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Entries for 'Gray Loon'
Punching One of the Dancers
By Mike Handley
After a decade of hunting public land in Ohio, Bryan Weaver expects to run into other deer hunters. He never imagined seeing a whitetail conga line, however. That’s what happened during the Maryland man’s deer-cation last November. The first day afield was a bust. Bryan saw lots of deer stands, but few deer. On Sunday, after a friend dr... READ MORE
Antique Store Buck Cracks Top-10 List of Typicals
By Mike Handley
If the telegraph were still in use today, the nation’s deer sleuths would be slinging a lot of clicks about an old mount recently rescued from a Pennsylvania antique store. Ever since man began measuring and keeping records of antlers, hunters and collectors have delighted in discovering vintage whitetails that have never been scored. Perhaps... READ MORE
Brewster Buck is Deer of the Year
By Mike Handley
Buckmasters’ Deer of the Year for 2019 is the new world record arrowed in Illinois last fall. The largest free-roaming whitetail ever felled by a hunter, it wears a tag bearing Luke Brewster’s name. The 30-year-old former marine from Bristow, Virginia, shot it Nov. 2 on his grandparents’ Edgar County farm. The Virginian drove the ... READ MORE
26-point Swan Song
By Mike Handley
Two years ago, Barb Putz Sanders put her shingle in the closet. After 50 years of plying her trade as a taxidermist, she walked away from the bench, abandoning her apron, knives, putty and paint, all the tools she used to turn dead animals into works of art. In the fall of 2018, the great grandmother dusted off those tools to mount one last deer. H... READ MORE
THREE-OH-OH!
By Mike Handley
Kansas yielded its second-ever, 300-inch whitetail during the 2018 season, the first actually felled by a hunter. (The other, a victim to EHD, was found dead in 2012.) Several hunters were reportedly drooling over the buck when it was alive, but none were more serious about taking it home than Arkansas brothers Mark and Rob Watson. Though they hunt... READ MORE
World’s Largest 10-pointer
By Mike Handley
The new world-record, 48-pointer taken last season by Luke Brewster generated more saliva than a blind squirrel at a dog park. But the Illinois giant wasn’t the only whitetail dropping the jaws of deer hunters in 2018. Another tongue-wagger wore only 10 points, and no deer was attached. The “Indiana Legend” sheds stole some of the... READ MORE
Good Things Come …
By Mike Handley
His name is Keith Szablewski, but he’s called Ski. Much to his chagrin, the Johnston City man spent Illinois’ 2018 firearms opener on the job. He didn’t manage to take his year-old 20 gauge afield until 2:30 p.m. on the second of the three-day season. Ski went with his buddy, Steve Malroy, to a private 20-acre tract in Williamson ... READ MORE
Wide Thing
By Mike Handley
Prior to 2018, only four bucks with 30-plus-inch inside spreads were listed in Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records. Now there’s a fifth, and it’s wider than all of them. Isaac Yoder, a 25-year-old Amish farrier living in Bethesda, Ohio, felled the latest. It took him two seasons, two gentlemen’s agreements and two arrows to seal ... READ MORE
Breakfast of Champions?
By Mike Handley
If Kellogg’s takes a page from Wheaties’ playbook, you’ll soon see Bree Wade’s smiling face on boxes of blueberry Pop-Tarts. That’s what the 17-year-old high school senior had for breakfast on the morning of Oct. 20, 2018, the day she took down one of Oklahoma’s most impressive public-land whitetails. As is often... READ MORE
Have I Got Your Attention?
By Mike Handley
When Bill Hoover’s father-in-law, Gerry, told him about a great big deer he’d seen in his yard near Cape Vincent, New York, he wasn’t quite sure how to describe it. “What does it mean when one of the antlers is hanging straight down?” he asked. DROP TINE, Bill thought. The next Saturday morning, Nov. 24, Bill woke earl... READ MORE
Proactive
By Mike Handley
Longtime Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda once quipped there are three kinds of people in this world: people who make it happen, people who watch what happens, and people who wonder what happened. As of last deer season, Jared Thill is all three. After years of playing cat-doesn’t-catch-mouse, the agricultural loan officer from Pleasantville, Io... READ MORE
Series of Fortunate Events
By Mike Handley
Alan Flanders would rather count points than what-ifs. Not that it matters now, but the events of Oct. 22, 2018, might’ve never happened if Alan’s buddy hadn’t botched a shot at a monstrous buck in 2017. He might still have an unpunched tag in his pocket if he hadn’t taken his little girl hunting, or if he hadn’t left ... READ MORE
Public Land Giant in Illinois
By Mike Handley
One of the finest whitetails Illinois taxidermist Matt Cheek will mount this year will be the one he almost didn’t shoot on Nov. 1. If the archery permits allotted for the 8,050-acre Pere Marquette State Park hadn’t been so few and coveted, Matt might’ve stayed home during the downpour. He almost did anyway. After sleeping in and ... READ MORE
Handlebars
By Mike Handley
Three times in 2017, windows of opportunity slammed shut before Randall Oliver could even attempt shooting at the drop-tined buck he desperately wanted. He had much better luck in 2018, however, and he didn’t have to give away his eyeteeth. The 52-year-old heavy equipment operator has prowled the same land in Miami County, Kansas, since 2000,... READ MORE
Forked Eyeguards, Plural
By Mike Handley
If you don’t believe a completely run-of-the-mill whitetail can become a centerfold buck in a mere two years, just ask Scott Meyer. The 38-year-old from Crystal City, Missouri, will soon screw a hanger into the back of all the proof he’ll ever need. Scott’s father bought a Clark County farm – in the state’s northeaster... READ MORE