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Todd Williams had never hunted Kentucky before. A native of Ohio and a disabled veteran, he was invited on a donated hunt with Big South Fork Veteran Hunt specifically organized for veterans with disabilities. The trip itself was meaningful—but what unfolded on the third evening of the hunt would be a memory he’d carry for a lifetime.
Williams had spent two days in the stand without seeing a single deer.
“I had set for two days and didn’t see a thing,” he says. “By the third day, I was just hoping to lay eyes on something.”
It wasn’t just any deer that showed up. Around 5:30 p.m., a massive velvet 8-pointer stepped into view, walking in from the timber and offering a clean broadside shot at just 18 yards. Williams, hunting with a TenPoint NXT 400 crossbow and using a Kentucky crossbow waiver for hunters with disabilities, steadied himself despite the adrenaline.
“Buck fever hit me hard. I was shaking and nervous,” he admits. “But I made the shot, and the first words out of my mouth were, ‘I just stuck a good one.’”
Williams and his group waited for about an hour before beginning the track job. At first, things looked promising—but after several hours of following blood through dense timber and into open field, the trail ran cold.
That’s when they brought in a hound dog to assist. “We tracked him about a mile and a quarter before we finally found him,” says Williams. “The arrow had hit one lung, ricocheted, and exited through the gut. He was a strong deer and managed to go a long way.”
The dog eventually jumped the buck from his bed after he’d crossed an entire field and laid down just inside the opposite wood line. The deer sprinted another 100 yards before finally going down for good.
“I was surrounded by people who were just as excited as I was,” Williams recalls. “The tracking part was stressful, but also one of the most memorable moments of the whole hunt.”
It wasn’t just Todd’s first Kentucky buck—it was his first velvet buck ever. “To do it on a hunt like this, surrounded by other veterans and great people, made it even more special.”
He encourages other hunters, especially those dealing with physical limitations, to stay determined. “Have plenty of patience,” he says. “Just being out there, enjoying the hunt, and sticking with it—it pays off.”
The hunt took place in McCreary County, Kentucky, and the 8-pointer was known to the group. They’d had trail cam photos and even a daylight sighting from another hunter the day before.
“It wasn’t a surprise buck, but I never expected it to happen that night,” says Williams. “Everything just lined up.”
The donated hunt gave him not only a trophy but also a renewed connection to the hunting community. “Getting back in the woods, being part of this experience—it meant the world to me. I’m just grateful to be part of it.”
