Potential New World Record Killed!!
#1
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My friends Gene and Barry Wensel got a big one in Iowa that they've been hunting for months. He' a dandy. They estimate him to score in the 260" range. Not bad for a recurve! Gene killed him. 25" inside, 30" outside, and 4 drop tines. I will post Gene's story after the pic. Here he is:
![](local://upfiles/71758/Pn358897382.jpg)
#2
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Gene posted this on another forum:
"I guess its about time I got on here to thank evryone for the comments and expression of mutual happiness for what happened to Barry and I this past season. We're still floating. Lets face it, at sixty years old, we're almost wrinkled old men now. What hair is left is gray, our eyes and ears are not as good as they used to be and I seem to use ladder stands more than monkey seats. I used to stand in my treestands until my feet got sore then sit for a while. Now I sit until my ass gets sore, then stand for a few minutes! My dad used to say there is a fine line between wisdom and senility. Many of you know we've been at this game all our lives. A lot of time, effort, teamwork, mental stress and lost sleep went into this one. We constantly worried about multiple close gunshots, poaching, pressuring him too much, etc. Having it all come together, taking him fair and square the right way was most important to us. Just knowing he was out there made use of alarm clocks unnecessary. Understanding the passion guys like us share is a special thing. This is more than an accomplishment for my brother and I. It is who we are. I am planning to write a magazine article with all the details but here are some to fill in a few of the blanks. I named this buck Woody...not as in Woodsman and not as in woodpeckers. Enough said. Woody is a very special deer. He has it all. Brains, dominance, unpredictable movement patterns, good tine length, bladed tines, good mass, a wide spread (he's 30" outside) and four droptines. He had a dark forehead, lots of character in his face and scars on his muzzle from fighting other bucks whose racks fit inside his main beams. We have at least three set camera pix of him (three more rolls are undeveloped as of this writing). Last night I discovered I have one his right sheds from two years ago before he grew droptines. There is no question it is his antler. I think he is 5 1/2 years old. Cementum analysis will confirm this later. I spotted him first in September of 2003. Barry and I saw him twice each last season and Barry almost got a shot at him one time. A couple friends hunting the same area also had close encounters with him. We never found his sheds last spring. Barry got footage of him on October 17th this season. He disappeared when the rut kicked in. I suspect he hit the road to spread his seeds. Both of us killed great bucks in early November, filling our tags. Each of us saw Woody half a dozen times before our late season primitive weapons buck tags kicked in after Christmas but he was always out of bow range or in low light anyway and never in the same place twice. I was lucky enough to take almost 40 minutes of video footage of him during gun season and could have legally killed him but since we don't hunt with guns, I had only the video camera with me. I got more video footage in late November and we filled some doe tags. Barry even got great footage of a bobcat that stalked and killed a squirrel only ten yards from his treestand. I still don't understand the reason why a guy can't hunt with a bow and arrow during gun season here in Iowa but thats another topic. By Christmas, Woody's preferred unpicked soybean field was pretty depleted of beans and he moved to a neighboring property to feed on standing corn nightly. When we learned several mature bucks were already shedding their antlers last week, we decided to get more aggressive in our tactics a few days ago. I will save the details of that for the magazine article but we were blessed with good luck, good friends, good wind, good weather, good stand placement and plans that fell into place. And as they say, the rest is history. You hear about all this wild stuff that happens when someone kills a monster. My phone has been busy more often than not. Emails are relentless. Biggie Hoffman had to be hog tied to keep him from driving from Georgia to Iowa just to fondle the rack. This morning I was offered $20,000 for Woody's nuts if they were still warm, presumably for semen. I told the guy they had assumed room temperature but I would sell him Barry's family jewels for only ten grand. I'm sure rumors will arise but they will all be untrue. When a guy loves this sort of stuff and spends a good portion of his life pondering choices, you can't help but wonder about deer and people as individuals and ask oneself why we do what we do. I once heard a guy say if he killed a giant nontypical he would give up bowhunting because he had "done it all." I know another guy who did in fact hang it up. I can't help but wonder if they ever really loved it in the first place. I'm fairly certain I've now taken the biggest buck of my life. I'm not only grateful for the opportunity and outcome, but thankful for close friends, an understanding wife/family and a brother who shares this outdoor passion with me. I'm a lucky and blessed guy. You know that feeling of hunter remorse and sadness that sets in after the fact? It ain't gonna happen this time. I feel GREAT! Thank you one and all. May all your hunts get better. I hope you get to meet my Woody or your own someday."
