The rolling hardwood hill country of west-central Wisconsin’s Monroe County is choice whitetail habitat that grows some monster bucks. Late in the afternoon of September 17 Tim Potter, 59, of Sparta, Wisconsin was going to get a crack at one of those big bucks.
Potter was in an elevated wooden stand on family land in Monroe County. He’d built the stand from treated lumber in a cluster of three hardwood trees overlooking a clover and wheat field.
“I’ve hunted that spot a lot over the years and taken plenty of deer there,” Potter tells Outdoor Life. “But the first time I got in the stand this year a farm neighbor came out to chase away some horses and cows, and that spooked deer, so I left.”
The second evening Potter hunted the spot it had been raining, and once again a neighbor disturbed his hunt by driving an ATV around to move livestock.
“That spooked deer again I’d been watching, so I got out of my stand and started walking out just after 7 p.m.,” says the crossbow hunter. “I jumped a doe near a fence while walking. She ran but didn’t really spook.
“I went a little farther and saw a big buck near a food plot. I got down on all fours, and crawled closer because the wind was right in my face. The big buck was looking at me, but there was another buck there and he was more concerned about that second buck than me.”
The wind was perfect for a slow stalk, and the ground cover was wet from rain. This allowed Potter to slip undetected toward the deer.
“I sneaked to 35 yards, raised my TenPoint crossbow, aimed and shot,” he says. “I heard a loud whomp, knew it was a good hit and he wouldn’t go far.”
The buck ran through a strip of woods, then a bean field, crashed and fell into some young pines. The buck traveled just 80 yards before falling dead.
“When he smashed into the trees he broke off about four inches of antler,” Potter says. “It was an easy blood trail to follow. I use old 100-grain, three-blade Rocket mechanical broadheads, and they are killers.”
Potter called a couple friends who helped with his deer and used a farm tractor to haul the heavy whitetail out of the woods.
Potter had three years of history with the buck. He’d captured plenty of trail camera photos showing its movements during that time. Potter has dozens of archery whitetails to his credit. He took many with a compound bow before he was forced to use a crossbow due to shoulder complications from years as a baseball pitcher, plus a work injury.
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“I took the deer to Brock’s Butcher Block for processing and they weighed the dressed buck at 200 pounds,” Potter explained. “We estimated it was 230 pounds live weight.”
The 19-point, 21.5-inch inside spread, nontypical rack scored 214 5/8 inches by Buckmasters.
“We call that deer my ‘Lucky Buck’ because just about everything was against me that day,” Potter said lightheartedly. “It was only the second time I’d hunted because it had been raining, and I’m sure glad I got out of my stand that warm and muggy evening.”
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