It took half a decade for Husky Hummel to leave Ohio with something more than a nonresident hunting license in his pocket.
The 48-year-old car dealer from McClure, Pennsylvania, is accustomed to eating tag soup. He prefers it to the notion of shooting a deer for the sake of shooting a deer.
His first two seasons in Ohio were spent learning and hunting public ground. He now leases 48 acres.
Husky passed up a promising 11-pointer six times during his maiden (2014) season on the lease because he thought it was only 2 1/2 years old. He nicknamed it Goalpost because of his tall and symmetrical brow tines.
"He strolled past my stand at 10 yards," Husky said. "As a 2 1/2-year-old, he had maybe 145 inches, but he weighed only 115 to 120 pounds. From that moment, I knew he was special and that if he could survive, which I doubted, his rack could explode."
Husky retrieved his initial trail camera photograph of Goalpost in July 2015.
"Explode is exactly what happened," he said. "As the season neared and his velvet dropped, I guessed him in the mid-170s as a 3 1/2-year-old. That gave him another season pass."
Husky saw the distinctive buck twice from a treestand, in November and during the January muzzleloader season, and he allowed the buck to keep on trucking. Subsequently, he wound up with his fourth helping of Ohio tag soup.
He might not have taken a deer in '15, but he found a great place for a stand, at least when the wind was blowing out of the northwest. It sat 25 feet high on a poplar tree overlooking a bench between two ridges.
Reaching it required a 200-yard hike.
Husky retrieved his first 2016 trail cam photo of the buck on Nov. 4, and he set aside Nov. 10 to 17 to hunt it.
He saw a lot of deer movement the first three days, and he passed up a nice mid-150s 10-pointer on the fourth.
"Then on Monday, Nov. 14, at 8:42 a.m., I heard a twig snap to my left. I turned and saw Goalpost in all his glory just 40 yards from me," he said.
The shot was an easy 32-yarder.
Goalpost's BTR composite score is 203 6/8 inches.
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And the Winner is: Dustin Norris / BTR Composite Score: 202