"I guess its about time I got on here to thank evryone for the comments and expression of mutual happiness for what happened to Barry and I this past season. We're still floating. Lets face it, at sixty years old, we're almost wrinkled old men now. What hair is left is gray, our eyes and ears are not as good as they used to be and I seem to use ladder stands more than monkey seats. I used to stand in my treestands until my feet got sore then sit for a while. Now I sit until my ass gets sore, then stand for a few minutes! My dad used to say there is a fine line between wisdom and senility. Many of you know we've been at this game all our lives. A lot of time, effort, teamwork, mental stress and lost sleep went into this one. We constantly worried about multiple close gunshots, poaching, pressuring him too much, etc. Having it all come together, taking him fair and square the right way was most important to us. Just knowing he was out there made use of alarm clocks unnecessary. Understanding the passion guys like us share is a special thing. This is more than an accomplishment for my brother and I. It is who we are. I am planning to write a magazine article with all the details but here are some to fill in a few of the blanks. I named this buck Woody...not as in Woodsman and not as in woodpeckers. Enough said. Woody is a very special deer. He has it all. Brains, dominance, unpredictable movement patterns, good tine length, bladed tines, good mass, a wide spread (he's 30" outside) and four droptines. He had a dark forehead, lots of character in his face and scars on his muzzle from fighting other bucks whose racks fit inside his main beams. We have at least three set camera pix of him (three more rolls are undeveloped as of this writing). Last night I discovered I have one his right sheds from two years ago before he grew droptines. There is no question it is his antler. I think he is 5 1/2 years old. Cementum analysis will confirm this later. I spotted him first in September of 2003. Barry and I saw him twice each last season and Barry almost got a shot at him one time. A couple friends hunting the same area also had close encounters with him. We never found his sheds last spring. Barry got footage of him on October 17th this season. He disappeared when the rut kicked in. I suspect he hit the road to spread his seeds. Both of us killed great bucks in early November, filling our tags. Each of us saw Woody half a dozen times before our late season primitive weapons buck tags kicked in after Christmas but he was always out of bow range or in low light anyway and never in the same place twice. I was lucky enough to take almost 40 minutes of video footage of him during gun season and could have legally killed him but since we don't hunt with guns, I had only the video camera with me. I got more video footage in late November and we filled some doe tags. Barry even got great footage of a bobcat that stalked and killed a squirrel only ten yards from his treestand. I still don't understand the reason why a guy can't hunt with a bow and arrow during gun season here in Iowa but thats another topic. By Christmas, Woody's preferred unpicked soybean field was pretty depleted of beans and he moved to a neighboring property to feed on standing corn nightly. When we learned several mature bucks were already shedding their antlers last week, we decided to get more aggressive in our tactics a few days ago. I will save the details of that for the magazine article but we were blessed with good luck, good friends, good wind, good weather, good stand placement and plans that fell into place. And as they say, the rest is history. You hear about all this wild stuff that happens when someone kills a monster. My phone has been busy more often than not. Emails are relentless. Biggie Hoffman had to be hog tied to keep him from driving from Georgia to Iowa just to fondle the rack. This morning I was offered $20,000 for Woody's nuts if they were still warm, presumably for semen. I told the guy they had assumed room temperature but I would sell him Barry's family jewels for only ten grand. I'm sure rumors will arise but they will all be untrue. When a guy loves this sort of stuff and spends a good portion of his life pondering choices, you can't help but wonder about deer and people as individuals and ask oneself why we do what we do. I once heard a guy say if he killed a giant nontypical he would give up bowhunting because he had "done it all." I know another guy who did in fact hang it up. I can't help but wonder if they ever really loved it in the first place. I'm fairly certain I've now taken the biggest buck of my life. I'm not only grateful for the opportunity and outcome, but thankful for close friends, an understanding wife/family and a brother who shares this outdoor passion with me. I'm a lucky and blessed guy. You know that feeling of hunter remorse and sadness that sets in after the fact? It ain't gonna happen this time. I feel GREAT! Thank you one and all. May all your hunts get better. I hope you get to meet my Woody or your own someday."
#6
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He's a dandy buck . congrat's and I really enjoyed your story,unfortunately you lost the income because his nut's were cold, but you still have that great buck to put on the wall.
nubo
nubo
#8
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Heaven IA USA
Posts: 2,597
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That is one big Woody! ![Wink](https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif)
If he scores in the 260's that won't even be close the to world record nontypical. It would however be a State record.
Whatever the score he is an outstanding world class buck.
![Wink](https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif)
If he scores in the 260's that won't even be close the to world record nontypical. It would however be a State record.
Whatever the score he is an outstanding world class buck.
#10
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I have always been a big fan of Barry and Gene Wentzel. These brothers have probably forgotten more about hunting deer than most of us know.
Thanks for posting the picture and that is one great story!
By the way........someone on another website who contacted Gene over the phone was told it grossed 231.
Thanks for posting the picture and that is one great story!
By the way........someone on another website who contacted Gene over the phone was told it grossed 231.