Twice in 2012, friends of Bill Robinson stuck a magnificent buck with arrows. One hit it too far forward in the shoulder; the other didn't go deep enough. The first time, the buck was on the north side of the Republican River; it was on the other side a month later.
The following year, Bill happened to spot the deer with the palmated rack, still south of the river, while walking back to his truck. He'd just christened a new hunting spot.
Clay Center's police chief went back to that pruned cedar a few days later, on Nov. 20, even though he had less than an hour to hunt. When he reached his tree, he noticed that a deer had apparently found the niche and made its bed there.
"I had only about 30 or 40 minutes until dark, so I didn't waste any time," he said "I rattled briefly, waited awhile, and then repeated the clashing."
A few minutes later, he followed up the second rattling sequence with some tending grunts.
"When I turned my head to lay my grunt call beside my stool, I looked up to see the palmated buck standing on the terraced field about 20 yards away on the other side of a fence, staring right at me," he said.
Bill drew when the buck was in midair, convinced the animal would stop at some scent canisters and give him a broadside shot. But Moose, the name given to the deer by the first guy who shot it, never slowed. He was coming straight to the tree.
Although Bill knew better than to take a head-on bowshot, he figured a nearly point-blank one might do the trick. And it did.
The thoroughly skewered deer traveled less than 60 yards.
"I can't imagine why the buck was walking straight at me, unless it was the deer that had been bedding in my pruned cedar tree," Bill said. "Maybe it intended to bed down and watch for the other buck(s) it thought it heard."
Chief Robinson's 2013 whitetail is No. 6 among Semi-irregulars taken by compound bow in Kansas. Its BTR composite score is 207 2/8 inches.
The story, in his own words, will appear in Rack magazine later this year.