With every whitetail buck harvested, there is a story to be told. Each hunter's history is different, and each hunter's story is unique. More often than not, that story is filled with passion and emotion. Tara Seiler of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, is one of many passionate hunters with such a story, and her story involves a one-of-a-kind 21-point buck.

Tara proudly poses with her massive and gnarly 21-point drop-tine buck. Her husband Brian captured the exciting hunt on video. The awesome bow buck grossed 184 inches and netted 176 inches and some change.

Tara grew up in a family of hunters. She entered the woods for the first time with her parents when she was 3 years old and obtained her hunter's safety license at age 12. But it was another 15 years before she bought her first deer tag.

It wasn't until Tara met her husband, Brian, that she began to see a new side to deer hunting. Brian had a passion for hunting and management that she had never seen before.

He encouraged Tara to pick up where she had left off years earlier by getting back out in the woods. He even surprised her on her birthday with a new bow in 2005.

Not only was she excited to receive such a special gift, but she was just as excited about the prospects of spending more time with Brian in the woods, just as she had done with loved ones while growing up. Having harvested numerous bucks since, Tara has found a new passion for whitetail hunting with her husband. That passion also includes a shared interest in deer management, and a strong desire to encourage others to discover the joy of hunting.

A WISCONSIN GIANT
The tale of Tara's 21-point Wisconsin trophy goes back to mid-July 2008 when one of her neighbors spotted a bachelor group feeding in a wheat field and noticed that one buck in particular really stood out. A few weeks later, the giant buck appeared in a hayfield on the Seiler dairy farm. Around mid-August, the buck disappeared. Then, one week before the Wisconsin bow opener on Sept. 13, he once again was spotted feeding in the same hayfield.

Now the debate was on as to who would get to hunt the big buck first. It all came down to a coin toss between Tara and her sister-in-law Shelly. Several years earlier, the two girls had formed a hunting group known as "Droptine Divas" (composed of female family and friends), and now each girl wanted nothing more than to sit in the nearest stand that first day and get a chance at this amazing buck. Not only was this Wisconsin monster a true trophy, but the deer also had a long drop tine that gave its enormous rack added character.

GOING FOR BROKE
Tara won the coin toss, but on the first day of hunting, she saw no sign of the buck.

Shelly in turn received stand rights the next day, but she, too, ended the day with no sighting. However, Shelly's father, Herb, glassed the 21-pointer that day feeding in a food plot some distance away.

Acting quickly, Brian set up a tree stand on the morning of Sept. 16 near where Herb had seen the buck. With the excitement and support from their family and the other Diva girls, Brian and Tara dropped off their kids, Brady and Jackie, at Tara's Aunt Eileen's with plans of hunting that afternoon.

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