Mike Handley posted on September 19, 2011 08:16
By Mike Handley
Rob Thies must’ve sounded like Troy Landry from “Swamp People,” only without the South Louisiana accent.
Instead of wrestling an angry alligator on a line, Rob and his 9-year-old son, Trey, were deer hunting in Indiana, and they were staring at huge buck just 17 yards away that was about to leave in a hurry.
Rob couldn’t understand why the boy, usually quick on the trigger, was just sitting there.
“Shoot it ... shoot it,” he urged.
It’s a good thing the deer wasn’t one to ask questions later. It stood frozen in place, cartoon eyes staring at the duo atop the ladder stand.
“Finally, I looked over and saw Trey squeezing the muzzleloader’s trigger like mad, and then I realized the hammer was not pulled back,” Rob said. “I told him to relax for a second, and then I reached over and cocked the gun.
“‘Shoot, shoot, shoot ... now,’ I told him, and then there was smoke,” he added.
It was Nov. 14, the second day of Indiana’s 2010 firearms season, and the Thies were hunting the 100-acre farm owned by the family of the boy’s best friend. Trey had already opened the season with a bang, drilling a fat doe on opening day while he and Rob shared a stand on his grandparents’ farm near Aurora.
Had they thought to reload after Trey shot the doe, he might’ve also tagged the buck that had been several minutes behind her.
They’re now very happy for the oversight, since the 15-pointer Trey smoked the following day is among the largest Typicals ever felled in Indiana by a muzzleloader -- No. 12, to be exact.
The Switzerland County buck is a mainframe 5x5. The five abnormal points aren’t long enough to push the rack into the BTR’s semi-irregular category. Its official score is 162 7/8 inches, but that doesn’t include the 20 3/8-inch inside spread (giving the antlers a composite score of 183 2/8).
The full story by Ed Waite will appear in RACK magazine.