Focused Youngster Nabs Impressive KS Pickup
By Mark Melotik
How’s your shed hunting been so far this spring? Stumble across any noteworthy deadheads? One of the people who can relate is Wyatt Dochterman, age 9 of Fort Riley, Kansas. He now owns an impressive rack listed in the BTR record book after an official scoring session in late March.
At the tender age of 9 and already in the BTR records? Absolutely. You might guess the youngster hails from a deer-focused family, and you would be right. As proof, last fall the entire, four-member Dochterman family bagged beautiful Kansas bucks. During the state rifle season, Wyatt anchored a 134-inch 10-pointer, while his 6-year-old brother Boone dropped a 128-inch 8-pointer — and their mother Tricia added a 126-inch 8-pointer. Earlier, during early muzzleloader season, father Lane Dochterman kicked things off by bagging a unique 156-inch palmated buck.
Whew. That’s quite a fall, and things continued to trend the Dochterman’s way this spring. Lane, 39, is a sergeant major on active duty in the Army, and he and his family currently reside on the Fort Riley military base. That’s where, earlier this spring, sharp-eyed Lane Dochterman noticed a shed antler just off the road. Returning later to the same area, Lane quickly found four more sheds, including a 72-inch, five-point monster.
“The thing with those five sheds is none of them matched, and it was a very small area,” Lane Dochterman said. “So I was thinking we might have stumbled onto a very good area.”
Soon after, with Lane now called away on military duty, Tricia and Wyatt traveled back to the area to try their luck at matching up the sheds. That’s when Wyatt hit the jackpot.
“The first spot we didn’t have any luck finding sheds because my dad had probably found all of them,” Wyatt said. “But at the second spot, we walked into the timber a little bit, and then came to an opening. Then I saw a spine and some other bones and walked over to see it. Now I could see the nose of a skull, and then the antlers. I called out, ‘Found one! And it’s a big one!’”
After some careful examination, Lane Dochterman estimated the KS buck had died not last fall, but the fall before.
Wyatt Dochterman’s Riley County buck officially scores 180 6/8 in the BTR Irregular Pickup category with an 18-inside spread and 19 scorable points. The main beams measure 23 2/8 (right) and 25 4/8 (left).
Moving forward, the Buckmasters team will continue to keep its eye on the hard-hunting Dochterman family. One primary reason? This spring, among the 40-some shed antlers found by the family, was a fresh matched set off Lane Dochterman’s target buck that he hunted hard last fall. According to Lane, the heavy rack rough-scores 176 after adding an 18-inch spread. You gotta love Kansas.