Aging babyboomers aren't particularly cozy with new technology, but that doesn't mean they'll always shun it.
After all, it's hard not to agree that 100 television channels is better than three, that possessing a cell phone is better than driving around and looking for a pay phone, or that today's refrigerators are far superior to yesteryear's iceboxes.
Junior Key, a 59-year-old grandfather in Moss, Tenn., did not go gently into the sporting goods store in 2013. He'd managed to hunt deer for five decades without buying a trail camera, and he'd somehow managed to shoot lots of whitetails.
Plus, he didn't need photographic evidence to tell him the farms he hunts in Tennessee and neighboring Monroe County, Ky., held deer.
But that was then.
After seeing a friend's (2012) photo of what looked like a 20-point buck on property next to one of his spots in Kentucky, Junior broke down and bought two cameras before the '13 season opened. A few days later, he retrieved the memory cards and had his daughter pull up the images on a computer screen.
The buck with points aplenty was the very first photo.
"From the moment I saw that picture, that deer was on my mind," he told Dale Weddle, who penned the story for Rack magazine. "I even saw it in my sleep."
On the second day of the rifle season, he saw it in the flesh. When it was broadside at 52 steps, Junior overcame his fear of moving and squeezed his .270's trigger.
The tracking job wasn't difficult. The enormous buck had traveled only 2 inches.
"I still don't know how I got (down from my ladder stand and) over there so quickly," he said. "Floated on air, I guess."
I can believe that.
The deer's BTR composite score is 223 6/8 inches.
Braggin’ Board
Send your 2014 big buck photos to mhandley@buckmasters.com. Please include hunter’s name, where the animal was hunted, and its score (if known). Remember: The BTR has no drying period.