The buck was behind, downwind of and looking at Robert Cardin.
If Robert had been in a stand back home in Alabama on that day in 2013, things would not have ended well for the deer hunter. But the man was hunting in Illinois, where mature whitetails are more apt to say oops before getting out of Dodge.
The face-off occurred on the last afternoon of Robert's hunt with an outfitter in Lima, Ill. He'd seen a lot of bucks in the preceding days. He'd even allowed a 150-incher to walk out of his sights because it was a young deer.
After staying up late playing cards on Saturday night, Robert slept in on his last morning. Around 10:30, he went to a stand in a drainage area between CRP fields. The wind had slowed to about 15 mph, and the afternoon temperature climbed to a scorching 21 degrees.
He neither saw nor heard anything until almost 3:00, when his ears registered a distant grunt. He heard a deer snort an hour later, and then again a few minutes after that.
"I'm from Alabama, where only does blow at you when they pick up your scent," he told John Phillips, who penned his story for Rack magazine. That's when Robert remembered the doe tag in his pocket.
With venison on his mind, Robert turned around to look for the nasally doe. What he saw, however, was one of the biggest bucks he'd ever seen - beefy, with antlers to match - a mere 50 yards away and getting closer.
"The buck was looking right at me," he said.
Robert tried lifting his .50-caliber T/C Omega when the deer looked away, but the movement didn't go unnoticed. Rather than bolt, however, the buck just snorted again.
The second time the giant whitetail looked back the way it had come, Robert's cheek hit the stock and his finger caressed the trigger.
"As the buck ran away from me, the red spot on its shoulder was growing," he said. It went to ground 80 yards later.
The buck's BTR composite score is 180 7/8 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.