On top of being the state’s new #1 compound-felled buck in BTR’s perfect category, Joshua Trolinger’s public-land giant is the third-largest perfect harvested in Kansas by any weapon and the sixth-largest perfect worldwide by compound bow.
Joshua discovered this world-class whitetail in November 2022 and had it within 40 yards four different times in a 26-hour span, but couldn’t get a clear shot.
During his second sit at a management area in Unit 7, Joshua used a tending grunt sequence to lure his target buck to within 4 yards. He slung an arrow at a steep 52-degree angle and connected between both shoulder blades.
“Not an ideal shot, but it’s as perfect as you can shoot a deer at that angle,” he told Buckmasters. “Missed the spine by an eighth of an inch, took out both lungs and skimmed the heart. Having this buck at four yards, knowing the angle and missing the spine still blows me away.”
The Missouri native lived in Kansas for six years and purchased his lifetime hunting license while a resident of the Sunflower State. Joshua moved back to Franklin County, Missouri, in 2017 to take care of his father who was declining from dementia and got to share one final outdoor memory with his dad after harvesting the state record last year.
“This was my dad and I’s passion. When I killed this buck, my dad was in hospice care had been unresponsive for a couple weeks. I walked in with the rack and said ‘Daddy, I got something to show you.’ He looked up at me, smiled and touched the rack. The next week we lost him. This deer is a culmination of what we did as a past time and the last memory I have of him recognizing an accomplishment of mine.”
The Ottawa-County 13-pointer sports a 20 7/8 inch inside spread and tallied 200 2/8 inches by Buckmasters’ yardstick.
You can read the full story of Joshua’s 200” on public ground in an upcoming issue of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine.
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