Seventy-year-old Charles Wilde of Quenemo, Kan., has bowhunted for more than five decades. His favorite stand for 30 of those years hangs within a bottleneck on his 160-acre farm in Osage County.
In 2012, Charles was targeting a photogenic 10-pointer he'd nicknamed Big 10, but he didn't devote a lot of time to scratching that buck - or any deer - off his list.
Had it not been for his wife, he might never have returned to his beloved bottleneck during what turned out to be the best possible window of opportunity.
"My wife literally pushed me out the door one afternoon, saying I needed some time away from the house," he told John Phillips, who's writing his story for Rack magazine. "I hadn't gotten to hunt much during the bow season due to family health problems."
While aloft that afternoon, Charles decided his stand might not be in the best place for bushwhacking Big 10. So he built a natural ground blind nearby, closer to where he'd seen the great 5x5.
From his new blind the next morning, he spotted Big 10 behind a large cedar tree. "But when I picked up my bow, the buck saw me and took off running," he said.
After that close encounter, the image of Big 10 seemed to be painted on the backs of Charles's eyelids. He also gained a new respect for the advantage of hunting from trees.
At 5 p.m. on Oct. 4, Charles put on his safety harness and climbed into his treestand. He soon spotted a nice buck - not Big 10 - at 100 yards, walking down the path toward his stand.
When the buck was at about 50 yards, Charles drew his 60-pound Mathews, aimed low for a heart shot, and released the arrow.
The hit buck shifted into high gear, ran back about 100 yards on the same trail, stopped at the edge of the woods and started walking sideways and stumbling.
After sitting in his stand for a while, the veteran bowhunter walked down the trail the buck had traveled, and he saw it stand and take a couple of steps. Rather than push his luck, Charles left.
Four guys returned to pick up the trail.
"Once we reached the edge of the woods, we walked only 10 yards past the spot where I'd seen the buck stand up, and there it was," Charles said.
The 18-pointer is a mainframe 5x5. The eight irregular points contribute almost 23 inches to its BTR composite score of 192 6/8 inches.