When I called my wife, she wanted to know, “What’s wrong?”

“I replied that I had just killed a huge 14 pointer. It had to be as I counted at least seven points on the side I could see.”

She responded, “Are you sure?

I said, “Well, that’s what I think, I was too nervous to go close enough to turn the head over to look at the other side, but I’m sure it had at least 14 points. I’m waiting for the other guys to get here to go back in the woods with me to help get it out and I wanted to give it time to die!”

  “It was opening day of the 2006 Indiana gun season and I was hunting with my cousin
Randy Buttery, his sons Andy and Jason and my brother-in-law Pedy. We have a 120
acre lease in southern Indiana adjacent to a large state tract. Lots of deer travel back and forth across the property during the gun season when the pressure gets too much over there,” Johnny began his story. “I was in a 17 foot ladder stand that I had used several weekends during bow season. It was a great spot, about sixty yards into a wooded area from the edge of a corn field. I could see the corn stubble from my stand as I watched the gully that ran down from the field to my left with a small stream at the bottom.”

Johnny Thacker had spent the previous night at Randy’s home as it was much closer to
the lease and made for a bit more time to sleep. The whole crew was ready well before
daybreak and off in their trucks to the farm they would hunt. “I parked my truck at the
edge of a corn field along the gravel road and walked the several hundred yards to my
stand. The temperature was about 45 degrees, so not to bad for walking. I attached a
drag rag to my leg and saturated it with Wildlife Research’s ‘Golden Estrous Scent’. It
followed me into the stand and left a good scent trail behind me.”

Johnny was in the stand and comfortable by 6:15 and ready to wait daylight and
shooting hours which should come about 7:20. The sky was clear, so the sun would be
on time this day. Thinking back to many weekends already spent in this stand, Johnny
recalled all the bucks and does he had seen but was never able to get a shot off for
whatever reason. He hoped his luck would be better this day.

I watched as the buck followed the does’ trail, raising its head and occasionally curling its
tongue in the wind.” His story was folding out quickly now.

Johnny continued, “I was watching very intently as it came ever closer, well within a
hundred yards now, but for some reason I can’t understand to this day, I never even raised my Remington 1100. I just held it down by my waist as I watched, fascinated as this very nice buck continued towards me. I had lost track of the doe, but I think she dropped down over the hill behind me. This whole scene timed out for maybe 20 to 25 minutes and the 8 pointer continued to come on. Suddenly it hung up, it’s ears perked and he turned to look to his right, straight out in front of me. I strained my neck to see what it saw or heard. For several minutes I saw nothing, then ‘Oh my God,’ I said, almost aloud. There in front of me at about 200 yards was the biggest buck I had ever seen. The rack was awesome. I started to get nervous right away and had to take my eyes off the antlers or I would surely become a vegetable in a tree stand.”

This buck was too far off to take a shot, but for some reason unknown to Johnny, it
started moving in his direction. Could be it wanted to get a better look at the 8 pointer or
maybe it wanted to check out the missing doe, either way, things were going in Johnny’s
favor. “I chanced a look at the 8 point which was now only 20 yards away from my
stand, It was looking at the other buck very intently, then it dropped it’s head and crossed over the hill behind me. Now it was just me and this monster coming my way. I really couldn’t figure why it kept coming, but it did. I had my shotgun on my shoulder now and had even picked the spot where I would take the shot. All I had to do was wait for the buck to enter the lane and pull the trigger, if I could.”

but I was not sure it was dead. I didn’t want to get too close in case it got up to run. After a while, I reloaded my gun and walked about 30 yards closer. I counted seven points on the side of the rack that was visible, so I knew it was big, really big, really really big! I still was not sure it was dead, so I backed off and walked to my truck to wait a little longer.”

“That’s when I made the phone call to the wife.” said Johnny. “About that time Andy
and Jason came down the gravel road to where I was parked. They told me that they had
heard a deep grunt from the deer right after my shot, funny, I didn’t hear any grunt. I told them that it was a monster buck and they were in disbelief, but couldn’t wait any longer to see what I was all excited about”

The guys took Johnny’s truck and drove over the corn stubble to the edge of the woods
so they wouldn’t have to drag the deer so far. Then they walked in. The boys saw the
deer at the same time and they were both awe struck at the size. Andy was an avid bow
hunter with several trophies to his credit and he was awed by the size of the rack from 20
yards away. “Man that could be a new state record,” he exclaimed. “I’ve never seen
anything that big in Indiana.

“We lifted the head and counted and recounted, there were 22 points on the rascal, even though one was pretty short. Then the ‘High Fives’ started and the excitement grew. Andy was on the radio calling his dad to tell him what was going on and to meet us at the top of the hill as soon as he could.” He exclaimed. (Randy was busy right then as he had taken a very nice doe and was getting it back to his truck just then.)

“It was a good thing the boys were there to help me, cause I was still pretty shaken up, I might have carved myself up during the field dressing. The boys got that done in pretty
good time and the three of us were able to drag it out to the truck and get it loaded in very short order. We just got back to the road when Randy came up the hill to where we were sitting. He pulled up behind me and just sat there. The tailgate was down and he could see the whole rack. I could see him through the window, he was just sitting there staring at my prize, his jaw was hanging down for sure,” Johnny related!

Then it was off to the check station where a crowd soon gathered to “awe” and “Wow”
and “Gee” at this wonder from the hills of Franklin County, Indiana.

It wasn’t very long before taxidermist Steve Harrison, whom Johnny knew, heard of
the kill and called to make sure the deer was caped quickly and brought over to him for
proper care as the day had become quite warm and he didn’t want the cape to get ruined.
Again, Andy came to the forefront and he performed that chore very quickly and the hide
was turned over to the taxidermist for tanning. “Oh, and during the skinning, we
discovered that the Breneke slug I used had hit the shoulder and ricocheted right into the
spine, killing the buck instantly,” Said Johnny.

The buck was measured by a B&C scorer some time back and received a respectable
score, but Johnny, a Buckmasters fan, wanted it taped to the Buckmasters’ guidelines and perhaps get his story written. He contacted me several months ago to do the scoring, but he wanted to wait until the mount was ready at the taxidermists, Harrison Hunting &
Taxidermy. I finally had a chance to put a tape to it on July 5th. There were 21
scoreable points, seven more than he thought on that sunny day back in November. There were 11 on the right and 10 left, on a typical 5X5 frame. The Official BTR score is 205 3/8 inches and with 32 6/8 inches of irregular points it goes into the irregular category at 15.9%. Adding the 19 6/8 inch inside spread brings the composite score to 225 1/8
inches. Very impressive Mr. Thacker! Very!