After more than 20 years of collecting glass-eyed trophies for his wall, Tony Pruett of Vanntown, Tenn., would rather hunt with his son or grown daughter than go it alone. But he had no buddy when he took to the Lincoln County woods before dawn on Dec. 31, 2012.
He tried rousting then 12-year-old Tyler, but his son opted to sleep in that day. A warm bed was not an option for Tony.
Tennessee's rifle season was winding down, and even though he'd launched a Hail Mary at a tremendous buck a couple of days earlier, he hadn't harvested one that year.
With nothing else on tap for the holiday, the 47-year-old suited up and headed for the ground he's prowled for nearly three decades. Crop waterers - "irrigation men" - have no crops to water in late December.
Tony couldn't shake the image of the buck he'd seen in his scope on Dec. 29 because he'd seen trail camera photographs of it as well. It was one of two resident whitetails he considered worthy.
Tony's first encounter with the larger of the two came a couple of days before New Year's Eve. The deer was almost 800 yards distant, but he threw a .300 RUM Hail Mary at it anyway. Twice.
He thought he hit the deer the second time, but he could find no evidence to support the notion.
Their next encounter ended differently.
An hour after he began walking a ridge, sans son, he saw the big buck chasing a doe in the bottom. When they closed to within 200 yards, Tony decided not to chance their veering off course.
The first shot at the running deer flew wide, but the second one connected. While examining the impressive 16-point rack later, Tony discovered why the deer acted so strangely after their first encounter: The second bullet had clipped the antlers, enough to scar, but not shear off one of the points.
Clearly, that second shot rang its bell.
"I'm ashamed to say it, but that's what happened," he said. "I don't know how it kept from knocking that point clean off the rack."
The rest of the story will appear in Rack magazine this fall. A BTR composite score of 205 4/8 inches makes it one of the largest whitetails recorded that year from Tennessee.