An impromptu walkabout and a buddy’s what-do-you-have-to-lose advice set Wisconsin bowhunter Greg Widiker on a collision course with the buck of his dreams in 2017.
Greg watched his wish-list whitetail come of age over four seasons. When he first saw it in 2014, it was a 5x5 with above-average brow tines. It hit the 150-inch mark the following year, and then gained another 30 to 40 inches by 2016.
Irregular points, including three drop tines, accounted for much of the added growth, but the typical mainframe was outstanding as well.
And to think it would put on an additional 25 inches before the 2017 season began!
With bow in hand, Greg chose to do a little scouting around noon on opening day that year. The high school science teacher hadn’t had time to survey the area prior to the September opener.
He didn’t find troves of acorns, at least not from white oaks, but he did discover a lot of buck sign in a favorite funnel. There was even a scrape, way early for that area.
Greg was inclined to leave the place undisturbed for a couple of days before hunting it, but a friend advised him to go for it.
“He’ll know you’ve been there, so you might as well be there,” his friend reasoned.
The dream buck appeared shortly after Greg heeded his pal’s advice.
“I thought, Oh, my God. This is the moment,” Greg told Lisa Price, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine. “I started to lose my composure. I was thinking, I can’t do this. I’m going to blow it.
“I had to put my head down, close my eyes, and focus on breathing,” he added.
Make that HIS breathing.
“I could hear the air flow in and out of the deer’s nostrils, and I could hear it crunching acorns,” he said.
The buck was so into its meal that it never saw Greg draw his bow.
The buck’s antlers tallied 204 2/8 inches on the BTR scale.
— Read Recent Blog! No Time for Buck Fever: Hunter: Joe Blugerman | Final tally: 211 1/8 inches.