Travis Loew
Score: 1852/8 B&C official
Rusk County, Wis.
November 19, 2005

As told to Bill Heavey:
My grandpa-"we called him Eagle Eye because he'd always see stuff that me and my five brothers missed-"had died just a few weeks before the season opened. He was only 73, and we'd always hunted together. It's a big deal in our family. But it was different this year, sadder, not having him around.

Back in September, when my brother and I were trimming brush on the family farm in the Blue Hills region, we saw this buck. He jumped a fence and stood looking at us from 15 yards away, just a tall, perfect main-frame 10.

On the opening morning of gun season, we'd gotten 4 inches of snow, and the weather was overcast and not too windy. I hadn't seen much that morning, so in the afternoon, I got my climber and set up on a ridge. But it just didn't feel right. I got down after about five minutes, walked down a trail and over some runways, and set up on another oak ridge overlooking some popple slash where the deer like to bed. I figured they'd come feed in the evening. By 3:30 I hadn't seen anything and was starting to doubt myself. Then I heard some distant gunshots and saw movement in the slash. I put my scope on it but lost the deer.

Then I saw a buck going away into the popple, so I grunted. Nothing. I grunted again and he stopped. I grunted a third time, and he turned my way. And then he was moving toward me. I mean fast, you know, deliberate, head-down walking, like he wanted a fight. But it was thick, and all I saw was bits of antler. He stopped 60 yards out, behind a blowdown. By then, I'd seen a couple of tall tines on his right side, just for a split second. I'm pretty selective about what I shoot. But I've been hunting since I was 12, so I can judge deer, and I knew this was a good one. I get shaky just talking about it. I put the crosshairs on him where his neck and shoulders came together and squeezed. He went down.

And then I was so shaky I could hardly make my climber work. I walked up on him with my gun ready, and all I could see was antlers. The size almost scared me. I let out a holler and shot three times in the air to let my brother know. I nearly had tears in my eyes. My brother and I dragged him out and got him into the truck. And then I called Grandma, because we kids always showed our deer to Grandpa first. And I said, "Grandma, I got a big buck and wanted to let you know first. Eagle Eye must have sent this one to me.-¿ And right then I was pretty sure Grandpa was looking down with a big smile.