Rack Magazine

Sharing parking lots with fishermen and blood with ticks were small prices to pay in the 1970s for access to big deer in western Kentucky.

Ask almost any bowhunter in Kentucky to name the country’s best deer hunter, and you’re going to get a slew of votes for David Howard. The proof, they say, is hanging inside the man’s home.

While David’s most recent accomplishments — arrowing both the runner-up and the new state record in consecutive seasons — made national headlines (he’s been in this magazine twice), his early achievements have gone largely unnoticed beyond his circle of loyal friends.

The deer hunter from London, Kentucky, has been a fan of compound bows and treestands since the early 1970s, when most hunters had never held or used them. And he rarely allows a difficult tree to keep him from getting above the deer he hunts.

He’s equal parts Fred Bear, Del Austin and squirrel. And if you’ve heard stories about his prowess, it’s likely that this humble man didn’t tell them.

Here’s the story of one of David’s earliest and most unusual whitetails, a public land buck with a rack so gnarly, it wasn’t scored for more than 40 years. The author, Ed Waite, put a tape to the rack in October 2015.

— Editor

When David Howard began hunting in 1973, he tried one of those newfangled compound bows. In short order, he was smitten with the ease of the draw and hold.

He was also smitten with giant whitetails.

Because Kentucky’s finest were supposedly roaming the then 10-year-old Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, that’s where David wanted to put his newly acquired skills to the test. LBL, as it’s known, is the long peninsula between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake in western Kentucky and Tennessee.

David and his childhood friend and hunting pal, Roger Williams, tried to hunt there every other weekend during the season.

“We generally hunted what was known as Area 7, which is along Jenny Ridge Road,” David said. “It seemed like every time we went in there, there were too many people in the campground, both hunters and fishermen. Eventually, we relocated to a less used campground in Red Holler, which is in Area 9.

“It was a nice place, and not as overrun with fishermen,” he continued. “For several years, we went back there each trip.

“When I shot this buck on a Friday afternoon in 1979, there were only six people staying in the campground. Roger and I went our separate ways into the woods to hunt that day.

“I found a fairly large field overgrown with weeds and greenbrier. The weeds were about 4 feet tall and so full of ticks that, had you walked through, you might have bled to death before you could get out,” he said.

“There was plenty of good deer sign, too, including scrapes and rubs all along the edges. I worked my way around, looking for a good tree to climb.

“Nothing I found would accommodate my old Baker treestand,” he said. “Everything had too many limbs, so I just climbed up through some low branches and braced myself against a tree.

“My old stand was nothin’ fancy. I hooked my feet in the ropes on the base, wrapped my arms around the tree, pulled the stand up with my legs, then gripped the tree with it. I then stood up and repeated the procedure until I got up where I wanted to be.

“If you didn’t get a good grip with the stand, you might very quickly slide all the way down, the bark of the tree literally ripping your clothes off,” David said.

“That first evening, I saw only three does. I was never able to get a shot at any of them. The potential was there, though, so I headed back the next morning,” he continued.

“I was up in my make-do tree well before daylight. Nothing moved through until about 8:00. I heard ’em first and got ready.

“There were two, a doe and a strange-looking buck, or at least I assumed it was a buck. The deer was still a long ways off, but I could tell there was growth — some kind of rack — on its head,” David said.

When the deer was closer, David realized its rack was deformed. The antlers had lots of points, but there was no order to them. Everything pointed upward.

“I watched intently as it neared my tree,” David said. “I come a hair of not shooting him because he was so freaky-looking. But then I decided I was going to shoot it if for no other reason than to get a good look at what he was wearing on top of his head.

“When the deer was at 15 yards, I took the shot,” he continued. “It was a good hit. The buck humped up, and then ran out of sight down a hollow.

“After allowing some time, I got down from the tree and took up the blood trail. I found the deer dead about 60 yards away.

“Counting points was interesting as they were everywhere. Just sticking straight upward for the most part, and there were at least 20 of them,” David said.

“I took care of the paperwork and the field-dressing, but getting that rascal up and out of that hollow was going to be more than I could manage. I hiked about three-quarters of a mile back to the camp where I solicited the Roger’s help.

“It took us several hours to get the buck out of the woods and back to the campground.

“We hung the carcass on the scales at the ranger station, and it weighed 152 pounds, field-dressed. I know we were pretty worn down after that drag,” he added.

The buck soon became the center of attention. David had never seen anything like it before, even in magazines. Nor had any of the several other people at the campground.

Word spread quickly, and park rangers soon came to have a look. They even asked if he would donate it to the park so they could display it, but David declined.

“We went on home then, and I took care of the meat, getting it ready for the freezer and all. Then I skinned out the head and hung the rack in the old barn. I didn’t really have the money to get it properly mounted, so it hung in the barn until 1997,” he said.

“A couple of weeks later, Roger was lucky enough to get a doe. The following year, I took a nice 8-pointer in the same area.

“We didn’t hunt that area much after that as the ticks were just so bad. We returned to hunt in Todd County from then on,” David said. “Nowadays, the ticks are really bad over here, too.

“By the way, I still have that bow. I shot it at a tournament in Middlesboro just a few weeks ago. Still shoots great!” he said.

Editor’s Note: Ed Waite is a master scorer and regional director for Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records. A longtime contributor to Rack magazine, he has also published two volumes of big deer tales, “Wallhangers” and “Wallhangers II,” which are available at book stores, online and through WallhangersUSA.com.

Hunter: David Howard
BTR Score: 189 1/8"
View BTR Scoresheet

This article was published in the February 2016 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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