There really isn’t anything to talk about other than deer hunting. To the die hard nine-day warriors, this is the Super Bowl of the outdoor hunting season. It’s the perfect time to tell you about a buck that has social media buzzing. Stories are blowing in and around from all directions like an unpredictable cyclone.    

I am changing every single name involved in this story because I don’t know who is telling the truth and who is telling a whopper. It’s a way to protect everyone, including myself. The only thing that I know for sure is that this is one monster buck. 

It seems like all big trail camera bucks are named, so now is a good time to label the popular yet secretive buck. After kicking this around, the most appropriate name I can come up with is LEGEND. Sometimes legends are true and sometimes truths get distorted. The name fits, either way.  

Are you hooked yet? Here is a chronological history of LEGEND as it came across my desk from different angles.   

Sometime around the middle of September, I was talking to a friend who I will call Bud Grant. Bud told me about a huge buck that was spotted several times north of El Paso, Wis. The buck had wide antlers with several drop tines and sticker points all over. It was the kind of buck that people whisper about like it’s a guarded family secret. That was the first time I had heard about LEGEND. 

About two weeks later, Kirk Cousins sent me a trail camera photo of the monster buck. It certainly lived up to the hype. To be fair, the photo certainly could have been altered but for the sake of the story, let’s assume that the buck is real and not the figment of someone’s photoshop abilities.   

Fast forward a couple of weeks and another photo of LEGEND appeared in my electronic mailbox. At this point I called Bart Starr (not his real name) who told me that he knew Aaron Rodgers whose name appeared at the top of the photo I received. Aaron’s story was that a lady who owned the land near El Paso had gotten the original photo of the buck on her trail camera. Bart said that Aaron said that the lady was a non-hunter and didn’t allow hunting on her land but that she was the source of the original Facebook photo posting.  

Now the story takes a peculiar twist. Allegedly LEGEND was shot at and wounded south of Grange Hall, Wis., which is over 11 miles south as the crow flies from the original sighting. This part of the story comes from Robin Yount who lives near the leased land where LEGEND was shot. Robin Yount relayed that he had talked to the actual hunter who said he thought the buck was a 16-pointer and that he had made a lethal shot. All attempts to recover LEGEND were unsuccessful.   

Yet another twist is that five hours after LEGEND was shot at, this trail camera photo was captured a mile away to the east. This is according to Dick Butkus, the owner of the trail camera, who passed along this photo to Robin Yount. You can see an arrow is sticking out of LEGEND.  

The last intel that I received came from Robin Yount who had talked to another guy whose name I do not know. He saw a double drop tine buck limping in a bean field only one-half mile away from where LEGEND was wounded. That report is of course interesting because the arrow appears to be high on the back and not a leg issue.    

From there the trail of LEGEND grows cold. I haven’t received any reports from El Paso or Grange Hall. At this point I can’t, without a shadow of a doubt, confirm or deny that LEGEND even exists but I hope that he does. If anyone wants to share their story and harvest photos of this great LEGEND, I’d be happy to listen.

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