Some bucks give you a season. Cowboy gave Nathan Adamson of Team Radical a three-year quest, and it ended because of a plan he drew up in the snow.
The first sit
It started at the tail end of an Illinois season, late in the winter of 2025. Nathan was in the 360 with about a week left and still hadn't laid eyes on either of the two bucks he wanted. It had snowed all day the day before, and the woodlot coming into the blind was cut up with tracks, buck tracks included. Deer were pouring out into the field, just spread across all of it. He wasn't expecting a miracle. He was there to watch and learn.
That sit turned out to be the start of a three-year chase.
Building the trap
After that first encounter, Nathan knew the setup needed a change. Deer were in the area, but they were scattered across a big field with no reason to funnel. He needed a draw. A focal point. In his words, he needed a trap.
Four features already came together in that corner: ag ground, a block of hardwoods, bedding, and CRP. Historically it had always been a good little spot. Nathan wanted to make it a great one for bow hunting.
So he and the crew spent several weeks cutting timber inside the hardwoods to open up the canopy and let sunlight hit the ground. His buddy Brad brought in a skid steer and pushed up brush piles, both to steer deer into the plot and to clean up the entrance and exit routes. Then came a small earth pond and a clover plot seeded in among the oats.
The blind wasn't an afterthought in any of it. Here's how Nathan put it:
"The key that led to success was implementing the trap of the kill plot and water hole combo paired with the 360 Pro within shooting distance of every edge of the trap. The blind was just as important to the trap as I knew the plot was going to pull in a lot of deer into a small area and staying undetected throughout the hunt was key."
That's the whole idea behind a hunting blind food plot setup. Build the habitat to concentrate deer, then put the blind where it covers every edge of it, and make sure you can sit tight while a crowd piles in.
A season of patience
The next fall the plot took off and the bucks took full advantage. That should have been the year. It wasn't. The season dragged, and by midseason Nathan switched over to public land to try and salvage it.
And of course, that's when Cowboy reappeared.
Postseason scouting turned up a few sheds in the area but nothing from Cowboy. He was a ghost again. The working theory was that he was a fringe deer and the odds of catching up with him were slim.
Then came another summer. Good rain, thriving clover, the field back in corn, and familiar faces showing back up. Cowboy included. Nathan still wasn't betting on him sticking around, but heading into fall 2026 the trap was ready.
"Scrapes doctored, plot looks great, water hole's full. Now we just need big bucks."
Night one
Opening sits in that timber plot were everything he'd hoped for. Deer kept pouring in, young bucks working the plot, action all evening.
Then, at last light, right at the end of legal shooting time, Cowboy stepped out.
No shot. But he'd been there.
Night two, October 3
Nathan normally doesn't like hunting the same spot back to back, especially not after a big buck shows up at the end of light. But pressure was high elsewhere, and he knew these deer didn't travel far even when they got bumped. So he went back.
The wind was a gamble. The forecast called for east and southeast, but walking in it was straight south in his face, and it was supposed to drop under four miles an hour after five o'clock. He figured once it laid down, the blind would actually be the better play over the tree stand across the way. In his words, he was rolling the dice with the conditions.
This is where the trap did exactly what he built it to do, and where staying undetected mattered most. The windows stayed shut. Deer were close and on edge, and he wasn't opening anything until he had a reason to. Little bucks filtered in. Then five deer. Then the limping buck from the night before, standing in the plot.
Around 5:30, with an hour and a half of light left, Nathan was looking out into the CRP and caught what looked like antlers. It was Cowboy, standing up out of his bed under a clump of trees. By the time the camera swung over, he was already moving.
The deer worked his way in. The arrow went, and Nathan immediately second-guessed the placement. It looked a little forward on the footage, but it looked like he'd gotten enough penetration. The buck took off and crashed through a bunch of brush on the way out.
Twenty-five minutes later he was packed up and headed for the truck to find service and see what the boys thought. Sweating. Shaking.
"I did it, guys"
The Mega Meat had done its job. After a short track, the three-year quest for Cowboy was officially over.
It was late that night by the time they got him out. Nathan called it his biggest buck to date, on October 3rd, with the whole season still in front of him.
Here's how he summed up the back-to-back sits: Cowboy "read the script again and just did it a little earlier this time."
Why the blind mattered
Pulling a lot of deer into a small area is only half the job. The other half is sitting in the middle of all of it without getting picked off. A plot that works brings company, and company brings eyes and noses.
On the night that counted, Nathan sat a questionable wind with the windows closed and deer standing in the plot, and the buck he'd chased for three years walked in and never knew he was there.
Congratulations to Nathan and the whole Team Radical crew. Good way to get 2026 rolling.
Got a #Hunt360 story of your own? We want to hear it. And if you've been thinking about building your setup around a blind this offseason, head to our Find a Dealer page, punch in your zip code, and somebody near you can get you squared away.