Buck could be new record

[IFallsRon]

From The Daily Journal in International Falls, Friday, Nov. 17:

Carl Thramer shot a buck near Birchdale in the 1960s that most hunters only dream about.

About 40 years later, the same land gave up another buck that will likely be a state record rack.

Greg Schneider, while hunting Sunday with his 11-year old son, Kyler, shot an 18-point buck on the Birchdale property that he and his family purchased 19 years ago.

“It’s been about 40 years difference from the Thramer buck to the Schneider buck,” said Greg Schneider Monday, who was headed back out to the hunting shack.

Greg & Kyler SchneiderFifteen of 18 points on Schneider’s buck are scorable in the Boone and Crockett system. The rack scored 174 2/8, which will make the state record book, Schneider said, adding that a 160 score is needed for the state record.

A score of 180 is needed for the Boone & Crockett record, Schneider said, adding that without the broken tines his buck would probably have made that record, as well.

The rack was scored by Tom Worth, an avid Falls hunter and member of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. Schneider said he’ll have a head mount of the deer and Worth will take it to the Minnesota Deer Classic for registration into the state record book.

Now known as the “Thramer buck,” the rack from that deer would have scored 180 points on the Boone and Crockett score sheet, had the skull plate not been accidentally broken. Without that flaw, the Thramer buck would be in the top 15 typical racks in the Minnesota all time record book and its value estimated at over $10,000, according to Worth.

Schneider called his first sight of the buck “breath taking.” He and his son were sitting together at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday and saw a doe come out of the woods into a field. “We saw some movement in the brush, looked at it in the binoculars, and thought there was some brush hanging off it’s rack,” he said. “We looked again, and Oh, my God, it was a dandy.”

As the 32-year veteran of deer hunting readied for the shot, Kyler encouraged him to take the big buck, he said.

“I was a little nervous,” said Schneider, noting that he couldn’t keep the rifle from shaking. “I put the gun down, took a breath, brought it back up on him and took the shot.”

The deer ran just a little way, and dropped about 30 yards in the field.

“It was pretty exciting to see that rack,” Schneider said, explaining that he knew the deer had a large rack, but didn’t realize how big until he approached the downed deer.

Schneider said he’s seen television shows featuring bucks with racks similar, but never had seen one himself.

“You never dream of actually seeing that a once-in-a-lifetime buck,” he said.

Schneider said he’s shot a lot of deer and let a lot of deer walk away while hunting over the years. “Nothing’s ever got me excited like this thing when it stepped out,” he said.

While the deer weighs just 175 pounds, it’s the rack that makes it unique. The drop tines, which are still covered in velvet, are lobe-shaped, rather than pointed. Schneider said the lower points almost resemble hooves.

Schneider said he didn’t know about the Thramer buck and that it was shot on the property he now owns until he read about it this fall in The Daily Journal’s Deer Hunters Edition and then saw it displayed at the MDHA Trail’s End Chapter rally.

“All of a sudden this fall, we shoot a big buck off the same homestead,” Schneider said.

His son Kalan, 14, cut the clipping of the Thramer buck out of the paper and hung it on the wall at the hunting shack. “Someday, it will say the Schneider buck,” Greg reported Kalan announced.

Kyler, who has sat on deer stands with his dad for four years, says he’s ready to hunt next year and hopes to get a similar buck someday.

That makes his dad smile. “This is a memory that my son and I will have the rest of our lives,” he said.

[BigWadeS]

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