Big Buck 411 Blog

Teen Spirit

Teen Spirit

By Mike Handley

The question of whether 14-year-old Paslie Werth’s Kansas buck is the new world record among whitetails harvested by women will be answered when it is taped for the BTR later this month.

Her father, Kurt, an agricultural extension agent who has taken antler-measuring classes, came up with 282 6/8 inches, which would beat the existing record set in 1997 by Jamie Remmers, also a resident of the Sunflower State.

Remmers’ buck has a BTR score of 276 5/8 inches.

Paslie shot her deer on Sept. 6, the second day of Kansas’ 2020 youth season, after enduring five hours of triple-digit heat inside a deer blind on family property in Kiowa County.

They got off to an early start that Sunday. They reached the property at 5 a.m. and stayed until about 10:00. Rather than drive the hour back home to Cimarron, they went to Paslie’s grandparents’ house for lunch.

“Paslie started asking to go back out around 2:00,” Kurt said. “But it was 102 degrees out there!”

An hour later, he acquiesced.

“It just kinda hit me,” Paslie explained. “I said, ‘We need to go, Dad. We have to get out there!’ I just knew something was going to happen.”

After parking a mile from the homemade shooting house, father and daughter followed a draw across CRP. They then walked a fence line next to an overgrown cow pasture.

When daylight began waning, Kurt began gathering their gear. Paslie remained alert.

With only 10 or 15 minutes of shooting light remaining, Paslie saw a buck stand at the only cedar tree in the grass field she was facing. That meant it was only 25 yards from the blind. The tree was one of their pre-ranged yardage markers.

Before announcing the deer’s presence, Paslie stuck the bolt-action .270’s barrel out of the blind’s window and acquired the buck in her crosshairs. That was the first time for her to hunt with the rifle her father had won at a Pheasants Forever banquet.

As soon as the crosshairs floated over the animal, she recognized it.

“Dad, it’s him!” She whispered.

“I thought she was joking me around,” Kurt said. “I didn’t think we’d see that deer, since the camera card indicated it moved only at night.”

The shot dropped the buck, but it got back up as Paslie stepped out of the blind. It remained on its feet for at least 30 yards before disappearing.

Paslie went straight to where she’d lost sight of the whitetail. Moments later, she was the first to see the fallen animal’s pale belly.

“It’s a good thing she marked where she saw it last, because I never saw it get back up,” Kurt said. “Otherwise, we could’ve searched forever. Some of that grass was over our heads.”

“As soon as we found it, the jitters came,” Paslie said. “I really wasn’t nervous when I first saw the buck. All I knew was I had to get the gun out the window and get him shot.”

Paslie has taken four bucks now. Before this one, her best was a 178-incher she shot in 2019.

The full story of her hunt and the buck’s status will appear in the February/March issue of Rack magazine.

– Photo courtesy Kurt Werth

— Read Recent Blog! When You Realize the Neighbors Know Their Stuff: Steve Plattner’s deer scored 187 2/8 inches on the BTR scale.

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Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd