Kyle Woodruff's September 2022 buck is Benton County's new #1 and the fourth largest whitetail taken with a crossbow (any category) in Arkansas, according to Buckmasters Trophy Records.
Kyle and his brother are self-proclaimed trophy hunters who target mature, 4 1/2-year-old deer and hunt properties, large and small, urban or rural, around the northwest portion of the state.
"We're real selective on what we harvest. Anything I shoot is going to cost me $500 to put him on the wall," Kyle told Buckmasters.
The Woodruffs also take land management seriously and have made major habitat improvements on their 1,800-acre tract in Washington County. But all the timber felling, controlled burns and summertime food plots were of no use on the overgrown 100-acre slab in Benton County.
"The year before, the landowner leased this place to a cattle farmer, and the cows overgrazed it. It looked like a desert, so I didn't pay much attention to this spot. I didn't hunt it hardly at all last year and wasn't planning on hunting it this year," Kyle said.
He added, "My brother called me two weeks before the state opener and asked me to put some Rice Bran out in front of one of his cameras. I figured the cows were still on the place, and when I got there, the grass was higher than my truck. I did a quick scout and noticed the cows were gone. I get up on this ridge and saw these oak trees were just pouring acorns. I thought to myself, Wow, I might consider hunting here."
Kyle was after a 12-pointer on another property, and when it showed up on his cell camera the night before opening day, he noticed its P2 had broken off completely and decided to let it walk. Instead, he tried his luck on the overgrown cow pasture.
"I knew what I had on my other cameras, so I thought, Let me try this ladder stand," Kyle said. "When the acorns are pouring out of these trees, I've always seen deer in the past."
During his first sit of 2022, at around 7:25 a.m., Kyle noticed movement down a ridge. Then he saw a buck moving though some tall grass. That was his first glimpse of the big deer, in person or on camera. He threw up his binoculars twice to make sure it was worthy of a shot, and when the 28-pointer got to within 18 yards, Kyle pulled the trigger.
The rack has 28 scorable points, including 17 irregulars that add 44 inches of bone to the final BTR score of 202 3/8. The rack was measured by Buckmasters scorers Rusty and Russten Johnson.
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