Ben Humphries might not have been on a rooftop, but he did plenty of shouting on Dec. 17, 2016.
The bowhunter from Ozark, Missouri, used every last lithium ion in his cell phone's battery to share the news of his good fortune that day, unaware a dead phone would prevent him from checking-in the dead whitetail.
Show Me State hunters must tag deer with confirmation numbers issued by phone, Internet or mobile app. Ben had the app, but it was useless.
He had to borrow a friend's phone to call the game warden for Taney County, who took note of the kill and advised him to plug his phone into a charger and check-in the deer when the device had some juice. No other action was necessary as long as he did it by 10 p.m.
Once that brush fire was doused, Ben relaxed and got excited all over again.
That was the 34-year-old railroad engineer's third season to hunt a 500-acre lease barely 20 minutes from his front door, which he shares with a few friends.
The fateful day was Dec. 17, after a cold front dumped sleet and a quarter-inch of snow. The falling mercury put a spring in his step as he headed for his deer stand about 1 p.m.
A stout 16-mph wind was blowing out of the north-northwest.
Two hours later, this buck entered the food plot Ben was watching. It fed at 85 yards for about 15 minutes before melting back into the trees.
"I was nervous as all get out," Ben admitted. "I'm actually glad he wasn't any closer, because I would've been useless. It took me several minutes to regain my composure, to get calm enough to shoot."
When the buck returned to the plot an hour and a half later, Ben "made the worst shot" of his life, but a second boom did the trick.
Ben and his buddies had nicknamed the whitetail Shrek because of its bulk. They'd been collecting summertime photos of the deer for three years.
Its BTR composite score is 224 1/8 inches.
— Read Recent Blog!No Joke: Chris Cypert / Arkansas / BTR composite score: 204 3/8 inches