Rack Magazine

Hello, Stranger!

Hello, Stranger!

By Rusty Johnson & Mike Handley

Okie sends son off to shoot the ‘big one,’ and comes home with a giant of his own.

For all he knew, when Brooks Malone put on his orange cap and struck out with his rifle on Nov. 17, 2012, he might’ve been walking into a place as barren as the local high school’s football field. He’d given his visiting son, Tucker, dibs on the farm that had yielded trail camera photos of the best buck he’d seen all year.

When father and son headed out before dawn that morning, Tucker had high hopes of seeing the 10-pointer that had mugged for his dad’s camera. Brooks, on the other hand, was mainly going through the motions.

The elder Malone’s hopes of seeing a deer worthy of a bullet were about as realistic as watching a TV deer hunter refrain from whispering to the camera.

Hello, Stranger!Another reason Brooks didn’t have very high hopes was that seismograph crews had been stringing wire all over Pottawatomie County for a couple of months, including the property he was going to hunt. The crew hadn’t stuck to open places either; they’d even ventured into and put out wire where deer normally bed.

Oh well, he thought. I’m hunting, no matter what!

And he did indeed, for at least an hour.

Maybe.

Just minutes before the top curve of the sun cleared the horizon, Brooks stopped hunting. He was done.

As much as he’d like to brag about the skills he acquired in 37 years of hunting deer, as much as he’d like to say he and the 26-pointer he shot had a history, about all he can say is he made the shot count.

He had no clue such a deer existed, although he’d seen one with a similar rack about eight years earlier. It was big-bodied, too, and following a doe, well beyond bow range. And that was it.

Besides drilling the deer’s lungs with his .270, the only other credit Brooks affords himself is his choice of where to sit. He’d chosen a vantage point overlooking a bottleneck between cover and agricultural fields.

Hello, Stranger!When he saw the buck, it was at 175 yards and moving slowly, parallel to his treestand. It would stop, scent-check, and then resume.

Brooks noticed the buck’s rack had good mass, tall tines and a “flyer” off the left main beam. But he didn’t take time to count points before aiming carefully and squeezing the trigger.

The buck did a mule-kick afterward and ran straight away into the heavy cover. He says it sounded like a train derailment.

When Brooks walked up to the buck, his knees buckled. After saying a prayer, he grabbed the antlers and counted points, an act he claims to think about constantly.

Tucker didn’t shoot the 10-pointer that day, by the way, but he did tag it two weeks later.

Hunter: Brooks Malone
BTR Score: 221
Centerfire Rifle
Irregular

– Photos Courtesy Brooks Malone

This article was published in the August 2014 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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