"Joey, calm down!" Sharon Price commanded with a thunderous whisper. "You're too loud! We're in WalMart." Joe, Sharon's husband, had just opened an envelope containing trail camera photos.

Joe’s main-frame 6x7 trophy white­tail had everything the hunter could ask for: width, mass and plenty of long tines! The record buck also had a distinct limp caused by a serious leg injury, possibly from being hit by a car.

Stunned by a picture of a giant non-typical caught on film, he involuntarily blurted an expletive that earned Sharon's immediate disapproval. The image of the huge whitetail and how to harvest it soon encompassed Joe's every thought.

For almost 10 years, Joe and Sharon had owned and operated an auto service center near their residence in Chestertown, Maryland. Joe, his teenage sons Michael and Nicholas, then 14 and 13, and his father John had taken numerous whitetail bucks around home, but tagging a true giant had always eluded them. Joe had also hunted Saskatchewan, Montana and Texas. By 2004, his best buck was a 155-inch Canadian 8-pointer.

GO WEST, YOUNG MAN
Intrigued by the frequent articles in North American Whitetail about 200-inch-plus bucks from western Illinois, Joe and his family headed to the Prairie State in March 2004 to try to purchase a farm. Several Maryland friends had bought 164 acres near Siloam Springs State Park, said to be the pinnacle point of Illinois' famed "Trophy Triangle" region. This 3,323-acre state park is located in Adams and Brown counties near the border of Pike County. Almost 1,000 acres of the park are protected from hunting. The remaining 2,300-plus acres are managed with a 4-point rule.

Joe and Sharon found a 134-acre tract only one mile from Siloam Springs Park. The farm was made up of 55 acres of crop ground and 79 acres of oak woods. The price was right, so they made an offer to purchase. The family returned in June to take possession. Joe immediately started planning several legume- and cereal-grain-type food plots. During the 2004 season, son Michael scored on the only buck taken on the farm, a fine P&Y-class 10-pointer with three non-typical points.

In 2005, Joe arrowed a 140-inch main-frame 8-pointer. He knew bigger deer were passing through the property, but the farm needed additional water and food plots to hold mature bucks through gun season. Joe built two ponds in early 2006 and he decided to plant a diversity of deer food. He also purchased an adjoining house and three acres. This eliminated motel bills and offered the family a place to store maintenance and food-plot equipment.

YEAR OF THE DROUGHT
In 2006 a local tenant planted most of Joe's tillable ground in soybeans. Joe made a trip to the farm in April and planted 4 acres of Round-Up Ready corn in two strategic areas.

The corn was bordered with a wide strip of Imperial Whitetail clover. Joe returned to Illinois in June and again in July to check his Stealth trail cameras and food plot progress.

His outburst at Wal-Mart over the photo of the giant non-typical occurred during that July visit.

Drought had taken a toll in western Illinois by Joe's August trip to Lincoln Land. It was evident that the corn plots were doomed. However, the clover on the shaded timbered edges looked surprisingly good. So Joe chopped and tilled the corn under and planted Tecomate Max-Attract 50/50, a six-seed fall blend.

By the Illinois bow season opener on Oct. 1, the area had gotten some badly needed rain and the Tecomate acres resembled a plush green carpet. Furthermore, Joe's dozen trail cameras had taken additional photos of the giant non-typical and numerous shots of several 140- to 160-class bucks. When Joe and Michael climbed aboard their tree stands on the afternoon of the season opener, the temperature hovered at just over 90 degrees.

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