"It helps that we have some of the richest soil in America," Rob pointed out. "That boosts the protein content of plants. From my trail camera pictures, I know Big Nasty was feeding in my Biologic plots almost every night. He really loved the Green Patch Plus plot that I had planted. Every picture I got of him was either feeding in that food plot or traveling back and forth from it. He ate plenty of high-protein food."

One look at his 290 6/8-gross-inch rack shows he also had some fair genetics on his side. All that was left in the equation was age. With a study of his teeth indicating that Big Nasty was either 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 years old in 2006, he'd had a chance to reach maturity. Collectively, all of these factors worked together to produce a giant buck that stood in a class by himself.

FIRST SIGHTING OF A GIANT
"I bought a Penn's Woods digital scouting camera in the spring of 2005," Rob recalled. "After putting it out and going back to check it, I started flipping through the images on the camera's screen, and I couldn't believe what I saw. I went home and put the pictures on my computer. The only words the kids could use to describe the huge buck in those photos were "big and nasty." That's where our name came from.

"I picked up a few more scouting cameras and used them to try to keep track of him," Rob continued. "We had blue tongue pretty bad that summer and I worried that he might get it. Later on, I started worrying that someone would find out about him and poach him. Of course, every time I heard a shot during the 2005 shotgun season I worried that someone had shot him. Big Nasty caused me a lot of worries!

"The cameras helped keep me sane. I didn't want to scare him from the property, so I only put out the cameras in four places. I'd set them out for three days at a time and then yank them for three weeks or more. That worked well to keep me from pressuring him too much, but it also let me know he was still alive."

TOO GOOD TO PASS UP
The 2005 bow season would be Rob's first crack at the buck, which was then easily a 240-plus-inch non-typical. Armed with a PSE Durango, Rob hit the woods with a plan.

"I have two farms that I hunt," Rob revealed. "One is where Big Nasty lived, and on that particular farm I wanted to be very careful not to drive him off. I hunt a lot -- about three afternoons a week and almost every weekend. To play it safe, I planned to bowhunt for Big Nasty only three or four times a month when all the conditions were perfect for him to move. I spent all the other days hunting the other farm.

"I really wanted to shoot Big Nasty, but I also realized that I might never see him while actually out hunting," Rob said. "So one day while I was hunting the other farm, a beautiful 176 1/8 inch 10-pointer with a drop tine came through, and he was simply too good to pass up. I had to put an arrow in him and I did, but it used up my bow tag in the process."

No sane hunter could blame Rob for "lowering" his standards and taking the "lesser" buck. Firearms seasons passed without incident, and eventually the entire season passed without a single sighting of the monster whitetail.

In addition to purchasing more cameras, Rob also got inspired by Big Nasty to buy a new muzzleloader.

"Almost as soon as I saw the first picture of him, I knew I had to buy a new gun," Rob explained. "I wanted to kill this deer very badly, and I knew that a good muzzleloader would shoot much farther than my shotgun. I didn't want to risk seeing him at 200 yards with my shotgun and not be able to do anything about it. With a truly big buck, a hunter is lucky if he gets only one crack, and I wanted to make mine count. So I went out and bought a .50 Thompson/Center Encore with a laminated stock and thumbhole grip. I wanted to make sure I'd be able to make the shot if and when I saw Big Nasty."

A MEMORABLE SIGHTING
Rob's worries continued right on into the early part of 2006. Had Big Nasty survived the season? Once again, Rob's scouting cameras answered that question in early summer. The photos showed that the big buck had shed his 2005 rack and was beginning to grow a new one. Later that summer, several more photos were captured as the buck fed in his favorite food plot at night. The buck's 2006 rack was considerably larger than his 2005 rack. The new photos made Rob even more determined to shoot this deer. During archery season, Rob and his son, Tyler, got their first sighting of the buck.

"It was perfect," Rob recalled. "We were walking out after an evening bowhunt. Big Nasty ran past us at 60 yards with his rack silhouetted against the sky. There was no mistaking him. It was dark outside and his rack was also dark, so we couldn't tell if he still had his velvet or not. But it was really great to be able to share that sighting with Tyler! That was the only time we saw Big Nasty during archery season.

"Tyler shot his first deer with a bow during archery season. Then I shot a buck that had been wounded during the first shotgun season. When the second shotgun season came, all I had left was my muzzleloader tag."

Since it's legal to use a muzzleloader tag during the second Illinois shotgun season, Rob hoped that he might still have a chance.

FATEFUL DAY IN DECEMBER
Rob and his dad, Tom, own a family auto parts store. To keep the doors open, they usually try to take turns hunting during the second shotgun season. Last year, Tom hunted opening morning on Thursday (the first day of the four-day second season) and came back to the store so that Rob could have the afternoon hunt. Neither hunter saw Big Nasty that day. Tom struck out on Friday morning as well. Rob headed out around noontime for the afternoon hunt. The date was Dec. 1, 2006.

"It was really cold, about 10 degrees, with the wind blowing at 25 mph," Rob related. "I knew my insulted Scent-Lok bibs and coat would help, but I knew I had to get out of the wind or I'd freeze out after a couple hours. So instead of going to my regular stand, I went to a different stand that would give me more protection from the wind."

In addition to offering some protection from the brutal wind, Rob's stand offered two other promising aspects. It covered an area where deer often came out to feed late in the afternoon, and it also covered an area between several ravines and a dense thicket in which the deer often passed through.

page: 1 | 2 | 3