Muzzleloader kill 11/23/08 (taken Peoria county Illinois)
By: Mike Wozniak

Every two to three years we get a dominant resident buck here on our farm that will gross 160+ inches. I have been fortunate enough to harvest four such bucks in the last 10 years, but a Boone Crockett buck had eluded me in my 37 years of hunting, I have seen very few of these rare animals in the field, but since I have been a measurer for the Illinois BBRP program for more than 10 years I feel fairly comfortable field judging bucks when I can get a good look at them through my binoculars.

 

We have a high doe to buck ratio in the area, so when a dominant buck takes up residence he doesn't have to travel far for all of his needs. In 2007, a buck adopted our farm as his territory.

 

From my scouting stand (and also my evening gun stand), I can observe 50+ acres. During scouting, I began seeing a buck with a clean 155+- inch 10-point typical frame and a slight hitch in his step. He would enter the field after all the antlerless deer and lesser bucks had begun to feed.

 

After seeing him half a dozen times, always in the same area, I made a critical decision. I decided not to pursue him with my bow and hope he would make it through gun season. I knew that if he made it through to 2008 he would be close to a B&C buck. I took the chance of letting him go another year because he stayed mainly in the center of the property. I never saw him get within 200 yards of our borders where other hunters may not have had the patience I had.

 

Throughout the two shotgun seasons and the muzzleloading season of 2007, I hunted the scouting stand six of the 10 evenings and saw the buck come into the field to feed four of those days. The other days I pursued an equally impressive non-typical buck that spent only part of his time on our farm, I would have taken him given the chance. Fortunately, I spotted the 10-pointer on the Sunday evening of the muzzleloader season, the last day for gun harvest of bucks that season. Usually bow hunting pressure in the area falls off tremendously after the gun seasons are over, so I felt the 10-pointer would make it to the 2008 season.

 

Late summer of 2008, I occasionally saw what I thought was the buck from the previous season out in the bean field. I began to sit in the evening in my scouting stand and, sure enough, it was the 10-pointer from the year before. I was certain when I observed the slight hitch in his step as he fed through the field.

 

Thinking this might be the only B&C buck I would ever get a chance at, I decided to wait for gun season. I didn't want to pressure him by getting too close to his core area during bow season. I also took up the practice of having my wife drive me to my stand and pick me up after legal hours. I didn't want a scent trail in or out by my walking or driving the ATV. This worked fine until the time I forgot my cell phone and sat for about 1-1/2 hours in the dark until my wife realized I had forgotten my phone.

 

I hunted the first morning of the first gun season far north of the 10-pointer's territory, looking forward to the evening hunt.

 

That evening in the scouting/gun-hunting stand and the next evening -- no buck! Did some other hunter get lucky, or was he shy from the orange army's assault on the woods?

On a clear Sunday afternoon, I waited as several antlerless deer and some small bucks entered the bean stubble to feed. Finally, at 4:10 p.m., the big 10-pointer started feeding through the field. I watched as he slowly entered my shooting lane at 180 yards, and with his head down I pulled the trigger on my 50-caliber Thompson Magnum inline. The 240-grain bullet entered through the lower shoulder and dropped him where he stood.

 

I called my wife to pick me up. After tagging the deer, we went back and got a tractor with a bucket and brought the trophy to the house.

One of the first things I had to do was measure the rack. The buck had grown four pretty good sticker points. I worried that those subtractions would take him below the B&C minimum. Even with almost 10 inches of deductions, I still got a net green score of around 175, so I was relieved. The buck's G2's and G3's were all more than a foot long. It was, is and always will be a beautiful rack.

 

Dave Emken from Yates City, IL, did a beautiful job with the mount and had it ready in time for the 2009 Deer & Turkey Classic in Bloomington. Ron Wilmore officially measured it and came up with a net score of 172-4/8. It is a Boone & Crockett-class whitetail buck.

By: Randy Delawder

 

When I turned 18, I purchased a 45-pound Ben Pearson recurve bow. (No on in my family deer hunted, my parents told me 'no deer hunting' until I was 18.) During deer season that year I killed my first deer, a doe. Falling in love with the sport, the next deer season I took my first buck, a 14-pointer with a gun.

 

Over the years, I have taken many deer with bow and gun. However none compare to my trophy buck of 2008.

 

I watched this spectacular 24-point buck three years. I never spoke a word about this huge buck to anyone outside my family. He was a member of a bachelor group, always accompanied by a spike and a very nice 10-point. Throughout the spring and summer seasons they would appear often to feed. As the season changed and early September arrived, the big buck would simply vanish. The Ghost was not to be seen again. This always left me wondering if it had survived the hunting season, poachers and the Blue Tongue disease that hit the deer herd. This disease killed a lot of deer in 2007. I am sure if another hunter had taken this enormous buck it would have made news in the deer world.

