"I have practiced at 43 yards to know what it is like to shoot at that range," Steve said. "It is not ideal, but to have practiced at that distance gave me the confidence to make a good shot."

Steve had two openings in which to try to snake an arrow through, and he decided if the buck stopped in either lane, he would attempt a shot. As the buck approached the first opening, Steve drew his bow and steadied his pin. The buck never broke stride and passed through the opening before Steve was ready, so he adjusted and readied on the second opening the buck was about to pass through. When the buck's shoulder eased into the opening, Steve steadied his pin and whistled. The buck stopped and looked around to figure out where the noise had come from. The arrow flew true, a loud whack resounded through the woods, and the deer spun around and ran out of sight.

"Thankfully, everything happened so fast that I never really had a chance to see how much bone was actually on top of his head," Steve said. "I think otherwise I would have been shaking too much to get a shot off!"

Still not sure of what just happened, Steve stood nervously in his stand while shaking from the adrenaline rush. Wild scenarios passed through Steve's head -- "did I shoot over him and hit the tree behind him?" Then, he heard something familiar to many bowhunters: the sound of a deer trying to clear its lungs of blood.

Then things got complicated. While Steve was still shaking in his stand five minutes later, another dandy buck strolled down the exact same run as the previous two "shooters." As soon as this trophy got to the tree where Steve had shot, he stopped in his tracks, didn't move and stared up the timberline while not really being sure of his surroundings. As Steve looked in front of the deer, there was his arrow on the ground. He grabbed his binoculars and took a closer look, and it was just what every bowhunter loves to see: a bloodstained arrow! The new buck then paced back and forth, and finally after about 15 minutes, he vacated the area the same way he had come.

By now, Steve had a hunch as to what was going on, so he carefully climbed down from his tree stand and began to walk near to where the arrow was laying. About halfway to his arrow, Steve looked up the hill in the timber and he could not believe his eyes. There was a rack sticking 2 feet off the ground! Steve stood speechless while staring at the massive rack. Never had he imagined killing such a magnificent buck with so much rack on top of his head. The deer had only made it 10 yards before piling up.

The giant non-typical has 28 scoreable points and tons of character. The rack has 20-inch main beams, good mass, palmation, drop tines and forked tines. The typical portion is a main-framed 10-pointer that grosses 180 inches, and the non-typical portion adds another 50-plus inches. After the 60-day drying period, the official net score was 226 7/8 non-typical inches. That score would place the rack near Illinois' top 10 all-time in the non-typical archery category.

Once again, the fertile soils and phenomenal genetics that abound in Illinois have combined to crank out another Boone and Crockett buck. Get out there to dream the dream this coming season!