On Nov. 2 two potential state record whitetails were killed by bowhunters. One was a an estimated 205 3/8-inch non-typical killed in Pennsylvania and the other was the buck you see here -- an estimated 188 2/8-inch typical buck killed in Wisconsin.
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Brian Inda shot his buck near Wild Rose, WI following an unexpected series of events.Inda was shed hunting with his family in March when they found the antlers to this massive deer. They were excited to find the rack, but didn’t have permission to hunt the property at that time.But Lady Luck smiled on Inda in August. His hunting buddy, Craig Carpenter, happened to pick up a job from a man named Gary Nelson. Nelson owned a Christmas tree farming company and he leased land out to hunters. One of the leasees backed out of a deal in August so Nelson offered up the property to Carpenter and Inda.When the two hunters found out the lease was located near where the Inda family had found the huge sheds in the spring, they jumped all over it.“We were like ‘Yep we’ll take it,’ ” Inda says. “We were jumping up and down like we’d already killed the deer.” Pictured: Craig Carpenter (left) and Brian Inda (right).But for all their excitement, Carpenter and Inda played their cards carefully, keeping the pressure light on the 120-acre track of land. They set up observation stands and trail cameras in the rain in order to minimize their scent and they only hunted the property when the wind was perfect.For five weeks they kept their patience and didn’t push the buck. They let other hunters drive the buck to them. “He probably got nudged here and bumped there,” Carpenter said.Then on the evening of Nov. 2 the stars aligned for Inda. After Inda hit his grunt tube, the goliath buck walked toward his stand to check a mock scrape. Inda shot the bruiser at 12 yards. The first thing he did was call Carpenter. “He called me on the phone and said ‘I shot the monster,’ he couldn’t even breathe he was hyperventilating,” Carpenter says. Even though Inda made a good shot, he waited to track down the buck. By the time he was ready to go after the deer, there were about 10 of his friends and family waiting on hand. After a short 60-yard tracking job, they found the deceased giant. “After that it was just chaos,” Inda said. “Excitement would be an understatement.”The current Wisconsin Pope and Young record is a full inch smaller than the Inda Buck’s green score. But even with a potential state record on the line, Inda and Carpenter say there’s more to deer hunting than record racks. “I couldn’t have ever done it without the help of my good friends and family,” Inda says. “That’s really what it’s all about … it’s not just about big antlers.”Archery Trophy
Joe Dellaquila Jr. shot a huge nontypical buck in Pennsylvania during the archery season.Dellaquila hunts on a small tract of land in northwestern Pennsylvania and this is a picture from his trail camera.He got out to his stand late on the evening of Nov. 2 after voting on his way home from work.With the rut underway, Dellaquila started banging the rattling horns together when he got into his stand.Dellaquila knew the big buck was patrolling the area but didn’t really expect to see him that evening.“I was trying to figure out his pattern and of course the pattern goes out the window once the rut starts,” he says.But soon after he started rattling, the goliath non-typical came walking in on a line.Hoping to make a shot on the buck when it was standing still, Dellaquila gave a doe bleat to freeze the deer as the buck was walking broadside at 20 yards.But the buck kept on marching.Soon the buck was out at 30 yards and quartering away. It was now or never for Dellaquila.Dellaquila let fly and made a solid shot. The buck ran off and then piled up after 60 yards.“You don’t expect it to happen as easy as it did,” Dellaquila says about his Nov. 2 hunt. “You almost feel guilty it was so easy.”While Dellaquila was only on stand for a short time on the evening he killed the trophy buck, he earned it through years of hunting hard and smart. He started with the stick and string 16 years ago and always passed on small bucks.He’s killed a few nice eight pointers over the years, but nothing close to the size of this monster.Dellaquila and his friends have estimated the green score to be 205 3/8 inches but have to wait 60 days to have the rack officially scored.The buck has a busted off brow tine that definitely hurt it’s overall score.But there’s a good chance it will still rank as one of the top non-typical bucks ever killed with a bow in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania non-typical archery record is 209 1/8 inches.
On Nov. 2, two huge bucks were were taken by bowhunters in the whitetail powerhouse states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Check out the bucks that are threatening state records.
Alex Robinson is Outdoor Life’s editor-in-chief. He oversees an ace team of writers, photographers, and editors who are scattered across the continent and cover everything from backcountry sheep hunting to trail running.
