An 8½-year-old buck survived four gunshots over multiple seasons by avoiding the spots where nearly every hunter expected him.

Some mature bucks survive because they are lucky. Others survive because they seem to understand exactly where hunters expect them to walk.

Veteran Ohio hunter Mike Rex shared one of those stories during a conversation with Andrew Maxwell and Jacob Myers of The Southern Outdoorsmen. The deer was known as the “Teflon Don,” an old buck Rex estimated was at least 8½ years old when he was finally killed in 2013.

The buck was not Rex’s biggest-scoring deer. It was roughly a 150-inch animal, he said. But it was the hardest deer he had ever gotten close to because it repeatedly avoided what looked like one of the best stand locations on the property.

That location was a textbook pinch point. It had a field, a steep ravine, a narrowing strip of timber, and years of history producing good bucks.

The Teflon Don wanted no part of it.

A Buck That Seemed Impossible To Kill

Rex told Maxwell and Myers that he and his sons had been hunting the deer for years.

Trail-camera history suggested the buck was at least 8½ years old. Rex said the deer’s antler development made it hard to believe he could have been much younger unless he had been born with an unusually large rack.

The buck had already survived several close calls.

In 2011, Rex’s middle son shot the deer on a hard quartering-away angle. The arrow struck the buck in the rear, but missed the femoral artery, allowing the animal to survive.

The following year, Rex’s oldest son had the buck broadside at 30 yards. That shot struck low in the armpit, beneath the heart.

Then, after the deer was eventually killed, the family discovered another broadhead lodged in its brisket. Someone else had apparently shot the buck head-on at some point during its long life.

“He’d been shot four times in his life to make it to 8½ years old,” Rex said.

That kind of survival record is extraordinary, but it also helps explain why the deer behaved differently. A buck that reaches that age has likely learned from pressure, human scent, close calls, and the behavior of other deer.

Rex’s point was blunt: “You can’t get to be old by being lucky.”

The Perfect Pinch Point Was Not Perfect For Him

The main hunting area was a narrow corridor at the end of a ridge-top field.

A steep ravine lay beyond one side of the field. Open ground sat on the other side. Between them was roughly 70 yards of woods, creating what Rex described as an obvious travel restriction.

Anything moving from one side to the other either had to cross the ravine, walk through the field, or pass through that narrow strip.

Over the years, Rex said, his family had killed many quality bucks in that pinch point.

There were two stands in the area. One sat near an inside corner of the field, while another was positioned near the head of the ravine. Both were high in good trees and had strong cover.

On paper, it was nearly impossible to improve.

But the Teflon Don repeatedly treated that strip of woods like a danger zone.

That is what makes the story valuable for hunters. A location can be perfect for the average deer and still be avoided by the oldest, most cautious buck on the property.

The First Encounter Ended With The Buck Backing Away

Rex’s first close encounter with the Teflon Don came on Halloween.

The wind was out of the north, placing him in the south stand. He watched the buck skirt the edge of the field toward the narrow gap.

The deer got within about 60 or 70 yards, then stopped.

Rex said the buck lifted its head, smelled the air, and looked around. Because the wind was at the deer’s back, it could not scent what was ahead.

The hunter was 30 to 35 feet up in a well-hidden tree.

Still, the buck eventually looked directly at him.

Rex said the deer’s eyes “got soft,” an expression he used to describe the instant when the buck recognized something was wrong.

Then the deer did something he had never seen before.

“It started walking backwards,” Rex said.

The Teflon Don backed toward the edge of the field, then calmly made a wide circle around Rex and disappeared.

“I texted my boys and I said, ‘He just beat me,’” Rex recalled.

The moment was a reminder that mature bucks do not always need to smell a hunter to avoid one. Sometimes they simply notice an unfamiliar shape, movement, or visual detail that younger deer may ignore.

The Buck Avoided The Funnel Again

The second encounter came on Nov. 16, with the wind coming from the south.

Rex moved to the north stand at the inside corner. The setup appeared nearly perfect.

The buck approached with a crosswind that gave neither the hunter nor the deer an obvious advantage.

