The summertime buck that DeWayne Spann shot with his recurve bow was a handsome 12-pointer in velvet that made a splash in the Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records.
But equally important to DeWayne was the fact that he shot it with a bespoke bow carved out of Bolivian rosewood with a cocobolo core and stained maple pierce points made by a master bowyer.
DeWayne found the beautiful weapon, of a type called a Robertson Stykbow Falcon, at an archery shoot in February 2025. On the way to arrowing a trophy buck, DeWayne used it to shoot a Tennessee gobbler, and after he bagged his whitetail, a javelina in Durango, Mexico. He warns, “The thing is, everything in the Mexican landscape is sharp and pokes you. I would much rather be hunting whitetails.”
DeWayne is one of a tight community of recurve shooters who also build their bows. He goes out, cuts a tree down and carves a bow out of one piece of wood. “I build long bows for Garner Creek. We traditional hunters like the challenge of recurve in contrast to compound. The (ethical hunting) range of a recurve is about 20 yards, compared to a compound bow’s 40. The average speed of a recurve is 140-200 feet per second; a compound bow averages 230-300 fps ( weight of arrows and draw strength being equal).
On the plus side, he says, “It’s all stick and string, really enjoyable instinctive shooting with no sights.”
DeWayne arrowed velvet whitetail on a friend’s 75 wooded acres that are bracketed by swaths of clover and alfalfa .
“Bucks travel back and forth through the woods,” says DeWayne. “I saw how they move into the clover, from west to east. I found a spot where three trails come together. Deer had to cross a big blowdown hickory, leaving a place that was worn bare from hoofs across the log. I hung a lock-on tree stand 15 yards from that crossing spot.”
He had been watching a buck since June that his daughter named George. The name was an inside joke. She’d said, I just want to hold him and pet him and name him George.”
DeWayne knew the buck was at least a 12-pointer with extra long brow tines.
It was opening day of velvet season and the 52-year-old maintenance manager of a metal stamping plant was locked and loaded.
“Ashlyn wanted to go hunting with me, but she could not take time off from her job as a surgical technician,” he says. “I told my daughter, if I don’t have success there on Friday, I’ll let you hunt the spot on Saturday.”
On Aug. 22, he watched the weather and got up before dawn to get in his stand, 16 feet up, while the woods were still. “I heard deer coming and saw one go over the log and into the east side green field. As it lightened up, a couple of fork horns crossed the log, and then came the big guy I was after. He always traveled with a 6-point.”
The smaller buck crossed the log, and DeWayne just knew the next one was going to be George. But no, the next one was a 7-point, rubbing its antlers, snorting and making scrapes.
“It ran other bucks all over that field,” says DeWayne. “I heard another one coming, but it was just a 6-point. Finally, along George came, straight toward the log. I had my arrow nocked, sitting where I could shoot straight down. I’d have a good shot at his offside shoulder.”
DeWayne says he was “very nervous, hoping to hold it together. George walked to the log but then alongside it, continuing for 20 yards. Then he circled the blowdown and walked back on other side of the log, toward me. He never crossed the log. The circling went on for some minutes.”
Finally, the buck gave DeWayne a 12-yard, thank-the-Lord broadside shot.
While its attention was on the other deer in the field, DeWayne drew, came to anchor, and delivered a 29 3/4-inch aluminum arrow. George spun and ran back the way he’d come. In seconds, the buck was out of sight. DeWayne sat for an hour before inspecting the arrow. It showed dark liverish blood. There was a good trail leaving the shot site.
DeWayne shot at 7 a.m., and he didn’t start tracking until 11.
His good friend Dave Jarvis, a fellow traditional bow hunter, went tracking with him. In just 120 yards, they found the buck piled up “like he had died running in the leaves. He was my 50th traditional bow kill, and the biggest.”
Shout out to Buckmasters scorer Hunter Schmittou who told DeWayne it was the recurve record for an irregular buck in velvet in the Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records.
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