Kat Chawkins positions the butt of the gun on her shoulder and takes a stern and stable stance. Lining up the cross-site, she stares down the barrel of the plastic gun. “Vegan hunting,” as she calls it. After about 30 seconds, she’s shot three bucks and a couple of critters.
“Kat doesn’t like to lose at video games,” Chawkins says, quoting one of her closest friends and Big Buck Hunter competitors, Jabriel Donohue. She then points to a classic video game controller tattoo positioned on her right forearm.
Chawkins has been playing Big Buck Hunter for just under a year. As of writing, she sits at the 80th spot on the Big Buck Hunter Global Skill Leaderboard as of July 28, 2024.
Jessica DeFranco, marketing manager at Roth Rills, the parent company that owns Big Buck Hunter, explains that one of her favorite parts about the Big Buck Hunter community is the diverse array of individuals who play the game.
“There are so many different people that the game attracts,” DeFranco said. “Young, old, everywhere in between. It just doesn’t discriminate.”
Adam Holm, the 2023 Big Buck Hunter World Champion, has been playing Big Buck Hunter for eight years.
"The community itself is arguably one of the best I've ever been a part of," Holm said.
Holm began casually playing Big Buck Hunter with a couple of buddies at his local bar in Alberta, Canada. They would have a competition where if anyone got killed by a dangerous trophy – a predator such as a puma, gray wolf or black bear – then they had to buy a round of shots for the table.
"We were all terrible back then, so we bought a lot of shots," Holm said.
Big Buck Hunter can be played with one to four players, and costs $1 to $3 per player, per game, depending on if you are playing the casual or ranked mode.
Watching a Big Buck Hunter machine rotate through the set loading screens, you can see videos of bucks running behind does, scantily dressed women holding signs and the world leaderboard rolling through the top competitors.
Currently, Canada, the U.S. and Australia are the only three countries where Big Buck Hunter can be played.
Chawkins and Holm plan to attend the 2024 Big Buck Hunter World Championship on Oct. 11 and 12, at Joe's Bar in Chicago. Only the top 64 players on the Global Skill Leaderboards and the top 64 players on the Wildcard Leaderboard will qualify for the Big Buck Hunter World Championship.
The Big Buck Hunter machine at the Beaver Inn in Bellingham, Wash. on May 1, 2024. The Beaver Inn is open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day of the week. // Photo by William Morton
Bellingham Bars
There are three bars in Bellingham that have a Big Buck Hunter machine: The Beaver Inn, Nacho Problem and the Grand Avenue Ale House.
Britt Laswell, manager at the Grand Avenue Ale House, describes Big Buck Hunter as an evolution of the older arcade shooter games he grew up playing, but instead of shooting aliens, you’re shooting bucks.
“It’s a fun little, relaxing, game,” Laswell said
Sitting at the Grand Avenue Ale House, you'll notice a couple of things: An approximately ten-foot-long plastic fish – made from the mold of a real fish – hanging above the mirror opposite the bar; a breathalyzer machine to the right of the entrance; and a Big Buck Hunter machine, nested and cozy in the back of the bar.
According to Mia Cullen, bartender at Nacho Problem, playing Big Buck Hunter “really feels like a necessary part of working here.”
Nacho Problem, a recent addition to the downtown bar scene, is fitted with a shuffleboard table, two dart boards, a pool table, a foosball table and a Big Buck Hunter machine. The walls are black with splatters of neon-colored paint. Through a doorway to the right of the bar is the entrance to the newly opened Bella Ciao Pizza Tavern.
Lili Gondry has been a bartender at the Beaver Inn for just under three years and is an occasional Big Buck Hunter player.
“We have a lot of people who really enjoy it [Big Buck Hunter] … so whenever it’s out of order, people are always up in arms about it,” Gondry said.
The Beaver Inn was the sister establishment to the late State Street Bar. Three booths, six office chairs, and 21 bar seats sit on either side of the runway through the center of the bar. Toward the back are two pool tables, a Skee-Ball machine, and a Big Buck Hunter machine. Free popcorn sits at the end of the bar next to the pull tabs and the smell of trampled and warm carpet fills the stagnant air.
Competition
AJ Caruana is an avid Bellingham Big Buck Hunter player.
"I'm a bit of a fanatic... I'm definitely a fan," Caruana said. "I have an addiction ... it is Buck Hunter."
Caruana is the general contractor who remodeled the Admiral Lounge, Bella Ciao and Nacho Problem. Through working at these establishments, Caruana met the owner, Jabriel, who has an even bigger affinity for Buck Hunter than Caruana.
Caruana remembers growing up on the east coast and playing Buck Hunter at a pool hall when he was just 13 years old. Fast forward, and he's playing against Donohue "getting smoked," as he puts it.
"It just lit a fire in me," Caruana said. “[Donohue] was the catalyst for my reinvigoration, for my love of Buck Hunter."
Cullen describes a couple of slang terms she hears Big Buck Hunter players use around Nacho Problem.
Chawkins is known for threading the needle. Chawkins describes some of her shots as “the irresponsible shots, that shouldn't work out, and then they do.” Cullen explains that “if you shoot a buck that’s right behind a doe, then you call that a Kat.”
Donohue is known for shooting bucks that are just off-screen. In Big Buck Hunter, there is a roughly half-foot to one-foot area off the screen where you are still able to shoot animals.
"If you shoot [a buck] that's slightly off-screen, then you call that a Jabriel," Cullen said.
Pagard is known for a spray-and-pray approach. It's not a traditionally good technique to machine gun – shoot a ton of shots – because you get points for accuracy, but Pagard leans into that technique.
When asked about what her favorite Big Buck Hunter memory was, Chawkins fondly explained that it was the first time she beat Donohue, coincidentally on his birthday.
After winning, “I was just trying to contain the golden retriever energy … and I launched myself into his [Donohue’s] arms,” Chawkins said.
Although Big Buck Hunter is a game of competition, it is also a game of community.
For Chawkins, a game of Buck Hunter is the perfect way to unwind after a day of work. For Caruana, it is a goal to beat Donohue. For Holm, it is a way to be a part of an accepting and fun bar community.
William Morton (he/him) is a third year news and editorial major reporting about city life for The Front this quarter. Outside of school, he enjoys playing the banjo and attempting to read Finnegans Wake. You can contact him at williammorton.thefront@gmail.
