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First Buck During an East Wind
By Patrick Dunning
63-year-old David Linn started deer hunting six years ago in management areas and reservoirs near Gas City, Indiana. He went six seasons without filling a doe or buck tag but kept at it after falling in love with the beauty and peace of being in the woods. He had an opportunity with his bow this year to harvest an 8-pointer, misjudged the distance ... READ MORE
Buckeye Beauty
By Patrick Dunning
Jake Whiteman isn't out to etch his name in a record book, and until Ohio's 2022 shotgun opener he was a self-proclaimed freezer filler. Does, button bucks, it didn't matter. If it was brown, it was down. Now, the Ohio native has 210 reasons to let the little guys grow and potentially create memories for other hunters, not to mention one heck of an... READ MORE
Peakaboo with a 200-inch Big Boy
By Patrick Dunning
Ohio native Thomas Clark struck gold on a small piece of land in Stark County, sending a bolt through a 200-inch giant with his grandfather's '94 Huntsman crossbow and a little luck. Two years ago, the Clarks moved into a house on seven acres consisting mostly of overgrown hay fields and surrounded by 180 acres of standing corn or soybeans, dependi... READ MORE
Hunting the Milesville Monster
By Patrick Dunning
Claiming North Carolina's Number 3 spot in BTR's irregular category for centerfire rifle, 24-year-old Preston Allred outdid himself with an impressive 17-point stud that totaled 192 4/8 for Buckmasters Trophy Records. Preston dedicated more time to his target buck this 2022 season than any deer ever before, averaging 4-5 sits weekly, and was beginn... READ MORE
Big Doe Down
By Patrick Dunning
Frustrated from the apparent exodus of bucks at the private chunk he usually hunts, 26-year-old Brandon Rhodes located some interesting ground in Bankhead National Forest just across the Winston County line, went in blind and capitalized on this mangled 28-point antlered doe. "I'd been hunting private land all season, just a small piece, and had so... READ MORE
Buck Tag, Filled
By Patrick Dunning
Ohio has a new runner-up in BTR's Typical category for centerfire rifle. Chad Dial cleaned up opening morning of his state's 2022 rifle season, and this Holmes County hammer missed our #1 spot by 1/2 inch, totaling 195 6/8 for Buckmasters Trophy Records. Chad first became aware of the buck when it was a 2 1/2-year-old 10-pointer. He nicknamed it Sh... READ MORE
Brow Tines and Good Times
By Patrick Dunning
18-year-old Jakob Lewellen was having trouble seeing deer at his usual spot, so he decided to test his luck on a friend's 30-acre parcel. The Clark County property features two rock quarries and is surrounded by a creek with a thick bedding area in the bottom, which is where Jakob harvested this Hoosier hammer in November. "I saw him for the first ... READ MORE
Never Lose Hope
By Patrick Dunning
Nowadays, deer hunters have an arsenal of tools and tricks at our disposal to increase our chances of seeing action. We utilize scent control systems, cellular trail cameras and the latest gear, yet we still come up empty-handed more often than not. It can be frustrating when you invest so much of your time and resources chasing the elusive whiteta... READ MORE
What's Up With the Southern Rut?
By Patrick Dunning
Why does the South's rut occur later than in the Midwest and Northeast, where breeding periods tend to spike in early to mid-November? Truth is, the rut doesn't happen in a neat little package like we would like it to. The rut happens wherever there's a hot doe. And that can vary from county to county, or from one block of timber to another. That ... READ MORE
Scoring Matters
By Patrick Dunning
Of the nearly 20,000 entries Buckmasters Trophy Records has recorded since its inception 29 years ago, only 13 mainframe 3x3s have met our minimum requirements (140 inches for firearms taken bucks and 105 inches for bow deer) to earn a spot in the record book. All of the 3x3s were taken with archery gear. BTR doesn’t have a category specifica... READ MORE
Xen Moment
By Patrick Dunning
29-year-old Xen McAllister's Fayette County Freak was less than an inch shy of cracking Buckmasters Trophy Records' top-10 in the irregular, compound bow category for the state of Illinois. Buckmasters master scorer Bill Alexander measured this 22-pointer at 222 3/8 inches of antler with a 20 7/8 inch inside spread, totaling a BTR score of 243 2/8 ... READ MORE
Buck on the Run
By Patrick Dunning
Dani Thomas killed her biggest buck to date in the rain from a hay wagon in October 2022. This Licking County Giant posted over 11 inches of irregular points and scored 194 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records. Dani now holds the world record in the female, crossbow, semi-irregular category after taking this 12-pointer, which is awesome since it w... READ MORE
Wall of Tines
By Patrick Dunning
There's nothing quite like getting access to a hunting property and finding out it has a big buck on it. Last August when John Totzke received permission to hunt a private chunk 40 miles south of Chicago in Will County, he had no idea he'd just awoken a sleeping giant. The landowner said his 70-acre property hadn't been hunted in years and was over... READ MORE
Change of Plans
By Patrick Dunning
Tuesday morning, Nov. 1, Terry Hollis got two photos of a giant buck at his feeder at 7:17 and 7:20 a.m. When a buck like that is on its feet in daylight, you have to act quickly, so Terry devised a plan to tuck his SxS between two hay bales on top of one of the fields. Another thing about big bucks is you have to be ready to adjust your plan. With... READ MORE
A Crown of Thorns
By Patrick Dunning
Jeff Humphrey arrowed this multiple forked-droptined beast from a 180 Realtree blind in September 2022. It's the 10th largest crossbow-felled whitetail ever taken in Kentucky, measuring 201 4/8 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records. Because Jeff isn't a big fan of social media, not many people have seen this giant buck, nicknamed Gnarly, but it and... READ MORE