ESPN Hunting

ANIMAL: Whitetail Deer

WHEN: November 2, 2002.

WHERE: Near Rockford, Ill.

METHOD: Tree stand.

MEASURMENT, SCORE: 147 7/8 inches. P&Y minimum is 125 for a typical, 155 for a non-typical.

OUTFITTER: Self-guided.

SPECIAL CHALLENGES, DANGERS: Martin has taken a number of whitetails over his three decades of bowhunting. In fact, four made it into the P&Y record book.

Martin's biggest bruiser buck came when a friend invited him to hunt a 300-acre swath in Illinois, home of some of the continent's best whitetail hunting.

The friend put Martin in a tree stand and said he had to leave for a wedding. Martin sat all morning, saw a few deer and decided to move to another tree stand the friend told him about. Late in the afternoon, things started to happen.

Martin turned over a can call a few times, and a big-bodied 8-pointer showed itself. Another 8-pointer followed. Both were 120- to 130-class deer. Then he heard a few grunts, and a true monster buck strutted into the scene.

"It dwarfed the other deer," said Martin. "Made them look little!"

The big deer suddenly charged one of the others, and literally knocked it over.

"This is it," Martin said to himself as he pinned the big one and pulled the release trigger. The shot was right behind the shoulder, and a little high. The deer fell to the spine-severing broadhead. Martin quickly dispatched the deer with a second arrow to the vitals.
He called his friend, and it took the two of them until 11 p.m. to gut and drag the deer. It was huge! They couldn't lift it into the pickup truck. They had to winch it in.

The dressed deer weighed in at 268 pounds. It had a 23-inch inside spread and 11 points.