This deer season had a rainy start for Tiler Hunter. Hunter, who lives in Wisconsin, had been getting trail camera photos of a tremendous buck on private property east of Minneapolis, where he had permission to hunt.
“I knew the buck was there, but all my photos of him were at night,” Hunter tells Outdoor Life. “Then I got the first daylight photo of him just after an early morning rain.”
So Hunter paid extra attention to the forecast. The night of Sept. 18 was drizzly and overcast. The rain was supposed to stop around dawn, and then begin again around mid-morning. Hunter figured he would have a good chance during the break in the rain, so he took the next day off work.
It was still drizzling and warm out on Sept. 19, and Hunter arrived at the property before daylight. As he drove down a field lane toward where he’d planned to hunt, a deer crossed right in front of his truck.
“I didn’t know if it was a buck or doe, but I didn’t want to spook deer walking to my stand, so I parked and stayed in my truck until about daybreak,” says Hunter, a 31-year-old pipe fitter from Spring Valley. “At first light I started sneaking along a tree line toward my stand. About 30 yards from where I was going to enter the woods toward my stand, the biggest buck I’ve ever seen is suddenly looking right at me.”
Hunter froze for a long 20 seconds while the buck stared right back at him. Then the deer turned away from Hunter and continued walking.
“He stopped behind some trees and that allowed me to draw my bow,” says the native Wisconsin hunter, who took his first deer at the age of 12. “When he stepped out from the trees, he was broadside at 30 yards. I aimed and released my arrow.”
Hunter saw the Lumenok on his arrow flash toward the deer, but he wasn’t sure where his arrow struck the buck.
“I watched him run off with his tail down, and I thought it was a good shot,” Hunter recalls. “But when I walked to the place where he stood when I shot, there was no blood — absolutely nothing.”
Disheartened, Hunter decided to walk back to his truck and wait. Then he drove to his dad’s house, where he called his hunting buddy David Rhy. The two went back to the property four hours later, and walked directly to the last place Hunter had seen the buck. It was about 80 yards from the spot where his arrow had struck it.
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“We got to that place where I lost sight of the buck, and there was blood everywhere. The trail was incredible, and 20 yards farther and just over a slight rise in the hardwoods he was piled up under a tree,” Hunter says. “The arrow went right through the buck’s heart and I’m sure he crashed while running full speed.”
After field dressing the buck, the two hunters dragged the deer back to the truck. They estimated the deer’s dressed weight at 225 pounds. He says the 20-point buck has been green-scored at 213 ½ inches and has a 22.5-inch spread. The buck is already at the taxidermist to be made into a shoulder mount.
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“I don’t know where we’ll hang it yet,” Hunter says. “I have to work that out with my wife, but I hope it’s somewhere in the living room.”
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