 

As winter 2007 ended and the spring of 2008 approached, I often thought about and watched for “The Ghost” and its companions. Would there be an opportunity for me to hunt this big guy in the fall?

 

Mid March came, the grass greened, vines grew and acorns set on the oak trees. Spring was near. As spring arrives the same time each year, so did the magnificent buck. The Ghost had survived and once again he was in the company of the spike; however, the 10-point did not return.

 

Again throughout spring and summer I had many opportunities to watch this guy feed. My thoughts always turned to the approaching hunting season. Would there be an opportunity for me to hunt that buck or will it again vanish before me.

Jason, my son, who was aware of this giant buck, was hunting off the ground Saturday evening October 4, with a compound bow. He spotted the beast but was unable to get a shot. I would have loved it if he had gotten the buck.

 

My 2008 deer hunting season began early on the warm evening of October 6. I dressed in my old camo, grabbed the 125-pound draw weight crossbow and climbing tree stand. Before heading out to the woods I sprayed myself and my equipment with Scent-a-way. The evening temperature was around 80 degrees and the wind was blowing fairly strong.

 

Off into the woods I went. After selecting a tree and attaching my climbing stand, I began to climb, fighting a pesky yellow jacket all the way. Once I reached desired height and fastened in the seat, I heard a noise. As I turned, I could see it standing there -- the Ghost -- 12 to 15 yards away. He was painting heavily, for he had been running through the woods.

 

The monster buck began to look around and noticed a white rope slapping in the wind. This rope was attached to my crossbow that was still on the ground. There was noting I could do. My only thought was 'see ya later'.

 

The deer walked to my right, then turned and walked through some spice bushes. I knew this was my only chance. I reached for the nylon string and pulled the bow up the tree as fast as I could. All the time I was wondering where the buck's little buddy, the spike, was. My bow was cocked and as I loaded an arrow, a deer blew. It was the spike coming up the point. He had seen me. I turned and there approximately 22 yards away stood “the Ghost” broadside.

 

My crossbow was raised, sight pin placed and trigger pulled. The arrow hit its mark and the broadhead appeared to have done its job. I checked my watch -- 5:05 p.m. I had been in the woods less than 20 minutes ... perfect timing.

 

The spike blew again and off into the woods, down a hollow, the two bucks ran. I stood on my stand and watched The Ghost run for 50 yards and then out of sight, then climbed down to check the hit site. There was blood but no arrow. Walking on to where I had last seen the buck, there was little blood. Past experience made me decide not to continue following it at that time. I returned home and waited a couple of hours.

 

Around 7:30 p.m., with my nerves on edge, I returned. With my hunting light I spotted more blood. It looked as if the wound had opened up not far from where I had stopped looking earlier in the day. Continuing to follow the blood trail, a short distance away my light made contact. What a relief!

 

I knelt down, gave the buck a pat on the back and thanked the man upstairs for letting me take this marvelous creature. I began to count points…1, 2, 3….20, 22, 24. He was a 24-pointer with one whopper of a drop tine. I sat back and took the time to enjoy this unique experience and animal.

 

Now it was time to get the buck field dressed and checked in. It was a job getting it out of the woods and into the pickup by myself, but I managed.

 

The check-in-station attendant could not believe the headgear on this deer. Cell phone cameras began to flash. People just could not get over the size of the antlers. Over the next day and a half people continued to photograph him and offer congratulations. A truck driver even flagged me down on the highway to get a picture after seeing antlers protruding above the tailgate of my truck.

 

After the 60-day drying period, the rack was scored by Gary Trent. “The Ghost” had a composite score of 238 1/8” with a deduction of 10 6/8”, giving a final score of 227 3/8” non-typical for Boone and Crockett. He had made the record books for the number one 2008 crossbow kill in Ohio.

* * * * * * * * * *

I would like to thank several people for their work, interest and support over the past months:

• Mike and Brian Dickess for the photo shots; these pictures have been in newspapers and magazine articles and hit the internet like wildfire.
• Bruce Mercer for an excellent taxidermy job on my trophy buck.
• Gary Trent for exceptional job scoring my trophy buck.
• Buckeye Big Bucks for acknowledging deer hunting successes.
• And to the many newspapers and magazine articles written that also included pictures of my trophy deer, thank you. Without the articles, “The Ghost” would not have been so widely recognized.