It’s a good thing Ricky Fretwell’s boat trailer has a solid axle, leaf springs and well greased wheel bearings.
Almost a year ago, the Florida resident and a couple of friends trailered a boat for 40 hours (roundtrip) in order to hunt deer on public ground in Kansas. Ricky and his lifelong pal, Kenny, studied maps of the tract before they left home.
Hoping to avoid possible crowds, the guys sought remote areas accessible only by water. Kenny’s son, Austin, rounded out the threesome.
While scouting the area upon arriving, they found an incredible shed antler. They also met Arkansas bowhunter Rusty Johnson, who knew the deer that dropped it. Rusty had collected trail camera images of the now-bigger whitetail a week earlier.
Austin was the first to burn his tag. Ricky followed suit four days later.
The day began badly on Nov. 12.
First, their truck would not shift into reverse. They wound up pushing the vehicle until it faced the road. The next obstacle was their boat, which was stuck in frozen water. They had wade in and bust the ice.
When Ricky finally reached the tree he was going to climb, he layered on more clothes. He told Russten Johnson (Rusty’s son), who’s writing the story for Rack magazine, that he used just about every stitch he’d brought from Florida
An hour into his hunt, Kenny called to say he’d seen the bull of the woods making a scrape only 18 yards from him. Although certainly within range, the deer never gave him a shot.
Because they were hunting fairly close to each other, Ricky began using his grunt call. The huge buck appeared soon afterward, 25 yards downwind.
The deer might have been stock-still as it tasted the breeze, but Ricky was vibrating in his stand.
While this was happening, an 8-pointer ran in and stopped underneath the overwhelmed hunter. It actually sniffed the base of his tree, too, which did not go unnoticed by the much larger buck.
Several minutes after the 4x4 left, the big one let down its guard and resumed walking. Ricky’s crossbow bolt smacked the deer as soon as it stepped into a shooting lane.
The public-land whitetail is the runner-up to the Kansas crossbow record for Semi-irregulars. Its BTR score is 192 7/8 inches.
— Read Recent Blog! Indiana’s No. 3 Rifle Buck: The buck is the third-largest, rifle-felled whitetail ever recorded from Indiana.