He’s got a whole network of people scouring the internet and the entire country looking for these deer. These people have their own networks, who have their own networks. It’s known within these groups that they can sell information on these giant bucks. A finders fee so to speak. Once the deer and its location is confirmed, he can roll in there and start “knocking on doors” as he likes to say. He conveniently fails to mention the insane amounts of money he throws around for this access. Do you really believe a deer of that magnitude exists in an area where everyone is hunting him and that there’s landowners in the immediate area that are untapped by hunters? He just offers that much more money than regular hunters are willing to pay, and I’ve even read where he guarantees a certain amount if he kills his target buck. Like “I’ll give you $1k to let me hunt your tiny lot, but I’ll throw in another $15k if I kill a deer.” He knows going in that there’s only 1 deer he’s willing to shoot, and it’ll be worth his money.

I’d bet the farm that if any one of us had the location of a 200” buck, you could have Ellis on the phone within the hour.

He came by my office asking permission to hunt on our property. I knew who he was and asked him about it. Then said no.

He came by my office asking permission to hunt on our property. I knew who he was and asked him about it. Then said no.