Again, the Teflon Don stopped about 70 or 80 yards away.

This time, Rex said, the deer did not spot him. It simply appeared unwilling to walk through the narrow cut.

Instead of taking the easy route, the buck went down the drainage, crossed over, and made a large loop around the stand.

Rex texted his sons again.

“I think this deer is unkillable,” he wrote. “Not the way I like to hunt him.”

That is the detail that connected strongly with a point Maxwell raised from a previous discussion with Derek Dixon of Whitetail Research.

According to Maxwell, Dixon had used drones to watch deer behavior and noticed that some of the oldest bucks avoided certain pinch points completely. These were the very funnels many hunters would identify as the best spots on a map.

Dixon reportedly watched mature bucks come close to a tight ridge pinch, then loop around it, cross rougher terrain, or take a more difficult route rather than enter the obvious funnel.

Rex said that description matched exactly what he saw with the Teflon Don.

A Doe Finally Changed The Deer’s Mind

The buck finally came within range not because he decided the pinch point was safe, but because a doe drew him through it.

About 20 minutes after Rex watched the deer loop around him, he heard a doe moving through the field.

She came directly under his tree with her tail up.

Behind her came the Teflon Don, head down and trailing her like a dog.

Rex took the shot.

He said it was “blind luck” that the doe led the buck through the cut. Without her, he doubted the deer would have passed through that narrow corridor under normal conditions.

That point matters because it shows how rut behavior can temporarily override caution.

A mature buck may avoid a location for most of the season, but a hot doe, a chase, or a sudden shift in breeding behavior can cause him to make a move he normally would not make.

Hunters often build plans around where a buck should travel. Rex’s story suggests that the old deer may only use those places when something stronger than caution pulls them through.

Why Novice Hunters Sometimes Kill Giant Bucks

The conversation then shifted to another surprising idea: why novice hunters sometimes kill giant deer in places experienced hunters might ignore.

Rex said he once wrote about this after interviewing hunters who had killed some of the biggest bucks in Ohio.

Many of the successful hunters did not describe elaborate access routes, carefully planned stand locations, or intricate wind strategies.

One man who killed a 240-inch non-typical buck reportedly said he simply got off his four-wheeler and walked into the woods. Another hunter killed a giant deer near an ordinary clump of cover in a field, not in a classic bedding-to-food funnel.

Rex believes two things may be at work.

First, novice hunters may not experience the same level of adrenaline that experienced trophy hunters feel when a giant deer appears.

A hunter who has spent years obsessing over one buck can become overwhelmed in the moment. A newer hunter may simply see a deer, raise a gun or bow, and shoot without the same emotional buildup.

Second, novice hunters often make moves that experienced hunters would consider wrong.

They may hunt close to parking areas, sit in easy-access spots, walk in noisily, or set up in locations that have been ignored for years because other hunters think they are too obvious.

But mature bucks often do uncharacteristic things themselves.

“Big deer don’t do what they’re supposed to do,” Rex said. “Because if they did, they’d be dead.”

That is one of the more fascinating lessons from the discussion. Hunters often assume the biggest deer live farthest from people, deepest in cover, or beyond the hardest access route.

Sometimes that is true. But an old buck may survive by doing the opposite of what hunters expect, including living near pressure because fewer people take those places seriously.

The Teflon Don’s Lesson For Hunters

The Teflon Don survived long enough to become a legend in Rex’s family because he did not consistently follow the easiest travel route.

He saw danger in a place that had produced deer for years. He avoided it even when wind conditions were favorable. He looped through rougher terrain rather than walk through a narrow strip of woods that hunters had already proven was effective.

The buck was eventually killed only when rut behavior pulled him into that vulnerable location.

For hunters, the lesson is not to stop hunting pinch points. Rex’s family had killed plenty of good bucks there, and the locations remain valuable.

The lesson is to avoid assuming every mature deer will use the same travel routes as younger bucks.

An old buck may skirt the obvious funnel, travel secondary routes, cross terrain that looks inconvenient, or move closer to pressure than anyone expects.

That does not make him magical.

It just means he has survived long enough to become different.