Woodland Trails: Could be a new world record

• Bob Decker with possible world record whitetail buck

Could this Wisconsin buck taken recently near Mondovi by Eau Claire archer Bob Decker be the new world record whitetail buck? Hopefully this year the Decker buck will bring the world record back to Wisconsin! Photo submitted

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What do you think of when you think of Wisconsin?

America’s Dairyland? Cheese? Beer? Lakes and rivers full of fish? Great grouse hunting at Park Falls? Or maybe whitetail deer, especially this time of year because the rut is on!

But maybe the most interesting aspect of Wisconsin deer lore since the Jordan buck is the new potential world record buck taken Nov. 3 in Buffalo County.

In case you are not a deer historian, the Jordan buck was the world record whitetail buck for many years with a total inch score of its antlers of 206 1/8. The buck was taken in 1914 near Danbury by Jim Jordan and was the world record for many years.

Comparing the Jordan record to other sport legends it might be best compared to Babe Ruth’s home run record. No one ever thought anyone could hit more than 714 home runs. Then in 1993 Milo Hanson took a monster buck in Saskatchewan and it was the new world record that scored 213 5/8 inches.

So what else do you think of when you think of Wisconsin?

Some might say the Green Bay Packers! Green Bay is still Titletown as you look back on history and world championships. Some traditions just hang on and continue to demand respect, like Packer football.

And like the Packers, Wisconsin whitetails are legendary across the nation and around the world. Buffalo County has more bucks in the record books than any other county in the nation.

With that little bit of information, you might not be surprised to know that a monster buck was shot by an archer Nov. 3 that might challenge the Hanson buck for the world record and will almost certainly become the largest buck ever taken by an archer. The current archery world record was taken in Peoria County, Ill., in 1965 by Mel Johnson and scored 204 4/8.

Word got out nationally when a couple of young men were driving around Buffalo County with a camera looking for a ghost or a rumored big buck. As luck would have it, they caught the monster on film and the deer was viewed by whitetail hunters from all across the nation on the Field and Stream Web site. Many thought the big buck, now called the Field and Stream buck, might bring the record back to Badgerland!

I’ve hunted in Buffalo County. The hills and valleys and protected hunting woodlands make it an awesome place to hunt. But there is just something in the soil that keeps producing record deer. Just looking at the potential new record buck will bring goosebumps to any deer hunter! All in all, it was a beautiful animal.

An Eau Claire man took the big buck, and this is his story; Bob Decker and his bow hunting partner Paul Olson headed out to the woods of Buffalo County for what they thought would be a typical day of deer hunting.

The Field and Stream buck has become somewhat of an Internet legend. The monster buck was filmed in Buffalo County last August and became a sensation after being posted on Field and Stream’s Web site. And while headed out to their tree stands last Saturday, Decker and Olson couldn’t help but joke about the mythical monster buck.

“We talked on the way down, we kind of kidded, maybe one of us will get the Field and Stream buck.”

Little did they know that the buck many speculated to be a record breaker was closer than they thought. And Bob almost missed the opportunity that every big buck hunter dreams of. “I was actually going to go to a different stand, and ultimately decided on this one because I was really tired and it was a lot easier access to this particular stand.”

After an uneventful morning, Bob says he saw the monster roam within range. He took his shot, got his hunting partner Paul and started tracking the deer.

“Right away out of his mouth he said I shot a monster. But he said it’s not the Field and Stream buck, it’s not a world record, but it’s a big one.

But when they got up close:

“I walked up to it and I don’t know if I was even touching it, when I said, ‘You shot the Field and Stream buck’ (then he tried to tackle me.)”

And that’s when the media frenzy began and further speculation that this buck could become the new world record.

“It sounds like it’s going to come down whether some of these points are determined to be typical or not, but does it matter? (This is phenomenal.) It is what it is.”

It will be a few weeks before we know for sure if the deer is a new world record because the antlers need to dry for 60 days before they can be measured. It kind of reminds me of a Packer run at the Super Bowl last year. Hopefully this year the Decker buck will bring the world record back to Wisconsin!

Tags: outdoors, wisconsin, whitetail_deer, record, buck