When 27-year-old Cody Kabus realized the massive buck he’d just killed after two days of tracking wasn’t actually his deer, he made a decision few hunters would find easy: he returned the buck to the rightful hunter. As a result of that tough but honest decision, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources honored him with the state’s Ethical Hunter Award last month.
Kabus, a resource efficiency manager who contracts with the U.S. Army, had taken the afternoon off work to squeeze in a bow hunt on Nov. 10, a week before the 2023 gun season opened. He was hunting from a treestand on family land near Independence, occasionally rattling to see what might turn up, when he heard something crashing through the woods.
“It was a good-size buck, so I grabbed my bow and stopped him [with a grunt],” Kabus tells Outdoor Life. “He started looking at me as I drew my bow. Then, just as I released the arrow, he lurched forward. I immediately knew it wasn’t a great shot. It hit too far back.”
Not wanting to bump the buck, Kabus decided to back out and wait a bit before tracking. He went back a few hours later with a flashlight. By that time, it was well after dark.
“I only found about seven or eight drops of blood,” Kabus says. “It wasn’t much.”
When the scant blood trail ran dry, Kabus decided to come back in the morning. Before he turned in for the night, he informed a neighbor on the bordering property that he had shot a buck, but that it wasn’t a great shot. The neighbor said another hunter had shot a buck near there two days before his own Friday hunt, but he hadn’t been able to locate either. The neighbor promised he’d keep an eye out for Kabus’s deer.
The following day, Kabus heard from his neighbor: He’d spotted a buck walking along the road with an arrow sticking out of its side.
“I didn’t want him to suffer, so I hurried out there as fast as I could,” Kabus says.
Over the next two days Kabus tracked the buck, getting permission from two different neighboring property owners to search their properties.
“I walked and walked without seeing any blood, but I had this feeling that I needed to keep going.”
On Sunday evening, more than 48 hours after he made his shot, Kabus hiked up to the top of a ridge on the neighbor’s property. He looked over the hill, and as he was scanning the terrain, he saw a big rack resting on the leaves.
“I saw this buck just laid out,” Kabus says. “I said some colorful words in that moment.”
Although the deer looked dead, Kabus approached it cautiously. When he got within 20 yards, the buck jumped up and attempted to run.
“I saw his front leg just collapse as he tripped and fell into a bunch of brush,” Kabus says. “I thought that was odd because my arrow hit my buck pretty far back.”
Kabus approached even more cautiously, and was able to finish him with another arrow. Once the deer was still, he waited a few more minutes just to make sure before closing the remaining distance.
“I was looking at that rack and thinking, ‘This is the biggest buck I have ever seen,’” Kabus says. “Then, when I rolled him over, I saw another arrow, but it wasn’t one of mine.”
That’s when he realized this wasn’t the buck he’d shot Friday afternoon.
Kabus wasn’t sure what to do in that moment. Even though he’d been the one to kill the deer, he didn’t want to take credit for tagging a buck that wasn’t his. He called up a buddy for advice. His friend asked if he knew anyone else who hunted in the area. That’s when Kabus remembered the other hunter his neighbor had mentioned who hadn’t found his buck. His neighbor helped put the two men in touch.
The first hunter arrived and confirmed the arrow was his. He had shot the big buck more than half a mile away, four days before Kabus dispatched it. His mechanical broadhead had only penetrated a few inches before striking the shoulder blade.
“I never once thought about keeping that buck,” Kabus says. “I may have finished him off, but he was in pretty bad shape when I found him. I got his buck back to him, and I’m good with that.”
Unfortunately, Kabus was never able to recover the buck that he shot. While the end of his own hunt weighed on him, he was content with having helped out a fellow hunter. After Kabus’s coworker Matt Schneider heard the story, however, he thought his friend deserved some recognition. Schneider nominated Kabus for the Wisconsin Ethical Hunter Award.
Established in 1997 by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the award recognizes hunters who demonstrate “exceptional moral actions and character while out in the field.”
Kabus was recognized as a 2024 recipient of the award, along with Eliot Babino of Platteville, who found two hunting rifles left at a boat landing and, with the help of a DNR conservation officer, was able to return the guns to their rightful owners.
“We want to ensure future generations have good stories to hear about hunters doing the right thing. Or, better yet, see these actions as they occur in the field,” Wisconsin DNR hunter education administrator Renee Thok said in a DNR press release. “These ethical acts are real-life examples of how to hunt correctly and ethically, and it is very important to highlight and honor them.”
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But for Kabus, returning that big buck to the right hunter was never about receiving recognition.
“When we’re hunting, I just think this is what we should do. As neighbors, we watch out for each other,” Kabus says. “Doing the right thing means more to me than having that buck on the wall.
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