Mike Handley posted on April 18, 2011 06:55
By Mike Handley
You’d better have lots of time if you ask 18-year-old Ryan Cox how he came to harvest the second-largest Missouri whitetail taken in 2010. The story of his 24-minute hunt might be short and sweet, but if he begins thanking everyone who played a supporting role, the list could rival an Oscar winner’s.
It’s not for me to decide who gets top billing here, but the choices are God, with whom Ryan bargained; his cousin, Brandon Craig, who told him where he ought to hunt; his father, Kelvin, who helped him set out trail cameras; brother Kris, who sent him the photo of the 21-pointer caught in front of one of those cameras; his best friend, Quentin, who helped him hang seven or eight treestands; his new Remington; and three uncles, one of whom shot a lesser buck just prior to the big one’s passing his stand earlier that fateful day.
The full story of Ryan’s November hunt will appear in the August issue of Rack magazine. But I’ll say this much now: The college student, who now lives too far away from the family farm to visit it outside of weekends, sure made the most of his limited time.
The gorgeous Harrison County 21-pointer is a mainframe 5x6 with Coke-can bases, a nearly 21-inch inside spread and almost 45 inches of irregular growth. An official score of 212 makes it the 13th largest ever felled in the Show Me State. Its composite score is a whopping 232 7/8.
