As the buck began to move, the hunter came to full draw. Over a month of scouting, three weeks of hunting, and countless hours in the stand had now been reduced down to a final few seconds.

"Surprisingly, for some strange reason I really wasn't nervous, but that probably can be attributed to the fact that I was concentrating so hard on not doing anything wrong," Baxter said. "After waiting until the buck walked completely into the open lane, I grunted with my mouth to stop him. As he turned and looked toward me, I released the arrow."

At the shot, the buck jumped into the air and quickly ran out of sight. Although the hunter had heard the arrow hit, he did not see where it had struck the deer and that concerned him.

"Everything about the shot felt really good, but not being able to see the arrow made me wonder how well the deer was hit," Baxter said. "I suppose the tendency is always to think the worse and, in this case, because of the buck's size, I was becoming increasingly nervous by the minute."

After climbing down, Baxter went home, planning to wait two or three hours before searching for the buck. However, one hour was about all his nerves could take before he headed back to the hunt site.

Fortunately, the bowhunter soon discovered that his concerns were unfounded. After quickly finding his arrow, which was covered with blood, he located the big whitetail approximately 70 yards away at the edge of the bean field. For Baxter, who was both tired and excited, that moment made every second of his efforts worthwhile.

The buck happened to be in the process of shedding its velvet and several strands of the material still clung to the giant antlers. The rack, a basic 5x5 with two additional abnormal points, seemed to be as tall as it was wide.

Official antler measurements, taken later after the required drying period, include 25-inch main beams and an antler spread of 21 7/8 inches outside and 20 5/8 inches inside. The rack's great height is due to exceptional tine length, with G-1s exceeding 6 and 7 inches, paired back tines (G-2s) of 12 7/8 inches, followed by G-3s of 10 4/8 and 10 2/8 inches.

In regard to scoring, the 10-point typical frame grosses a grand total of 175 2/8. Following deductions for minor asymmetry differences, plus 7 2/8 inches of abnormal points, the final net Pope and Young (P&Y) score is 164 1/8. Using the 1999 edition of the Pope and Young Club's Big Game Records of North America, the buck ranks in the top 4 percent of all typical whitetails ever entered. Additionally, the deer is the second biggest typical bow kill ever recorded for Grayson County and is also one of the top archery bucks of the 2004-05 season.

THE ADAM ENGNES BUCK
While Baxter's buck has impressive antler spread, it was not the widest P&Y taken last season. That honor goes to bowhunter Adam Engnes of Brooksville, who arrowed an exceptionally wide-racked whitetail in Bracken County. The basic typical 10-pointer has an outside spread of 26 1/8 inches, and an inside spread of 23 4/8 inches.

Like Baxter, Engnes scouted the big deer for over a month before the season. The buck was part of a rather unusual group of deer that included two other P&Y-class bucks, a small buck and a single doe. Every evening, the group would move down an open hillside, then cross a road in order to reach an alfalfa field.