A WISCONSIN KEEPER
After tagging the buck and admiring the huge rack, the group went back to finish the drive in the area where Kyle had kicked up the doe. Joe ended up shooting the doe about 100 yards away from where the monster buck already lay dead.

Needless to say, word of the big buck spread fast. People began flocking over to see it. The 18-point non-typical buck carried a rack that was simply stunning. The mass and number of points were part of the reason why, but the most obvious and notable feature was the buck’s unbelievable inside spread -- 29 4/8 inches!

If you’re familiar with B&C’s scoring system, you’re probably wondering if the rack’s entire width counted toward the buck’s final score. Yes, it did! (A B&C scoring rule states that the credit given for the inside spread may equal but not exceed the length of the longest main beam.) With John’s buck, the right main beam measured a whopping 30 2/8 inches, so the rack got credit for the entire 29 4/8-inch inside spread. Unfortunately, the tip of the buck’s right main beam had nearly 4 inches broken off, so it only measured 25 inches. Nonetheless, with the broken main beam the big Trempealeau County monster carried a net non-typical score of 206 4/8 inches.

MORE TO THE STORY!
Several weeks after shooting the buck, John received a visit from a local hunter who had seen pictures of his big buck on the Internet. The visitor had both of the buck’s sheds from the year before. Amazingly, they were found 3 1/2 miles, as the crow flies, from where John shot the deer!

But that’s not the only unusual twist. In April 2007, another local deer hunter, Brian Zastrow, went out for a walk in hopes of finding a shed antler or two. He was walking along a grassy fencerow when he stepped on something that didn’t feel quite right. He looked down, and under his foot was an antler. It was a small one, with 3 points. After taking a moment to admire it, Brian turned around and started to walk back the way he had just come.

Twenty feet later he stopped for a moment, looked down and couldn’t believe what he saw lying in the grass just a few feet away. He knew immediately it was a piece of antler. Actually, it was the tip of a main beam. It had nice mass and was about 4 inches long. Brian wondered how the piece of antler had gotten there. Except for a few small saplings, there were no big trees around that a buck might have run into, causing the beam tip to break off. How did it get there? Who knows, but fighting with another buck seems to be the most plausible explanation.

That afternoon, Brian was at home when his 14-year-old son, Dylan, came home from school. Brian was excited to show Dylan what he had found. After looking at the piece of broken antler, Dylan put two and two together and told his dad something that Brian probably never would have thought of.

“Dad, the buck that John Filla shot had a broken main beam,” Dylan said. “Do you think . . . ?”

Brian knew that his friend Ben Vazquez had taken some pictures of the Filla buck, so he called Ben and they got together to compare the photos with the piece of antler. Based on the photos, it looked like the piece of broken antler indeed matched the broken right main beam of John’s record-book bruiser!

BONE-TO-BONE MATCH
Several days later, Brian and his son drove over to John’s house and knocked on the door. John answered, and Brian introduced himself and told John why he was there. The hunters then took the piece of broken antler over to the mounted head and held it up to the end of the left main beam. It was a perfect match!

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