glassed across the marsh and spotted a giant with a bright, white rack. He was feeding on soft mast with another buck.

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“I quickly got down, and knew I was going to bust these small bucks out of the marsh in order to get past them to move in on the bigger buck,” Pulido said. “I was able to get parallel to them and they busted to the south without blowing.”

Descending into a ditch, he used it as cover to close the gap. He eventually couldn’t go any farther, and was still out of range and sight of the giant. He kept inching forward, and tried to glass the buck.

As light faded, Pulido made one more move to some slightly higher ground in order to try and see the buck. Just as he did, the monster materialized about 75 yards away. But he ran out of legal shooting light.

“All I could see was huge mass and a massive body,” Pulido said. “The wind was perfect, and I was able to back out.”

The next day, on September 28, temperatures bottomed out around 40 degrees and climbed back into the low 60s. It was still fairly cool, given the location and time of year.

“Of course, I had to get back in there the next day and try again,” Pulido said. “I got off work and went straight there. I wanted to get in as early as possible because the day was cooler, and I felt they may get up earlier with the high pressure.”

Figuring the buck might repeat the pattern from the day before, he made a move to get closer to where he had the encounter 24 hours prior. The wind was perfect, and he used the ditch again to conceal his approach a second time.

After easing up several times to glass for deer, he finally spotted the giant about 150 yards away. He mapped out a route to get within range, eased back down, and continued advancing. He eventually stopped under a small tree, which provided plenty of cover and shade.

“I looked straight ahead and there was a small 8-pointer standing broadside and looking right at me,” Pulido said. “I froze and knew I could only make vertical movements. I slowly grabbed my rangefinder and ranged the small buck at 44 yards. As I ranged him, he slowly moved forward, unsure of what he was looking at. As soon as I put my rangefinder down and adjusted my sight, a buck to my front left, which I could not see, blew and stomped.”

At that moment, he wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but instinctively, he decided to draw his bow. Just as he came to full draw, the huge buck jumped down from a bank to his left. It took a few steps and stopped where Pulido had ranged the smaller buck. He settled the pin, and watched as the arrow disappeared behind the buck’s shoulder.

He immediately called his wife and several friends. His buddies arrived, and after a while, they took up the blood trail. They followed blood through thick cover for about 500 yards.

“It was brutal to get through, but the blood was pretty easy to track because the buck brushed up against it all the way through,” Pulido said. “When we got to the far side, the blood started to fade. We ended up tracking until about 1 a.m.”

Later on that day, he and several others returned and continued looking. After searching for several more hours, they still didn’t locate the deer. Disheartened, Pulido and company left the property.

On September 30, he drove past the property to look for buzzards. He spotted a few, but no concentrations of them. He didn’t think much of it.

One day later, on October 1, he decided to hunt the area again. Perhaps the buck lived, he thought. There was only one way to know for sure — keep hunting.

With another northeasterly wind, he eased back into the same general area. “Just as I was getting ready to start making my move into the bedding area, I spotted more than a few vultures,” Pulido said. “My heart sank, and I rushed over to where they were flying. As soon as I was getting ready to start looking around, I heard vultures inside the hardwoods, and I could smell the carcass. In just a minute or so, I found him. I was so upset and at the same time crazy emotional.”

He immediately dialed his wife, and then notified his friends of the recovery. He even called the local game warden, who Pulido had been keeping in the loop.

“I never could have dreamed this up,” Pulido said. “This buck has shown me that hard work and studying deer pays off. I work extremely hard to read about and study white-tailed deer — specifically mature bucks — and how to locate and hunt them on public land.”

Since the news broke, several other hunters — who also hunt around Fort Riley — have contacted him about the deer. These hunters knew of the monster, and were awesome about the entire situation. They even sent Pulido trail camera photos.

The 221-4/8-inch buck is currently being aged by tooth analysis, but Pulido believes it to be about 5½ years old.