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WMA Monster
By Mike Handley
Breaking a sweat to escape well beaten paths puts this Oklahoman in the record books. Grunting at noises helped. One of the finest whitetails to fall in Oklahoma in 2016 came off land open to all. Ross Fenley, a 26-year-old mechanical engineer for International Paper Co., shot it while hunting with friends at the Three Rivers Wildlife Management Ar... READ MORE
Dos Desparos
By Mike Handley
State-record buck offers plenty of incentive to aim high, the second time. David Lecuyer doesn’t always take 280-yard shots at deer. But when he does, he shoots twice. The first two bullets – David’s and his buddy Bobby’s – probably whizzed underneath the lovestruck buck at the opposite end of the Kansas cornfield. The... READ MORE
Rifle Season Without Bullets
By Dale Weddle
Kentucky college student learns the worth of a climber, not to mention public land. One of the finest whitetails checked in during Kentucky’s 2014 rifle season came off a wildlife management area, but a bullet wasn’t responsible for the hole in its side. Cody Likins, a student at Eastern Kentucky University, shot the animal with his bow... READ MORE
A Deer with Two Names
By Ed Waite
Eighty yards from his ride home, this Indiana hunter stumbles into the ring of a whitetail circus. After tagging a 10-pointer in 2014, Jeff Berkemeier’s priority shifted from shooting a buck to collecting freezer meat. About 5:00 one cold and misty evening during Indiana’s blackpowder season, Jeff spotted a doe — venison — a... READ MORE
Daniel Gets His Groove Back
By Dale Weddle
This Kentucky hunter recombobulates in time to make his last bullet count. Most people who miss a buck four times would either keep their mouths shut or sing the blues. Daniel Lay is not most people. If he’d had the presence of mind to stand up and leave after firing all but one of his bullets in 2016, the hunter from Williamsburg, Kentucky,... READ MORE
The 10th Camera
By John E. Phillips
You’ll always find what you’re seeking in the last place you look. The day after the 2015 deer season ended, one of Jamie Barnette’s trail cameras photographed the biggest – if not, certainly the most unique – whitetail he’d seen in eight years of hunting Kansas. He and his buddies pegged it as a 3-year-old weari... READ MORE
A Series of Fortunate Events
By Mike Handley
Any number of factors could’ve altered this tale of whoa to one of woe. If Darren Ambrose had been hunting with a compound instead of a longbow in 2009, chances are he wouldn’t have had an opportunity for a do-over. He was so bedazzled by the whitetail sporting a drop tine and 21 other points that he shot over its back from a mere 10 ya... READ MORE
Nearly Point-Blank
By John E. Phillips
Ohio man learns not to dismiss his wife’s intuition. Although Charles Gerken was sitting beside his wife, Fabiola, on Oct. 9, 2016, he didn’t see the buck she shot at nearly point-blank range until afterward “I tried to wake my husband, but he was so sound asleep he wouldn’t wake up,” Fabiola said. “The buck was ... READ MORE
We Three Kings
By Richard P. Smith
Three of four Michigan crossbow records are toppled during the 2016 season. Editor’s Note: Wondering how Michigan could gain three new state records in one season without one cancelling out another? Under Buckmasters’ system, every weapon category has No. 1 spots for the four types of racks we recognize: typical, perfect, semi-irregular... READ MORE
CCTV
By Mike Handley
This Kansas bowhunter is a believer in trail cameras. He also knows a year can turn a good buck into a great one. Ethan Lorance knows the value of eyes in the sky, or at least on the ground. The 25-year-old pipefitter from Bonner Springs, Kansas, employed several trail cameras to learn as much as he could about the buck that made him a social media... READ MORE
Nobody Would Hunt Here
By John E. Phillips
The best stand is sometimes no stand at all, if you can handle long shots. Robbie O’Bryan says he hunts 365 days a year. The 53-year-old hunts 20 small properties, the farthest only 15 miles from his home in Marshall, Missouri. The proximity of these 16- to 200-acre parcels allows him to hunt both before and after work. “I’m eithe... READ MORE
Towering Tines
By Mike Handley
Former Alabama coal hole yields tall-racked whitetail worthy of a long-naked wall. Randy Hayes of Peterson, Alabama, never expected to take another whitetail to a taxidermist, not after a tornado gutted his home and carried 15 irreplaceable mounts to Oz in 2011. The 57-year-old, semi-retired welder now realizes he was too pessimistic. He’s no... READ MORE
First Impression: Too Small
By John E. Philllips
A wild-eyed buck with attitude trips this Iowan’s trigger. For the past 12 years, five friends have burned off-days the first week of November to take advantage of Iowa’s whitetail rut. The group includes Mark Brownfield, Vick Bycroft and three Steves: Johnson, Lastine and Morris. They have 40 stands in two counties – a total of 1... READ MORE
Doubling Down
By Dale Weddle
This carrier of big antlers did not walk softly. James Bishop and his son, Wyatt, knew several nice 8-pointers were roaming their Casey County, Kentucky, farm in 2016. They were not aware that a much bigger whitetail, one James might refer to as a “lottery buck,” walked those same ridges. Their enlightenment came on Nov. 12. James intro... READ MORE
Holy Grail
By Mike Handley
Missouri hunter’s makeshift ‘hillbilly castle’ puts him closer to whitetail Camelot. After 12 years of mainly collecting venison for the freezer, Jared Foster decided in 2016 to hold out for a buck worthy of the wall. It took the 34-year-old teacher and track coach eight weekends to do it. The father of two toddlers passed up a lo... READ MORE