One day recently Wayne Schumacher drove out to a hunt camp in Fond du Lac Co., WI where my film crew and I were waiting to see the state record archery non-typical buck he’d killed one day in September 2009. Wayne flipped up the tail gate on his van; the mount with the 30-point rack was one of the most impressive whitetails I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of big deer. Here’s how Wayne arrowed the giant:
The first week of Wisconsin’s bow season, which opens in mid-September, is Wayne’s favorite time to hunt. But that fall, his son was moving to Iowa, and Wayne drove down to help him out. “You do that for your kids,” he said. Wayne stayed down there with his son for a while. With his favorite hunting window closing fast, he drove back and rushed out to a spot one afternoon to hunt the last couple of hours with his brother.
They were hunting a new property with a couple of pre-hung stands. Wayne let his brother choose his stand first, and he went to the one that was left. Twenty-five minutes before dark, a twig cracked beneath his stand. Wayne looked down and saw one side of a giant rack 8 yards away!
“He was so quiet, I had no idea he was there until he was right under me,” Wayne said.
The buck circled in front at 8 yards and Wayne saw what a monster it was. He stepped behind a little bush, and Wayne reached for his bow and drew. With the buck now quartering away at 15 yards, he put his peep sight and pin back on the big deer’s rib cage and drew a deep breath. In a practice session earlier that day, he’d shot 5 perfect arrows and flinched on the sixth. “I focused and told myself, ‘You do not want to flinch on this deer. As I was thinking that, suddenly the arrow was gone,” he said.
The arrow was perfect, and Wayne watched the buck run off. “Amazing how big he looked going way, rocking his rack from side to side,” he said. “He looked like a moose running off through the grass.”
The buck stopped 70 yards away. His head dropped, his knees buckled and he tumbled over. “I felt lightheaded, like I was going to faint,” Wayne said. “I grabbed 2 branches to keep from falling.”
Wayne went and got his brother, and together they retrieved the giant. The amazing 30-pointer had bladed tines, incredible mass and net-scored 243 6/8”, the #1 non-typical bow kill in the #1 big-buck state of Wisconsin. It ranks an impressive #148 in the B&C record book for all-time NT whitetail entries. Having seen Wayne’s monster buck in person, I believe this is one state record that will stand for some time. What a big deer!
What a great story, nice to see that good things happen to nice guys! It’s probably a good thing the buck “sneaked” up on him…can you imagine watching that buck coming into your stand for any length of time! My knees would fail. What a gorgeous whitetail, thanks for sharing.