It is said that you have to pay your dues if you want to take the big one. Hours in the
woods, but not just any woods. You have to scout and ask questions and talk to farmers
and landowners. Then finally one day you accidentally find yourself in the right place at
the right time and Mr. Big makes an appearance, just like that, you take a BIG one. So
easy, it’s a wonder it hasn’t happened before, right? Wrong!

And it’s not just about luck either, luck always plays a part, but even the best luck
doesn’t help if you are in the wrong tree at the wrong time. This time however the deer
gods were smiling for Jeremy Crew. He was in the right tree at the right time and then
made the right decision to release the arrow. Jeremy estimated he spent close to 600
hours in the deer woods in 2002. Scouting, asking questions and getting permission to
hunt some of the great buck producing deer country of western Illinois. It looked like the
same scenario was in store for him in 2003, at least it started out that way.

The wind was right and even though it was very overcast with a light rain falling, the set up looked good until he started up the tree. “Then I saw what I thought would be an even better tree a little closer to the river, so I took the stand off that tree and moved it about 30 feet to the other tree,” he said. “I got up about 20 feet and settled in for the afternoon. It was a lot darker down here in the bottom what with all the big trees so I thought the day was nearly over and I hadn’t seen but a few does passing through.”

Even though it was still early afternoon, not quite 4:00 PM the heavy skies made it seem later. Very shortly though, Jeremy was joined at his tree stand by 6 very nosy does that seemed to want to stay. Since they were unaware of the fact Jeremy was just 20 feet overhead, it might work in his favor were a buck to come calling right now. And guess what? Jeremy caught sight of a nice sized deer moving in his direction along the river from his left. He watched as the deer neared and soon decided that it was indeed a buck, a pretty nice 8 or 9 point with a tall rack. “I was using a compound bow so I got it off the hook and nocked an arrow so I was ready, just in case. I kept watching as it neared my stand, trying to decide if it was shooter or not. It was still early in the season, no sense talking a small buck this early,” Jeremy recounted.

By 4:30 the buck had moved to within 25 yards and Jeremy was still debating whether or not to shoot. “When he finally stepped clear of some brush, I decided that it was a pretty good shot, so when it moved broadside to me I drew, lined up the 25 yard pin on the right shoulder and released the arrow. The deer turned and jumped at the same time, I knew it was a good shot, right in the ribs just back of the shoulder. When he ran off the way he had come I got my first real look at the other side of his rack. It was much bigger than the left side, all goofy looking, but definitely bigger,” he stated. “He ran about 75 or 80 yards, just out of sight and then I heard the crash and then it was quiet. About then I remembered the does that had been underneath me, they were gone too”

“I waited till dark to get down and then went over to look at my buck. It was so dark I couldn’t hardly find it, and since I had forgotten my flashlight I couldn’t do much else so I went to town for a flashlight and to call my friend Paul Hunt to come help me get it out of the woods.” Jeremy relates the tale.

“Paul met me at the farm a while later and we made it back to where my deer was laying. With the flashlight, it was the first time I had a really good look at the antlers. The right side was a straight four point, but the other side was all messed up. It had what looked like three beams, one straight up, one straight out and the other one straight back and two of them had points growing from them. It was really weird looking. We counted 11 points on the left side,” Jeremy said.

It took the guys about two hours to get it tagged, field dressed and out to the road
where they loaded it into the truck for the drive back to town. The buck field dressed at 215 pounds and succumbed to a perfect double lung shot that also nicked the heart. Jeremy said, “Nobody ever said anything about seeing this deer before and since it was so unusual you’d think it would have been easy to spot.”

BTR scorer Mark Umholtz of Illinois put a tape to Mr. Big in September of 2004 and
came up with a BTR score of 182 0/8”, an inside spread of 20 5/8” puts the composite score at 202 5/8”. 116 3/8” of that was on the left side.