Teen bowhunter bucks odds with trophy buck

November 21, 2004

BY DALE BOWMAN STAFF REPORTER

It was something to whistle about. On his first day of bowhunting, Brian Oyster bagged a buck of a lifetime.

Illinois has become the place for dream whitetail bucks.

Oyster, a 14-year-old freshman at Plainfield South, barely had reached his stand about 3 p.m. Nov. 12 near Downstate Pittsfield.

Well, let him tell it.

"I can't really remember,'' he said. "All I can really remember is seeing that buck last year during shotgun season. It was, like, the end of the day. I spot these two deer across the field. I was pretty sure the buck I got was the same one [from last year]. It had an extremely wide rack. I haven't seen any deer with antlers like that.''

We might see a whitetail deer such as Oyster's buck with a rack 2 feet wide and 13 points. Many of those bucks, so big they become mythical, are spread across northern and central Illinois.

An Iroquois County farmer calls the mammoth buck on his place "Big Jake.'' There's a huge buck on a Galesburg farm that a farmer's relative described as looking like a ghost elk rising out of a ditch.

It's the stuff of dreams, which some 190,000 to 200,000 hunters are chasing during the first firearm deer season that ends today. The second firearm season is Dec. 2-5. Previous permits are required.

Many of us never will get a chance at a trophy buck, let alone actually bag one.

Well less than 1 percent of the more than 150,000 deer taken by hunters in Illinois during firearm and bow seasons in 2004-05 will be bucks with record-book racks. More than half the deer harvested in Illinois will be does, the generally antlerless females.

A doe is what Oyster's father, John, thought his son had bagged.

"My dad had barely put in my stand,'' Oyster said. "He was going over to his stand. He hears me shoot the deer, and he thought I killed the doe. I started whistling to him. He thought, 'I am not coming down for some doe.'''

This wasn't a doe. It was a buck they would green-score at 182 4/8 inches with a net of about 164 4/8. Deer racks are scored by measuring in inches, then adding such things as tine length and rack spread for the gross. The net is done by subtracting imperfections.

Pope and Young Club keeps bowhunting records. Boone and Crockett Club keeps overall big-game hunting records. Racks big enough to qualify for Pope and Young and/or Boone and Crockett are the stuff of dreams.

Most of us aren't as well-positioned in our hunting lands or as lucky as Oyster. His uncle became close friends with a Downstate farmer, who allowed the family access. The majority of us hunters live with an unfulfilled dream gnawing at us for our hunting lives.

Unfulfilled dreams are profoundly powerful, especially when it comes to deer and hunters.

For chasing the dream of a trophy buck, no place is more seductive than Illinois. That explains the insanity of 15,000 non-resident archery deer permits selling out within hours in July. For world-class reasons.

According to an analysis by Joel Helmer, Illinois ranks fourth all-time on Boone and Crockett record books. But in the period from 1980 to 2001, Illinois edges Iowa 509-507 for the top spot.

Kevin Hisey, the executive secretary for Pope and Young, said Illinois is No. 1 for non-typical bucks with 345. In typical whitetails, Illinois is second with 3,749 to Wisconsin's 5,090. Those records are through Jan. 1, 2003.

Oyster's buck, which should qualify for Pope and Young, was downed with a double-lung shot.

"I was so excited,'' Oyster said.

How do you follow that up?