Mike Handley posted on May 21, 2012 06:45
By Mike Handley
A deluge kept Greg Wood out of the woods on Nov. 8, 2011, but the rain turned into snow while the 51-year-old electrician slept.
The white stuff was a complete surprise, since it hadn't been in the forecast for Brown County, Kan., and it made for a magical morning in a treestand. Even better, as far as Greg was concerned, he was out there on what Stan Potts had once told him was THE best day to hunt deer in the Midwest.
The deer were indeed active. The first one, a doe, passed underneath his stand 20 minutes after daybreak. She was followed by a nice 120-inch 8-pointer. And the third deer he saw that morning was a real jaw-dropper. It was well beyond bow range and wouldn't respond to grunting, but it posed against a snowy backdrop for 20 or so minutes before vanishing like a wisp of smoke.
It reappeared and tantalized Greg for another hour and a half before disappearing again. The closest it came was 80 yards, and the veteran bowhunter from Alabama decided he'd probably never see the monster again.
At 10:55, however, Greg spotted an 8-point buck skirting the edge of the nearby cornfield. The big buck was behind it, and they were coming toward him.
Greg had to test his safety harness, but he got a shot. He and a buddy, Charlie, found the buck shortly after they began following the blood at 3:00.
The 22-pointer is a stout mainframe 4x5 with 27-plus-inch beams, 8-inch brows and three (nearly four) foot-long typical points. Its BTR composite score is 218 1/8 inches.
The full story will appear in Rack magazine next fall.